‘Drop’ director Christopher Landon on the Hardest Shot of the Film, Violet’s Red Velvet Jumpsuit, and Creating a New Final Girl (EXCLUSIVE)

First dates have always been incredibly awkward, but nothing can quite beat the first date that occurs in Christopher Landon’s Drop. Told through one singular location, Drop follows Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widowed mother going on her first date in years. After meeting up with her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar), Violet soon begins to receive threatening airdrops sent to her phone anonymously. The drops reveal that Violet must poison her date, or her son will be murdered if she does not comply. The film has various twists and turns, and all eyes are watching Violet from afar.

A Shot recently got the opportunity to speak with director Christopher Landon about Drop, Violet’s red velvet jumpsuit, and creating a new final girl for audiences to root for.

When I was at the world premiere at SXSW, you said that Meghann [Fahy] and Brandon [Sklenar] were 2 movie stars in the making, and you couldn’t wait for the audience to see them. Their roles require so much physical work and backstory that adds to the emotional depths of both characters, so as the director, I would love to know how much Meghann and Brandon brought into both Violet and Henry that the audience may not get to see.

Yeah! I think you really feel that connection and the rapport they have when they first meet each other in the movie. Even though they’re playing with these nerves, the energy of “I like you” is so present and authentic because they’re two people who do have an actual connection with each other and do really like each other. And so, I think that was there in the performance.

I think with Meghann specifically, I noticed that in a lot of your films, there are a lot of iconic final girl moments. I feel like Meghann’s final girl is kind of like a culmination of your career thus far. With films like Happy Death Day, what past final girls helped inspire Violet that you’ve created or any final girl that you’ve loved in the past?

Oh my gosh, right. I think it’s a long, long list. I think it obviously starts with characters like Laurie Strode and of course, Sidney Prescott. I think Sidney Prescott was a big influence on a lot of people because she felt a little more dimensionalized than a lot of other characters. Even when I got to Happy Death Day, even though I wrote a lot of it was still even a revelation to me.

It was like “Oh, I get to create this character that is deeply flawed,” and is genuinely unlikeable by the end of the movie and transforms into this other person that she really is. With Violet, it feels like I got to go back to something that is a little more serious in tone. And obviously, we’re dealing with domestic violence and a lot of heavy subjects but leaning into the resiliency of the final girl.

One thing I loved about the script is that Jillian [Jacobs] and Chris [Roach] are breaking this stereotype we have about dating apps and turning it around on its head. We have a lot of anti-dating app stories and this is like “Oh, you never know, sometimes you could meet someone who could change your life!” and saves you. What was the process of bending the genre a little bit with Jillian and Chris?

What I loved about the script was that it really knew what it was designed to do. It was tackling this specific type of technology and this Hitchcockian kind of movie, and collectively our job together was to sort of push that and create more twists and more suspects. We wanted to really deepen Violet’s story, and bring Henry more into the story as well. Also, we really wanted to figure out how to create a really satisfying third act for the movie. It was a lot of us just bouncing ideas off of each other and pushing the script further and further until we were finally in production.

Violet’s outfit in this movie is incredible. I loved all the costumes, even though it’s very much one set. What was that experience like with your costume designer because with Violet’s outfits, because we see fashion being used early in the movie when she’s like “Oh, I don’t know if this looks good,” and I loved that it sets her apart from everybody else in the restaurant. So, what was your relationship like creating Violet’s final girl outfit?

I don’t know if it’s because I’m gay and I love clothes, but I really get invested in that part of the process. Gwen [Jeffares Hourie] who was our costume designer, she and I had a lot of conversations. There were a bunch of boxes we had to check, we needed her look to be iconic and I wanted her look to pop and stand out. I knew that we were going to go with a certain kind of red so that you could identify her at any given time in the restaurant.

We also knew we needed to make the outfit sexy, but not over the top. We needed it to be functional so that we could do stunts. We really settled on this idea of this sexy jumpsuit that was in this red. But Gwen brought so many details into it, like the satin and the velvet and there were so many different elements to the outfit that were so cool. I’m really hoping it becomes like a Halloween costume!

I was gonna say, I remember watching it at SXSW and I was like, “I would SO wear this!”

It was so beautiful! I was so grateful, and Meghann talked about the fact that it was really comfortable, because she’s in it for so much! She’s in that same outfit day after day after day. I even tried it.

I bet you looked amazing!

I have a picture! I just posted it; do you want to see it?

Yes, please!

We’ll send it to the whole group at some point! [shows costume photo on phone]

Oh my god, it’s so good! I love it.

It was amazing!

A Shot often highlighting cinematography and beautiful shots in the film. I’m curious, what was the hardest shot to do on Drop, and which one are you most proud of?

Hmm, the hardest shot to do. It wasn’t like it was incredibly hard, but it was one of those shots that took multiple layers to get it right. There’s a top-down shot where Violet is in the bathroom, and there’s a very specific writing cue that happens as she sort of backs away. The camera pulls up. We had all these lighting cues, and we had to do this very complicated crane move with a limited ceiling height because of our stage.

We couldn’t get as high as I wanted to get. And then, we had to hand that shot over to visual effects where they had to paint out the light source where you could paint light on her, but you couldn’t tell where it was coming from. They also did this extension of the shot, so she feels like she’s disappearing into the shot.

It’s so cool!

That was a really fun shot to do. It was a complicated one. And there’s a few where a lot of it was just timing. We had some long shots in the movie that were tricky.

I especially loved the scene where the camera flips over in the final act. That was a really cool one! Surprisingly, it was easy to do. But it looks amazing!

It was amazing! But seriously, I love this movie so much and I’m making all of my girlfriends go see it.

Yes, that’s amazing! I love it!

It’s like, it’s a girls night film! Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, I loved the film.

It’s a girls night movie, it’s a date night movie and I hope people go see it. Thank you so much!