There’s nothing sexy about competency, but it sure beats boring your audience to tears. The line between being incisive and highfalutin is thin indeed, and where most modern genre programmers risk the latter by aiming for the former, writer/director Christopher Landon has made a career out of sidestepping the binary altogether. Penning modest thriller hits like Disturbia and Heart Eyes, as well as directing the warmly regarded Happy Death Day and its sequel, isn’t a recipe for winning the hearts of ardent cinephiles, but it does pay the bills, and persuasively argues for a depressurized form of movie making. Big bets rule the day at your local multiplex, whether it’s aspiring blockbusters with gargantuan budgets, or heady dramas that require unpacking, but there’s still pleasure in killing 90 minutes with a bucket of popcorn in hand. Life and death on the silver screen needn’t be so daunting.

Dating as an adult has high enough stakes as is, and Landon’s latest feature, Drop, is playful in its twinning of mortal danger and romantic vulnerability. Despite opening with a queasy-making scene of domestic violence, the true tension starts when single mother Violet (Meghann Fahy) can’t figure out the right dress to wear for her first date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a man she met on the apps. You never know what you’re getting when a digital pen pal reveals themself in the flesh, but the handsome bachelor who sits across from our heroine at a chic, high-rise restaurant in Chicago turns out to be the least of her concerns. In a perfectly B-movie twist of fate, Violet’s phone starts blowing up with menacing messages, demanding that a series of terrible actions be performed if her son Toby (Jacob Robinson) is to survive the night. What’s a single mother gotta do to get some ‘me time’ in the Windy City?

If conflating the search for a paramore with a mortal game of chicken sounds a bit silly, you’ve already entered Drop’s wavelength. Whether it’s turning Groundhog Day into a sorority slasher or Rear Window into a teen soap opera, Landon delights in letting the air out of a grave balloon, goading audiences into condescending laughter before they realize the helmer is in on the joke. There’s no other explanation for Drop’s goofy foray into political intrigue, nor the whiz-bang finale that gleefully defies credulity at every turn. Frivolity has become a precious commodity in modern movie going, but it shouldn’t be mistaken for idiocy. The Agatha Christie-indebted set-up, which introduces myriad characters within the dining establishment as potential antagonists, is cleverly mounted catnip for the amatuer sleuth in all of us, even if the detective work is best suited for someone with Harreit the Spy’s level of training.

Exclusively searching for the perpetrator within one’s immediate field of vision only makes sense in light of the titular plot device, which necessitates that Violet’s tormentor be in close quarters. Rigging a movie’s entire narrative to a new-fangled messaging technology might scan as an elevator pitch gone sideways, but it’s all in keeping with the theme. Drop is genuinely interested in the fearsome modern conundrum of digital communication and distraction, affixing cuts to bedroom video monitors with the same gravity of a knife fight. Home invasion may be terrifying, but it’s got nothing on the nerve-fraying company of a date who refuses to put their phone down.

Just don’t get too invested in the motifs and symbolism; they’re just here to placate the eggheads who need something to extrapolate. Drop is more of a fast ball down the middle, content to swim in the same pool as Red Eye, or any number of other middle tier offerings from name brand auteurs. Like Wes Craven’s 2005 low brow corker, it benefits from a pair of charming leads, sturdy momentum, and a determination not to take things so seriously. There’s no staying power in this approach, but not all movies are made with posterity in mind. There’s utility in being disposable, in allowing your work to be consumed and then discarded, refusing the call of burdensome importance. Drop may fade from memory as soon as the credits roll, but Landon is playing to the cheap seats anyway. Essential vitamins can be found elsewhere, but true junk food is in short supply.