In Today’s Adventures in Vague Movie Titles, we go to 2025’s Drop. And don’t look to the left to find guidance from the Blu-ray’s non-committal cover for any hints that we’ll get a dark thriller.

After years on the romantic sidelines, widowed single mother Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy) decides to return to the dating scene, a choice complicated by the shocking nature of her abusive husband Blake’s (Michael Shea) death. As she recovers, she meets Henry Campbell (Brandon Sklenar) online and agrees to dinner at an upscale restaurant.

All seems fine and dandy until Violet receives disturbing phone messages while she and Henry get to know each other. These offer escalating demands that force Violet to make potentially deadly decisions.

I don’t know if “Hitchcockian” formally qualifies as a genre or just a descriptor we attach to a certain flavor of suspense film. Whatever the case, Drop clearly qualifies for that title.

Not that this means one will mistake Drop for one of Hitch’s works, of course. Plenty imitate Hitchcock but can’t achieve his flair and terrific sense of how to create the optimal level of tension.

Hard as he tries, Drop director Christopher Landon can’t pull off his Inner Hitch. A veteran filmmaker, Landon’s prior releases show inconsistent qualities.

Of the five Landon flicks I viewed prior to Drop, only 2019’s Happy Death Day 2 U really worked for me. The rest – 2014’s Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, 2015’s Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, 2017’s original Happy Death Day, and 2020’s Freaky - brought sporadic pleasures but didn’t really click.

Plop Drop into that same bucket. Although the tale gives us some decent drama at times, it doesn’t fulfill its potential.

That feels like a theme among Landon’s filmography. The other movies come with compelling hooks but Landon can’t capitalize on these strengths in a consistent manner.

I get the sense Landon feels the basic concept of Drop will do the heavy lifting for him. Drop relies so heavily on its “mysterious mastermind” scenario it appears those involved seem to believe that core notion will keep us involved.

Alas, it proves insufficient. Movies that require essentially omnipotent antagonists can become tough to swallow at their best, but Drop sputters in that regard more than most.

Rather than become a taut tale in which the audience attempts to figure out the identity of Violet’s tormentor, we really don’t care. For the story to succeed, this person really needs to be someone in the restaurant with Violet and Henry, and the film builds a roster of suspects.

The film fails to make any of these intriguing, so that side of the tale flops. Instead, we’re left with Violet’s need to react to everything the antagonist commands, a posture that makes the story oddly inert.

Drop just doesn’t do much to gin up suspense. The film pours on moody music and creepy visuals but it can’t muster a head of steam to actively involve us in the story.

Violet’s backstory related to her abusive husband also feels like a bad choice. This comes across as a cheap gimmick that seems largely unnecessary, as a woman back on the dating scene after the death of her spouse feels like enough of a plot point for this tale. Yes, the nature of his demise connects eventually, but I still feel the movie could’ve worked better without this approach.

Ultimately, Drop turns into a sluggish 95 minutes, mainly because it simply lacks the content to fill even that minimal running time. Drop feels like it’d work best as a 20-minute short, not a feature film, as it just never offers the necessary tension and thrills.

Drop appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered a quality presentation.

Sharpness worked well. Only minor softness ever marred the image, so the movie boasted accurate delineation most of the time.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I witnessed no instances of edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to mar the proceedings.

To the surprise of no one, Drop mainly went with amber/orange and teal, though we got some purple and a few other hues at times as well. The image reproduced the colors as intended.

Blacks seemed dense and deep, while shadows offered appropriate smoothness and clarity. The Blu-ray displayed the film well.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the film’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added oomph to the proceedings, as the soundscape opened up matters in a positive manner. Music offered nice breadth and filled the channels in a consistent manner.

With a mix of suspense scenes, the soundfield offered a few chances for fireworks, and it used them well. These appeared in addition to basic scares and created an involving impression.

Audio quality appeared good, with speech that came across as natural and distinctive. Effects also seemed accurate and tight, with clear reproduction of these components.

Music worked well, as the songs/score boasted solid range and dimensionality. This became a more than satisfactory track for the film.

A few extras flesh out the disc, and we launch with an audio commentary from director Christopher Landon. He brings a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, influences and themes, cast and performances, sets and locations, music, photography, effects and stunts.

Overall Landon delivers a pretty solid chat. He keeps the track amiable as he offers a positive overview of the production.

We also find three featurettes. A Recipe for Thrills runs six minutes, 43 seconds and brings remarks from Landon, director of photography Marc Spicer, stunt coordinator Brendan Condren, and actors Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar.

The program looks at story and characters, photography and perspective, and stunts. “Recipe” lacks depth but it comes with a few decent notes.

A Palate for Panic lasts four minutes, 32 seconds. It involves Fahy, Landon, Sklenar, Spicer, production designer Susie Cullen, food stylist Steven Levine, and actor Gabrielle Ryan.

Here we learn about the film’s primary restaurant set. Like “Recipe”, “Palate” gives us a brief but informative reel.

Finally, we get the three-minute, 36-second Killer Chemistry. This one gives us info from Sklenar, Fahy, Landon, and actor Ed Weeks.

“Chemistry” covers characters, cast and performances. It leans toward a lot of praise.

Though it comes with a workable concept, Drop never gets into a groove. It lacks the substance to fill even its brief running time and it turns into a bit of a bore. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture and audio as well as a small array of bonus materials. Drop squanders a decent premise.