Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Drop (2025)
While I loved Drop, I’m also ready to admit that the psychological thriller’s fast-paced plot doesn’t make sense in retrospect. Broadly speaking, there are two types of psychological thrillers. Some entries into the genre are slow-burn efforts that gradually ratchet up the tension, but reveal themselves to be ingeniously constructed upon a re-watch. Then there are psychological thrillers that immediately grip the viewer throughout their pulse-pounding runtime but fall apart upon a re-watch as cleverly hidden plot holes begin to emerge.
Drop’s critical and box-office success keeps an unlikely horror movie trend alive as the psychological thriller is the latest successful horror rom-com from screenwriter/director Christopher Landon. Drop follows 2025’s earlier horror hit Heart Eyes and 2017’s slasher Happy Death Day to box office success, with the former written by Drop director Christopher Landon and the latter directed by him. At the same time, Drop ends a major trend in Landon’s career, as Drop has a much lower body count than his earlier horror rom-coms.
Drop Never Explains If The Villains Set Up Henry and Violet
Violet’s Past Is Central To Their Scheme
By Drop’s ending, only a small handful of characters are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, despite the high stakes of the movie’s plot. It is impressive to see just how low the movie’s body count is, especially compared to the surprisingly gory Heart Eyes. However, this is where Drop’s problems come into relief. I loved Drop and can’t deny that Landon’s ingenious blend of rom-com and real-time horror is one of the most effective, tense psychological thrillers I’ve seen all year. However, the movie’s plot doesn’t really add up, and this is due in part to its strange structure.
The premise of Drop is simple. Meghann Fahy’s widow Violet is on her first date in years with Brandon Sklenar’s charming Henry. Unfortunately for her, Henry is the mayor’s press pH๏τographer, and he has just recorded evidence of his boss’s financial crimes. As a result, an anonymous messager somewhere in Drop’s high-end restaurant setting starts sending Violet drops that give her a brutal ultimatum. First, destroy the evidence of the mayor’s corruption contained in Henry’s camera. Then, poison Henry, or a gunman in Violet’s home will kill her young son.
The fact that Violet was a suspect in her husband’s death is pivotal to the villain’s “Black Widow” narrative, as he intends to frame her for Henry’s poisoning.
The problem with this plot is the villain of Drop’s masterplan relies pretty heavily on Violet’s traumatic past. Violet was a suspect in her husband’s death, although viewers eventually learn that he took his own life. The fact that Violet was suspected is pretty pivotal to the villain’s whole “Black Widow” narrative, as he intends to frame her for Henry’s poisoning. However, this leads to one of Drop’s biggest unanswered questions, namely, how the villains got her and Henry to start talking on a dating app three months earlier.
Drop’s Violet Past Must Just Be A Wild Coincidence
Henry and Violet’s Initial Interaction Seems Entirely Genuine
From the opening scene onwards, viewers are informed that Violet and Henry have been talking for months before this date and have forged a genuine connection before meeting each other in person. However, when Reed Diamond’s villainous Richard finally reveals his plan to Violet, he revels in the fact that her proximity to her husband’s suspicious death makes her a perfect patsy. The problem with this logic is that the villains could not possibly have engineered Henry and Violet’s date.
The mayor’s goons would have needed to somehow set up Henry and Violet’s dating apps so they were guaranteed to match each other. More than that, the villains would have also needed to somehow force the couple to get along via text for weeks. The inexplicable issues with Drop’s story don’t end there, either. There is also the question of how Richard somehow got the marked money that Violet gave the piano player inside her duck salad, a threatening gesture that heavily implied the villain was working in the restaurant.
Pinning Henry’s Murder On Violet Would Be Almost Impossible
Violet’s Sister Is An Obvious Witness In Drop’s Complex Plot
The more viewers pick apart Drop’s premise, the clearer it becomes that Landon’s movie works as a thrill ride but is less effective in terms of plot logic. Once Violet’s babysitting sister was attacked by a masked hitman, it wouldn’t really matter that Violet was framed for Henry’s murder. If Richard’s plan had gone off without a hitch, the police would have been able to confirm that a masked goon broke into Violet’s home at the exact time that she would have told them someone broke into her house and threatened her sister and son.
Even if the police were in on the mayor’s corruption, Richard also mentioned that the FBI was involved in an investigation of their own.
Also, flushing the SD card was smart on the part of the villains, but the police would still have seen the SD card was missing, and this would align with Violet claiming that the villains made her destroy it. Ultimately, Violet could easily have explained the villain’s plan to the police after Henry’s death and, even if the police were in on the mayor’s corruption, Richard also mentioned that the FBI was involved in an investigation of their own.
