The latest upcoming Blumhouse movie is here with Christopher Landon’s Drop, which has just arrived in theaters. Along with our Drop review calling it a “clever mystery” and the critics overall giving it a thumbs up for being “utterly bonkers,” there’s one aspect of the movie I realized really made it great after speaking to its director. Let’s talk about it.
What Drop Director Christopher Landon Said About Concealing Its Villain
During the Los Angeles press day for Drop earlier this week, I sat down with Christopher Landon, who famously helmed the Happy Death Day movies and exited the latest Scream film. Along with him sharing his thoughts on how “hard” it is to make original movies like Drop these days in Hollywood, he also talked about the challenge he had to make the movie in a single setting where the villain has to be within a certain distance of the protagonists. In his words:
It keeps you really engaged. It becomes a participation thing where the audience is actively trying to solve the mystery with her. And so, I think that's what makes it work.
This is completely true about Drop, and I think it is the reason why I was so enraptured with it during its runtime.
To back up a bit, the new Blumhouse movie follows a single mother named Violet who is going on a date for the first time in a while with Brandon Sklenar’s Henry at a fancy restaurant in a skyscraper in Chicago. However, during their date, Violet starts getting all these drops on her phone that go from harmless to terrifying.
Before Violet knows it, she’s being asked to do unspeakable things under the threat of her son and sister being killed if she doesn’t do what the faceless villain asks. As Landon also shared:
It was a fun challenge, it really was. And, I think the best way to hide them is to surround them, you know? It's a great setting. There's a lot of people in that room. There are a lot of people who work there. There are a lot of people dining there. And, I think once you sort of really land the premise, then the audience actually does all the work for you, because they start to think that everyone is suspicious, you know? I mean, even people think Henry is involved and could be the villain.
Don’t worry. I won’t spoil Drop here. It’s much too fun not to experience it yourself.
I Think His Comments Highlight What Was So Fun About The Blumhouse Thriller
Anyways, while talking to Landon, I realized that Drop is oddly like a whodunit TV show, you know? I felt like I was in Violet’s shoes the whole time because I didn’t want to see her adorable son die, and I wanted her date to go well. However, I was also racking my brain for how she could get out of the situation and who exactly was pulling the strings.
Of course, I didn’t guess it once it was revealed, but it was fun to have my suspicions and feel like I was really in the passenger's seat each step of the way. This is such a fun movie and way less of a horror film than I expected going in. I hope you check it out with friends and make your own mental predictions while you watch.
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