It’s oddly comforting that a movie can still dial M when it wants to.
Smart phones have largely been a bit of a buzzkill for horror films, leading filmmakers to find all kinds of reasons — dead batteries, no service — to strand potential prey. But at least since 1949’s Sorry, Wrong Number, phones have also been a reliable conduit for terror capable of reaching into the home, or your pocket. Drop, a silly but suspenseful new thriller, carries on the tradition of When a Stranger Calls and Phone Booth by situating its tension around mysterious, threatening phone messages.
Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widow with a young child, is on her first date in years. After three months of texting, she has hesitantly agreed to finally meet Henry (Brandon Sklenar) for dinner. When they sit down in a fancy restaurant high up a sleek Chicago high-rise, he’s charming and relaxed. But Violet, like countless dates before her, can’t stay off her phone.
In Violet’s case, though, the distraction is legitimate. She keeps getting messages dropped to her phone threatening her son, who’s at home with Violet’s sister (Violett Beane), unless she does what he says, including killing her date. In her home security cameras she can see a man with his face covered brandishing a gun.
Drop, directed by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day), doesn’t differ greatly from the large swath of high-concept, low-budget thrillers that regularly flood theaters. But it’s a taut little movie, almost totally set in the restaurant, with a just keen enough sense of plausible and preposterous. It knows to keep the pressure-cooker plot moving while not overstaying its welcome. At a nifty 95 minutes, Drop knows when to hang up.
