Christopher Landon is a master at making audiences vacillate between gut-wrenching terror and gut-busting laughter. That’s certainly true of the director’s latest film, “Drop,” which stars “White Lotus” alum Meghann Fahy as a single mother who’s tormented by threatening AirDrop messages while on a first date.
“I loved this idea of making a modern Hitchcock movie where we take this very known type of technology, and we see how it gets turned against us. This item of convenience becomes something else. I think everyone can relate to the idea of being harassed and abused by someone you can’t see,” Landon tells Variety.
With such a heavy plot, the director knew he needed to use the signature comedy fans have grown to expect after films like “Happy Death Day” and “Freaky,” but in a very different way. It starts with the AirDrop messages themselves — at first they feel like teenage pranks, using real-life memes like the viral “distracted boyfriend” and “swerving car” images. Getting the rights to those images wasn’t easy, Landon says, but he felt it was necessary. “It was vital to get the real ones cleared, because I think it’s what helps ground the movie more. When you see one of those things, you’re like, ‘Oh, I’ve sent that to people,’ or ‘I’ve received that one.’ It just helps you invest a little bit easier.”
But once the messages turn sinister, Landon had to find the laughs elsewhere. “I was being more precise in how I used humor to either disarm the audience or to give them a break from the tension, because you’re in this constant state of anxiety when you’re watching the movie. I knew that I needed to have a little tension release valve. And it came in the form of a character.”
That character, a scene-stealing waiter expertly played by “Search Party” alum Jeffery Self, brings some much-needed levity to Fahy’s nightmarish date with overfamiliar quips (“My horoscope was right!”). Landon recalls “howling” at the actor’s self-tape and immediately instructing casting director Terri Taylor to call off the search.
DROP, from left: Brandon Sklenar, Jeffery Self, 2025. ph: Bernard Walsh /© Universal Pictures /Courtesy Everett Collection
©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
“Drop” star Brandon Sklenar even says that, at times, Self was a little too good; Sklenar and Fahy simply couldn’t keep it together when he started improvising. “Meghann and I are behind that camera, absolutely losing our shit, because every time he’d come in, he’d have a different improv every single time. And every single one of them hit. They’re all heaters, every single one,” Sklenar says. “He’s the secret sauce in this film.”
“Drop” draws clear inspiration from some of Landon’s favorite films. “I grew up on a steady diet of horror. I watched a lot of horror movies with my family growing up, and I got introduced to stuff like, ‘Evil Dead 2’ at a pretty early age, and really deep cut stuff like ‘Street Trash’ and all kinds of weird movies. But I also had a lot of ‘Monty Python’ going on there, and random movies like ‘Ruthless People and ‘A Fish Called Wanda,’” he says.
He always had a desire to combine those two favorite genres, but didn’t feel there was enough of an appetite in Hollywood. Then came 2017’s “Happy Death Day.” “Most people were pleasantly surprised by how funny it was,” Landon says. “That movie helped open the door a bit more for horror comedies, because it was commercially successful.”
Landon followed up the film with a 2019 sequel, “Happy Death Day 2U,” but discussions about a third installment have been quiet until recently. Landon and lead actor Rothe have since revealed that the trilogy-capper is finally “moving forward.”
Landon says that, while there are currently no major updates on development, he’s hopeful for the future of the franchise. “We felt like we had finally gotten the door back open, and that we were restarting the conversation with all parties involved, and that we were really hoping that we could get the proper traction to make the third movie. I’ve had the idea for a long time, and that hasn’t changed. So it’s really only a matter of figuring a few things out. I hope it’s not a false start. But I can’t make any promises.”
