It’s Time to Accept a Message Request From ‘Drop’

April 10, 2025

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

They certainly dropped Drop like it’s hot (CREDIT: Universal Pictures)

Starring: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan Spring, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson

Director: Christopher Landon

Running Time: 95 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Chekhov’s Poison (and Gun and Knife) and Flashbacks of Abuse

Release Date: April 11, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Widowed mother Violet (Meghann Fahy) is finally ready to start dating again a few years after the dissolution of her abusive marriage. So she calls up her sister Jen (Violett Beane) to babysit her 5-year-old son Toby (Jacob Robinson) so that she can finally meet up with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), the hunky, sensitive photographer that she’s been messaging with. They settle in for dinner at a fancy high-rise spot, and the vibes are totally right… until someone starts anonymously sending Violet messages demanding that she kill Henry if she doesn’t want her son to die instead. As she desperately seeks an escape from this entrapment, she starts playing detective to identify the criminal puppetmaster: could it be the seemingly sweet bartender (Gabrielle Ryan Spring), the older gentleman getting back out there on a blind date (Reed Diamond), the totally extra waiter (Jeffery Self), the skeevy piano player (Ed Weeks), the rando she keeps bumping into (Travis Nelson), or maybe even one of the teenagers on a post-prom excursion?

What Made an Impression?: It’s So Much Fun Watching Someone in Danger!: Drop is the sort of propulsive, dread-inducing thriller that never lets up long enough for you to get hung up on how much it strains credulity. Although, now that I’ve watched it and I’m writing my review, I’m more than happy to raise some questions! Most pressingly, does the AirDrop feature really allow you to be this intrusive into someone who’s not in your contacts? I’ve never been an iPhone user, although to be fair to Drop, Violet’s tormentor is actually using an AirDrop stand-in called “DigiDrop.” I could go on to nitpick even further, but here’s the thing: I didn’t care about any of that! This movie establishes its rules of play and never cheats, so its twists and zooms feel earned, no matter how ridiculous they may be rendered upon forensic examination.
Escaping the Grip of the Past: As Violet constantly flits around and makes odd requests to the waitstaff, Henry can’t help but assume that she really isn’t quite yet in the right frame of mind for romance. He suggests that they try this another time, but since she really needs him to say, she tries the gambit of explaining that she’s been distracted because her abusive ex still has her in her grip. It may not be the immediate reason that her mind is elsewhere, but it’s not like it’s not true. What follows is a genuine, thoughtful conversation about how abuse warps our sense of reality. I wasn’t expecting Drop to be so astutely therapeutic, but I certainly appreciate it. It all adds up to a simple trick for effective storytelling: clearly establish your main characters’ backstories, and then treat their psychology with respect.

Drop is Recommended If You Like: Red Eye probably (I’ve never seen it in its entirety, but based on chatter I’ve heard, the comparison fits), Hitchcock thrillers about protagonists who suddenly find themselves in over their heads (Rear Window, North by Northwest, etc.), The Invisible Man

Grade: 4 out of 5 Threats

This Is a Movie Review: A Classic Game Turns Deadly in the Sloppy But Intermittently Effective ‘Truth or Dare’

April 11, 2018

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CREDIT: Peter Iovino/Universal Pictures

This review was originally posted on News Cult in April 2018.

Starring: Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, Violett Beane, Hayden Szeto, Landon Liboiron, Nolan Gerard Funk, Sophia Ali, Sam Lerner, Aurora Perrineau

Director: Jeff Wadlow

Running Time: 100 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Douchey College Behavior, Serious Alcoholism, Disturbing Secrets, Freaky Images, Sudden Broken Bones and Gunfire, and One Quick Sex Scene

Release Date: April 13, 2018

It takes a while for Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare to really get going. At first it’s just about a group of college friends hanging out in Mexico on spring break, which is fair enough because these movies are often about attractive young people whose lives get upended by some ancient curse. But you would think there would be a little more foreboding about the dangers to come. Instead, we get the most banal opening credits sequence in a good long while, which is effectively just a social media vacation slideshow that is livened up in no way at all with genre signifiers. At least the first third gives us Ronnie (The Goldbergs’ Sam Lerner), the ultimate parody of a fratty interloper, who delivers beautiful poetry like, “I can’t say no to shots. Everyone knows that.”

Thankfully director Jeff Wadlow and his fellow screenwriters figure out how to make their premise truly unsettling about halfway through. The stakes of the titular game, cursed by a demonic presence, are literally life-or-death: tell the truth, or you die; complete your dare, or you die. Trouble is, the challenges can be just as lethal as the consequences. When these kids are not told to literally kill someone, they are asked to reveal secrets that might drive their friends to kill themselves. There are Final Destination-style dynamics of victims being picked off one by one here, but the methods used to terrorize them are uniquely effective. This is the horror of confronting painful secrets that can lead to irreparable rifts between loved ones. On top of that, there is the creepy signature visual effect involving faces contorted into uncanny valley-style bulging eyes and unnaturally stretched-lips smiles.

While it is appreciably unsettling, Truth or Dare could have taken more care to grapple with its morality. It confronts the eternal dilemma of choosing between saving a small group of loved ones and a larger group of strangers, as well as the conflict between self-interest versus protecting others who may not be deserving of such care. Olivia (Lucy Hale) is both the narrative and moral center. She gives money to the homeless and professes that she would save the larger group, while dealing with her own feelings for the boyfriend of her best friend, who is constantly cheating on him. This all leads to an ending that is undeniably devastating that but might just betray the message that Olivia has attempted to demonstrate throughout. It is fine when a horror flick ends on a sour note, but it is not exactly playing fair when it is such a stark departure from what has come before.

Truth or Dare is Recommended If You Like: It Follows But Wish It Were More Like Traditional Friday Night Multiplex Horror (For Good and For Ill), The Ring, Final Destination

Grade: 3 out of 5 Creepy Smiles