Drop is the new mystery-thriller from Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day), and it certainly makes the most of its premise. The movie follows a woman named Violet (Meghann Fahy), who is trying to get back on the dating scene after overcoming a traumatic past. Unfortunately, Violet’s date with “Henry” (Brandon Skelnar) turns out to be worse than she could’ve ever imagined, as an unseen cabal uses Violet’s son as leverage to get her to do the unthinkable: kill the man she’s trying to enjoy a pleasant evening with.
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There are a lot of familiar B-movie mystery-thriller tropes that Drop uses (albeit to its advantage) and that puts it in line with a lot of other great films. From the single-setting location to the cat-and-mouse game of captivity, coercion, and duplicity, there are a lot of films you can watch from home that provide the same kind of edge-of-your-seat thrill as Drop.
Whether you check them out before seeing the film or dive in to keep the party going afterward, here are seven great mystery-thrillers you can watch if you like what Drop offers.
Carry-On
Taron Egerton stars in Carry-On, a single-setting mystery-thriller that Netflix released last year. Directed by B-movie veteran Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, The Shallows), the film sees Egerton playing a TSA agent who’s in a bit of a life rut, but gets a fire lit under him when a terrorist (played surprisingly well by Jason Bateman) threatens his girlfriend’s life unless a suspicious package gets let through the security check. The agent quickly discerns that the package will cause mass casualties, leaving him very little room to maneuver to save innocent lives, as well as the one he loves. Carry-On is probably the closest one-to-one comparison to Drop on this list and is now streaming on Netflix.
Trap
Drop places an innocent bystander inside a life-or-death chess game for survival against trained killers – but what if the killer was facing that same kind of challenge, in reverse? Mystery-horror maestro M. Night Shyamalan made something of a return to form with his latest thriller, Trap, which sees Josh Hartnett playing a dad named Cooper, who is taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to the concert of her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). There are just two big twists to the situation: Cooper is secretly the notorious serial killer known as “The Butcher,” and the concert is actually an elaborate trap by law enforcement, who knows The Butcher is in the building, even if they don’t know his real identity. Trap is a novel spin on the type of single-setting thriller we get with Drop (even if the concept doesn’t always work plausibly).
Speed
Speed is the certified O.G. classic of single-setting thrillers that also have rom-com undertones mixed in. Classic in every sense of the word (read: old, but still good), this is arguably the single movie that cemented Keanu Reeves as an action leading man, before The Matrix trilogy or John Wick. Reeves’s meet-cute chemistry with Sandra Bullock feels like the blueprint Drop was drawn from, and while Speed is certainly dated (payphones are a major plot-point), the high concept of a bus that can’t slow down without exploding is still simple enough to make each scene and problem-solving moment compelling. Speed is streaming on Hulu, Max, and Sling TV.
Panic Room
Director David Fincher has so many movies that could arguably make this list (Se7en, Gone Girl, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), but Panic Room shares the closest DNA with Drop. The 2002 thriller stars Jodie Foster as a wealthy NYC divorcee who is moving into a new brownstone home with her daughter (a young Kristen Stewart). Unfortunately, the brownstone’s late former owner left some valuables stashed on the property – a secret known only to his doublecrossing house servant (Jared Leto), who rallies a crew of crooks (including Forest Whitaker’s reluctant safe-cracker) to pull a heist. The crooks don’t know the new homeowners are already on site, and Foster’s character makes the unfortunate error of locking herself and her daughter in an impenetrable safe room (or “panic room”) — along with the valuables the thieves are after. That standoff turns into a cat-or-mouse negotiation, as each side tries to out-leverage the other into surrender — or worse. You can stream Panic Room on MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video.
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Missing
Missing is technically a spinoff/sequel, but if you didn’t see the first film, Searching, it won’t hinder you – it’s the high concept that counts here. Drop‘s title underscores the fact that the film uses technology (smartphone messaging) as the key element of its story; in Missing, a girl named June (Storm Reid) has to launch an entire search-and-rescue mission from her laptop (and other devices), after her mother (Nia Long) goes missing. However, the more June (and some online allies) digs into social media profiles and other digital information surrounding her mom’s disappearance, the more she discovers that her mom’s life is nothing like she’d imagined.
Missing is arguably a better execution of the “webcam thriller” concept we’ve seen in films like Searching and Unfriended – mostly due to the performance of Storm Reid, who (like Drop‘s Meghann Fahy) puts the film squarely on her back and carries it all the way to the finish line. Missing is streaming on Hulu, Disney+, and Sling TV.
Blink Twice
Zoe Kravitz may not be an acclaimed filmmaker quite yet, but she’s certainly off to a promising start. Blink Twice shares a lot of subtextual vibes with Drop – primarily in that both films base their “horror” and “thrills” on metaphors about the controls and abuses that women must deal with and survive. Blink Twice leans more into the mystery aspect, as it takes time for the true horror of the story to reveal itself. Meanwhile, there are some timely (if not heavy-handed) real-world parallels between Channing Tatum’s billionaire tech mogul (with his own private island) and the party of girls he brings there for less-than-wholesome purposes. The stacked ensemble cast riffs well together – including Naomi Ackie, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, and Kyle Maclachlan. Blink Twice is streaming on MGM+, Amazon Prime Video, and Roku.
Heretic
Think of Heretic as being like Drop, but with a religious-philosophical bend. Two Mormon girls doing missionary outreach (Yellowjackets’ Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) happen upon the cottage of the charming “Mr. Reed” (Hugh Grant). The girls begin a friendly discussion of their faith with Reed, but that talk soon turns to a lively debate, which quickly spirals into a twisted and deadly game of religious persecution by a sadistic man who claims to be the prophet of the “one true religion.”
Like Drop, Heretic takes its female protagonists from a seemingly mundane social encounter to a harrowing hostage survival situation – but unlike Landon’s film, directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (co-writers of A Quiet Place) keep tight hold on the reins of this dark intellectual descent, giving viewers something more ambitious than a single-setting thriller: a single-conversation thriller. Heretic is streaming on HBO, Max and Hulu-Max.
Any more great thrillers you want to recommend? Leave them in the comments!
