Don't knock B movies. Sometimes, a ticking-clock thriller derived from the cliché playbook can be done with such style and story momentum that you drop your defenses and go with the ride. Such a treat is "Drop," now in theaters to show us a pulse-pounding, nerve-jangling good time.
"Drop" plunges audiences into one of the scariest situations ever -- a first date. Meghann Fahy, a well-deserved Emmy nominee for season 2 of "White Lotus," stars as Violet, the wowza widowed mother of 5-year-old Toby (Jacob Robinson). She's about to get herself back in the game with the pushy encouragement of her sister Jen (Violett Beane), who's on tap to babysit.
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What could go wrong? Everything, of course, or there'd be no movie. Kudos to director Christopher Landon, of the scary "Happy Death Day" franchise, for showing what Alfred Hitchcock might have done if the master of suspense got his hands on a smartphone.
The date takes place at the upscale restaurant Palate, atop a Chicago high-rise. Violet arrives first, her jitters on full display. For good reason. Violet, a therapist for survivors of domestic violence (she's one herself), isn't quite sure of what she's getting herself into.
She makes small talk with a lady bartender (Gabrielle Ryan) and a clumsy waiter, a wannabe stand-up comic snappily played by Jeffery Self, and looks around anxiously at other diners, including an older man (Reed Diamond) also on a dating app odyssey.
The tension breaks with the arrival of online date Henry, played by affable hottie Brenden Sklenar -- best known for "1923" (he crushed it on the season 2 finale) and "It Ends with Us," which starred Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
Henry, a photographer for the mayor's office, calms Violet's nerves. "You were the first guy who didn't ask for a feet pic," she says wearily. "That's a second date thing," he laughs, breaking the ice with humor. Their banter feels natural, unforced.
Until that old demon technology rears its ugly head. Violet's phone buzzes with increasingly demanding messages that Henry tells her to ignore until she connects with her at-home security camera and sees a masked intruder threatening her son and sister.
A phone message reads: "I want you to kill your date." I know, I hate the lazy overuse of phone screens in movies and TV, but "Drop" finds clever new ways to get the verbal threats out there.
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You'll jump out of your skin like Violet, who knows she's being watched. Against orders, she confesses her panic to Henry, who knows that AirDrops can't be sent from more than 50 feet away. The killer, or one of them, must be in the restaurant, and whisper close.
And so we're off. Working with a script by Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach, Landon does a slambang job of ratcheting up suspense as we join Violet in feeling trapped at every turn. You probably have your own idea of who the culprit may be. But I'll never tell. Why spoil the goosebumps about to cover your body?
Thanks to Landon's devilish ingenuity and an all-stops-out performance from Fahy that should put her on the star map, "Drop" holds you in its grip for 90 breathless minutes.
