Universal PicturesDrop, a brand new horror thriller starring The White Lotus’ Meghann Fahy, is a fictional tale, but it was inspired by a real unsolved mystery involving the movie’s producers.
Directed by Happy Death Day’s Christopher Landon, Drop is a Hitchockian thriller that centers around Violet (Fahy), a widowed mother who decides to jump back into the world of dating after meeting Henry (Brandon Sklenar) on Tinder.
However, their dream date turns into a real-life nightmare when she starts receiving anonymous AirDop messages on her phone, which turn increasingly threatening and lead to a deadly ultimatum.
Dexerto caught up with Landon ahead of the new movie’s premiere, where he opened up about the eerie inspiration behind the tech side of the story.
Drop was based on a creepy true story
The filmmaker explained that Drop producers Brad and Cameron Fuller were on vacation when all of a sudden they started receiving anonymous messages on their phone.
“ Our producers were on vacation and in a restaurant, and they started receiving AirDrops from somebody in the room and they couldn’t figure out who it was,” Landon told us.
“They spent the whole night trying to solve that mystery, which they never did. They never figured it out.”
Even though they never found out who was sending the messages, it gave them an idea.
“They walked away from that dinner with this kernel of an idea for a movie, and then they reached out to the writers – to Chris [Roach] and Jill [Jacobs] – and they were the ones who figured out the thriller aspect of it.
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“But yes, it’s based on real events.”
Of course, what happens in Drop is on a whole other level, involving murderous plots and anonymous threats that tie into Violet’s traumatic past.
Christopher Landon reveals Drop’s biggest challenge
Universal PicturesA lot of the movie takes place inside of the restaurant where Violet and Henry have their first date, something Landon grew to appreciate.
“ I think the most challenging aspect was figuring out how to take a single-location movie that really centers around people at dinner tables, and how to make that really suspenseful and engaging,” he told us.
“I think the fear was like, ‘Oh God, what if this gets boring?’ So that was the big challenge, but it was also the most exciting part of making the movie too, because it was a challenge that everybody rose to.
“We built and designed this beautiful set that had enormous flexibility and latitude so that we could do a lot of different things and pull off a lot of shots that are really stylistic.
“Also the lighting, which we had full control of. So it ended up being an asset – the thing that I was most afraid of became the thing I loved the most about it.”
Drop is in cinemas from Friday, April 11, 2025. Until then, check out the new movies streaming this month, the best thrillers on Netflix, and our ranking of the greatest horrors of all time.