Director: Christopher Landon

Stars: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan

In a climate of overlong films, sequels, and IP abuse, horror aces Blumhouse can normally be relied upon to turn in standalone, brisk genre pieces. Their latest film to, ahem, drop, a high-concept thriller with horror elements is no exception.

Meghann Fahy, from series 2 of ‘The White Lotus’, is Violet, a glamourous widowed mother, about to re-enter the dating game, on the insistence of her sister Jen (Beane) who has offered to look after Violet’s comically adorkable five-year-old son Toby (Robinson).

Violet has arranged to meet handsome photography Henry (Sklenar) at a high-end skyline restaurant. As she is waiting for her date, she gets chatting to supportive waitress Cara (Ryan), and meets Richard (Diamond), an awkward middle-aged no-hoper on an old-school blind date.

Henry arrives and their date seems to go swimmingly until Violet starts to receive sinister airdrop message on her iPhone – she feels obliged to pick up as it may be a message about her son from her sister. The messages, illustrated with popular memes, become increasingly malevolent, culminating in a command to Violet to kill her date.

Christopher Landon, director of the ‘Happy Death Day 2 U’, keeps things rattling at a frantic enough pace that viewers do not have time to dwell too much on the absurdity of the premise, while Marc Spicer’s swooping and searching camera work keeps us guessing as to the identity of Violet tormentors.

Fahy is a game and resourceful heroine, and the script features a healthy helping of dark humour, while cleverly playing on first date anxieties and the etiquette of phone use. The climax is amusingly and hysterically overblown.

Drop is out now.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Bluesky: @davidwilloughby.bsky.social