Jakarta. Imagine getting threatened by cryptic AirDrop messages on your first date. You don’t know who sends the messages, but they are telling you to kill the date in front of you. If not, you might lose your loved ones. Such is the plot of Christopher Landon’s thriller “Drop” which is now playing in Indonesia.

The 95-minute movie has Meghann Fahy starring as the protagonist Violet Gates, a widowed single mother who decides to go back to the dating scene. Her date is Henry Campbell (Brandon Sklenar), a charming photographer whom she met via a dating app. Despite his tardiness, Henry is a green flag overall. Unfortunately, Violet keeps receiving messages on the so-called Digi-Drop -- the “Drop” universe’s equivalent to Airdrops -- that get increasingly threatening to the point where she is instructed to kill Henry or else her young son, whom she leaves behind at home, gets killed.  

The concept of a date-gone-horribly-wrong in a movie might be somewhat of a cliché in Hollywood. However, “Drop” manages to keep the audience hooked. It puts the viewers inside Violet’s head as both the protagonist and audience try to pinpoint the culprit. Is it the chatty waiter? The flirty piano man? Or one of the diners? It’s the kind of movie that you will enjoy if you watch it with someone else as you can come up with conspiracy theories of who is actually behind all this. 

The story unfolds at a nice pace. It is not too fast as it gives time for the viewers to make their guesses, but not so slow that it bores you. Each DigiDrop message comes just at the right time to build and maintain intensity. Amid all the techno-threats, “Drop” also slips in some fun humor. Matt (Jeffery Self), the waiter on his first ever shift at the fancy restaurant, is here as the comic relief to relieve the tension, although his bubbly personality sometimes makes him suspicious. And let’s not forget that “Drop” features a cocktail-piano version of the popular children’s song “Baby Shark”, throwing in a nice surprise to the intense first date. All in all, “Drop” is pretty much a fun thriller that keeps you entertained after a long day at work.