The Friday Night Horror Movie: Drop (2025)

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Drop is the sort of those high-concept, utterly ridiculous thrillers they used to make a lot of in the 1990s. It is all kinds of dumb but still a lot of fun to watch.

Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy) is just beginning to get over the death of her abusive husband.  Oh, she’s not sad he’s dead, for he was an awful piece of…but she survived years of abuse and nearly let him kill her baby boy, and that’s hard to get over.  Even if you are a therapist.

She’s been talking to a handsome photographer named Henry (Brandon Sklenar) through one of those online dating apps, and tonight she’s finally agreed to meet him face-to-face for a dinner date at one of those fancy restaurants that sits atop a skyscraper, giving panoramic views of Chicago.

She leaves her sister June (Violett Beane) in charge of the boy (and her wardrobe) and nervously goes on the date. Before they can even order hors d’oeuvres, she starts receiving these strange airdropped digital messages. At first they are just sort of annoying, and the couple play a little game as to who it could be, but soon enough they become threatening. 

Look at the video footage from her at-home security cameras, it says. They show a masked man in her home.  Do what I say, or your family will be killed, it says. Tell no one what is happening. Do not call the cops.  Do not let your dinner date leave.

The tormentor seems to know everything she is doing.  He’s somehow got access to the restaurant’s internal camera system.  He’s also placed cameras inside the bathroom and next to her table. He’s cloned her phone.

I won’t spoil exactly what he asks her to do except that it has to do with destroying some evidence and causing harm to someone.  It makes very little sense as it is a dumb way to get what they want, but you just have to roll with it.

Director Christopher Landon keeps the tension high, and writers Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach find clever ways for Violet to solve her problem. Because those digital drops have to be sent from someone close they have a lot of fun hinting it might be this person or that one. I guessed correctly pretty quickly so it isn’t really that hard to figure out. It ends in a climactic battle that’s all sort of ridiculous, but I had a good time with it.

Landon directed both Happy Death Day films and Freaky, and I wish he’d leaned a little more heavily into the ridiculousness of this situation and made it a little funnier. But it’s still an entertaining little film. Like I said, they used to make this sort of film a lot in the 1990s, and I kind of miss them. Sometimes you want something ridiculous and not so serious.

Small housekeeping note.  We are in May, and that means we’re geared up for mysteries. Crime stories often blend mystery, thriller, and horror together, but it is always difficult to find one that leans that mix a little more toward horror for Friday nights.  I thought this one would do the trick, but it really is much more of a thriller than a horror film, but it is late and this is what you get.

Mysteries In May: Down River (2025)

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Down River (2025)
Directed by Brian Barnard, Tommy Walton
Starring: Jody Thompson, Randy McDowell, and Ashley Sutton

Synopsis: A sheriff and deputy probe a crime at an abandoned farmhouse in West Virginia’s coal country. Their investigation uncovers dark secrets that endanger both the town and the sheriff’s grip on reality.

Rating: **1/2

There is something about this film that I really wanted to like. It starts off well. I’m a big fan of moody mysteries set in some mountainous backwater with a laconic sheriff who hunts a killer. Ronnie Long (Jodie Thompson, who also cowrote) fits that bill. He’s rugged and handsome. He’s got a past that haunts him.

Early on we’ll see him pull over his big old sheriff’s truck at that abandoned farmhouse. He finds a shovel that seems out of place and sneaks into the house. The tension builds. Something is about to happen. Then his partner and friend Shep Mills (Randy McDowell, who also cowrote) calls out. The tension drops, but now there is something strange happening. Ronnie shouldn’t be there. No crime seems to have been committed.

The above synopsis doesn’t really do the film justice. There isn’t much investigating in this movie. There is a twist about twenty minutes into it that I won’t spoil, and I really liked it, but it changes how we view everything that happened before. It changes the relationships the film was developing.

Sometime in the past, Ronnie suffered a tragedy that left him with a head wound. He’s turned to drinking. He started seeing things. Things that haven’t yet happened.

The film plays with time in strange ways. It is disjointed. It will flashback without warning or much in the way of indicating what it’s doing. There were several times I didn’t realize a scene was a flashback, and then I was confused about what was happening in the present. But then we’ll also see the things Ronnie is seeing in his visions. The way it jumps around between these things makes the plot difficult to get a handle on. Once the credits rolled and I had time to think about it, I was able to figure it all out, but it isn’t a good enough film to make me want to watch it again to see how the pieces fit together.

The cinematography is beautiful. The rolling hills and dense treelines are lovely to look at. I liked the story, but the jumbled way it was told was more confusing than interesting. Jodie Thompson is good when he’s being laconic, less so when he has to really emote. I didn’t particularly care for Randy McDowell’s performance at all. There is a side character, a jerk of a cop, that seemed out of place in this story, and they didn’t seem to know what to do with Ronnie’s mother. There is a scene with her late in the film that seems like it is leading to something, and then she just disappears.

Not a terrible film. Worth watching if you need a mystery fix. But not great either.

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings – Tulsa, OK (04/29/26)

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I got to see Gillian Welch and David Rawlings last night. It was wonderful. I’d seen them before several years ago in Memphis. It was one of my favorite concert experiences ever. It was in a small auditorium. The crowd was reverent. Not a soul spoke a word. The music was transcendent.

Last night was a free outdoor concert at the Guthrie Green. That’s a nice patch of grass in the middle of downtown Tulsa. My guess was the crowd would be more rowdy. Free would bring random folks interested in a fun night out. Outdoors, mean people would feel more free to talk and play. Plus there would be all sorts of downtown, city noises.

It turned out to be mostly reserved. It was a nice-sized crowd, but not overflowing. I guess a midweek show kept some people away. Those who were there all seemed to come to hear Gillian and Dave. Periodically I’d hear people talking, and every now and again someone would stand in front of me to get a picture. For the first set there was a food truck, or maybe one of the local bars, playing some kind of bass-thumping music at high volume nearby. That was obnoxious, especially during the quieter songs. But Dave’s big guitar playing usually drowned it out, and it seemed to stop by the second set.

We got a good seat just off to the side of the soundboard with a clear view. The sound was good. The performance was resplendent.

They started with a beautiful rendition of “Elvis Presley Blues”. That was the first Gillian Welch song I ever heard. I still remember when I heard it. I was driving down from Bloomington, IN, to where my wife’s folks lived, about an hour south. It came on the local independent radio station, and I was absolutely struck by it. My wife was riding down in her car because she was staying longer than I was. When we arrived, we both got out and asked each other if we’d heard that song.

The first set mostly stuck to the new songs (from the wonderful Woodland album) and a lot of Dave Rawlings songs that I wasn’t ultra-familiar with (but were still great.)

At some point they brought out the banjo, and David quipped that the show had started properly then. But it was out of tune, so Gillian talked while David tuned. I say she talked, but she admitted she didn’t really have anything to say. That she wasn’t good with banter. It was very awkward and cute.

They had a break and came back with a vengeance for the second set. As a couple, Gillian and Dave make the most wonderful harmonies. Their voices blend together in that magical way that only comes from spending years together with a fierce admiration for each other. David Rawlings is an underrated and absolutely brilliant guitarist. “Revelator” is another one of my favorite songs, and David’s guitar work just roared.

They talked a little about how they visited both the Bob Dylan Center and the Woody Guthrie one. Dave joked that he had a hard time deciding which artist’s song he should play to honor them. He landed on Bob Dylan’s “Song for Woody Guthrie” which was both appropriate and awesome.

For the encore, they covered Doc Watson’s “Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor” and then launched into a brilliant version of “Look at Miss Ohio” to which the entire audience sang along.

Then they played the Old Crow Medicine Show’s “I Hear Them All” which rolled into Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” Guthrie was from Oklahoma, and the Center is located not two blocks from our setting, and the crowd went nuts. They closed with a delightful sing-along of the old gospel tune “I’ll Fly Away.”

It was a beautiful (if a bit chilly) night with clear skies and a big full moon rising just above the stage. The setting was perfect and the music was divine.

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Danger: Diabolik is the Pick of the Week

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Mario Bava was a fascinating character. He’s best known today for his horror films and being the first guy to make a Giallo. But he made lots of other types of films, including science fiction stories, sword and sandal pictures, and even a comedy or two. 

Danger: Diabolik is his take on a James Bond-esque spy caper. It’s super stylish and so much fun. I like it better than probably half the real Bond films.  Eureka Entertainment presents the film with a new UHD transfer and loads of extras. 

Other films coming out this week that look interesting:

Highest 2 Lowest: Spike Lee’s take on Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low isn’t nearly as good as that film, but its still a good watch.

Dust Bunny:  A fun, quirky flick about a little girl and an assassin fighting bad guys and possibly a monster under her bed.  Mads Mikkelsen is the hitman, Bryan Fuller directed. I’ll have a full review up soon.

Innerspace: Fun little 1980s sci-fi flick about Dennis Quaid getting shrunk down to the size of a pea and getting injected into Martin Short’s body.  Arrow Video has this release, and I reviewed the film here.

John Singleton’s Hood Trilogy: Includes Boyz in the Hood, Poetic Justice, and Baby Boy. I’ve only seen Boyz but that film was important to my growth as a cinephile, so I should really check out the others.

The Living Dead Girl: Jean Rollin was the master of sexy vampire movies. This one’s about a dead girl revived by a toxic spill who has an insatiable thirst for blood. Eureka is giving it the upgrade with lots of extras.

Soldier: Arrow Video brings us this action flick starring Kurt Russell as a bio-engineered super soldier who is about to be replaced.

Boxcar Bertha: Martin Scorsese’s second feature length film was a for-hire gig. He was paid by Roger Corman to make it, but you can tell his heart wasn’t in it. Famously, John Cassavetes told him it was shit and that he should make something personal. Scorsese took him to heart and made Mean Streets and became the beloved director we know today. Boxcar Bertha isn’t actually that bad. It is well worth watching, and now it’s coming to UHD.

Grapes of Death: Another Jean Rollin vampire flick being put out by Eureka.

So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious: This Italian flick is mostly what you expect, with a beautiful young woman (Gloria Guida) getting naked every chance she can, but it is also surprisingly tender and modern. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries. 

Eclipse Series 48: Kinuyo Tanaka Directs: Six films from a Japanese director I’ve never heard of. I love these Eclipse Series from Criterion, as they give us a bundle of films at a cheap price. They come without their usual extras, but they are still cleaned up and look great.

Awesome 80s in April: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

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I was too young to have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark in theaters when it came out in 1980, but I must have watched it a million times on television soon after.  I did see Temple of Doom in the theater. Probably three or four times. I would have been about 11 years old.  I loved it.

As a kid I especially loved all the stuff that made the moral majority people clutch their pearls which eventually led to the making of the PG-13 rating. My friends and I would constantly ask each other which thing we’d rather eat – snakes, bugs, or monkey brains. We would pretend to reach into each other’s chests and pull our hearts out. We dreamed of being on that awesome mine roller coaster.  

As an adult, I recognize the film’s many flaws. The least of which is not its cultural insensitivity, if not downright racism. Short Round is nothing but a Chinese stereotype, and there is a lot of stuff going on with the Indian characters and the “weird” stuff they eat. You could also certainly complain about the one female character and how she is nothing more than a “damsel in distress.” 

I do not think any of this was intentional by the filmmakers in the sense that they were not trying to be racist or sexist. I think a lot of that comes from how the Indiana Jones films are Spielberg and Lucas riffing on the old serial films they used to watch as kids. Old adventure films were rife with racist tropes and inherent sexism.

But I’m also going to table that discussion. I’ll let the experts dig into that stuff. I feel like when talking about this film, you need to mention those concerns and recognize their validity, but at the same time I don’t want to get bogged down in them.

Also this film rips.

It is generally considered the worst of the original trilogy. Spielberg has distanced himself, claiming it was made during a difficult time in his life (he was getting divorced) and it is too dark. I’ll stand by the opinion that it isn’t as good as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, but those are pretty high watermarks. There is still a ton of stuff to love in this film.

The opening scene in Shanghai, for starters. It begins with Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw, who later married Spielberg) singing “Anything Goes.” Spielberg shoots it like a classic musical. When the song ends, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) enters. He’s made a deal with a Chinese gangster, trading the remains of some ancient emperor for a precious diamond.

Set in 1935, one year before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, making this film technically a prequel. They say Lucas and Spielberg didn’t want Indiana fighting Nazis again, so they set it a little earlier than the first film and moved the locations to Asia. It is interesting that in this film Indiana Jones is all about fortune and glory, and makes no mention of anything belonging in a museum.

With the help of Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), Indiana’s young sidekick, the three of them escape Shanghai but find themselves on a plane owned by the bad guy. The pilots dump the fuel and jump out of the plane, leaving it to crash into the Himalayas. Our heroes jump out of the plane using an inflatable raft as a sort of parachute and then sled that zooms down the snow covered mountain and over an impossibly high cliff and into some major rapids.

This scene is cartoonish in its impossibility. Most of the film will continue in this pattern. Raiders wasn’t exactly grounded in realism, but Temple of Doom pushes the bounds of possibility to an absurd degree. Not that it matters. It is still extraordinarily enjoyable.

They’ll be picked up by some villagers who explain that some thieves stole their sacred rock and their children, and ever since, everything has gone bad. Our heroes head to a palace where they are treated with kindness (and those crazy food choices.) There they will find a hidden passage that takes them to an underground temple and a group of cultists who practice child slavery and human sacrificing. 

It all culminates in a wild chase scene with our heroes riding a mine cart like a roller coaster through an impossibly long shaft and then battling it out on a ridiculously high rope bridge. 

I don’t know why I’m describing the plot; you’ve probably seen this film. It is crammed full with wonderfully crafted action sequences. Even when it slows down, it’s still entertaining. 

You do have to table some of that insensitive stuff, and I completely understand those who can’t do that, but if you can this is a heck of a ride.