Christopher Landon has a gift for making highly enjoyable movies out of a snappy premise. “What if a slasher was also Groundhog Day?” was the clever premise of his wildly entertaining breakout hit Happy Death Day, while its even better sequel asked, “What if it was also Back to the Future?” Meanwhile, his charming comedy-horror Freaky asked, “What if a slasher was also a body-swap comedy?” But there’s only so many “what if a slasher was also something else” hypotheticals that Landon can make a career out of, so his latest film, Drop, cleverly does away with the cutesty premise and goes back to basics.
In Drop, which is written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, Violet (Meghann Fahey) is a widow whose relationship with her abusive husband came to a violent end — after threatening their young son, he shot himself. But Violet has turned her life around: she’s now a counselor for fellow domestic abuse survivors, and she’s about to go on her first date in years. Violet is understandably nervous about being apart from her son, but her fears are soon assuaged by her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar), who is charming and sincere, and even brings a gift for her son. And then, things start to go horribly wrong.
