Drop (SXSW) Review: A slam-bang, contained thriller that hits all the right notes

PLOT: A widowed mother (Meghann Fahy) goes on a date with a handsome stranger (Brandon Sklenar) she’s been chatting with on dating apps. While at dinner, she receives an escalating series of anonymous messages, with them soon revealing that they are holding her sister and son hostage and will kill them unless she poisons her date.

REVIEW: Christopher Landon’s Drop is a slam-bang thriller that absolutely brought the house down here at SXSW. A contained thriller in the vein of Wes Craven’s underrated Red Eye, Landon’s film hits all the right notes, giving him a solid, Hitchcock-flavored romp in the vein of his own Disturbia, that should be a big hit from Blumhouse when it comes out next month. 

Contained thrillers, where most of the action is limited to one locale, have become increasingly in vogue, but Landon’s movie feels less claustrophobic as he has a really neat location to work in. The movie is set at a sprawling high-class restaurant on the top of a skyscraper in downtown Chicago. This gives the director plenty of real estate to use, with excellent production design and a fun supporting cast of characters wandering in and out of the plot.

Tonally, the film hit just right with Landon doing a good job mixing suspense, a tiny bit of camp, and sudden, jarring jolts of hard-edged violence, with the movie rougher than expected for a PG-13 thriller. Notably, though, the movie also works nicely – and perhaps unexpectedly as a romance.

Drop is led by two breakout streaming stars, with Meghann Fahy having stolen The White Lotus Season 2, while Brandon Sklenar became an instant star thanks to his role in 1923. Fahy is relatable as Violet, a widow who’s dipping her toe back into the dating world. She has to overcome past trauma, with her dead former husband being horrifically abusive, while she also has a very young son she’s devoted to. Fahy is the kind of heroine who’s easy to invest in, and she looks stunning in the jaw-dropping dress she spends most of the film’s running time in. Sklenar plays Henry, a photographer who, in addition to his heartthrob looks, happens to be a sweet, easygoing guy; with him so thoughtful a date, he’s even brought her a gift to give to her young son. 

Fahy and Skelenar have such good chemistry that you really find yourself investing in the date aspect. While all of the audience’s focus would naturally go towards the thriller side of the plot, where Fahy has to somehow figure out a way to save her family, I was surprisingly caught up in the date itself. I wanted the two of them to somehow end up together. 

Drop really does hit all the right notes, especially in the final act, when it takes a bit of a detour into action territory, with a couple of nifty showdowns, and some hair-raising set pieces that put the main couple in danger. Landon really is an ace at movies like this, with the film also benefitting from a score by the terrific Bear McCreary. The film is so well done that it’s not hard to imagine it becoming a significant date night hit, although I do hope Blumhouse is able to resist doing a sequel, as a movie like this is better as a one-off. It’s certainly one of their best movies in a long time and the kind of tightly-paced, ninety-minute thriller we need more of. I had a blast. 

Drop (2025)

GREAT

8

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