Forbidden Fruits is the campy, mall witch cult movie you’ve been waiting for.
First of all, let’s reiterate that it takes place in the mall. As a 6Teen fan since childhood, anything that takes place in the mall is automatically a fun time in this writer’s book. Let alone a witchy murder movie starring Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp and Lola Tung. It’s like a look into girlhood, through the campy horror lens.
Based on the play Of the Woman Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die by Lily Houghton, the film centers on three girls with fruit for names, Apple (Reinhart), Cherry (Pedretti) and Fig (Shipp), who work in Free Eden, and one newcomer, Pumpkin (Tung), who they adopt from the pretzel stand and bring into their cult. There are a few rules: no boys, no backstabbing, and it’s always good to be the “mini-me” of one of the other women, earning their favor. You also have to attend their ceremonies—you really can’t miss them for anything, and certainly never to hook up. They all look to their leader Apple, for whom the Free Eden life is everything.
The Adam and Eve metaphors continue throughout, with Apple being at the head of their pack, to the girls declaring, “you’re the snake,” to one another when they realize the other might be betraying them.
Over time, we find out more about the cult’s past, including their past member Pickle (YouTuber Emma Chamberlain), their own lore with their family members and their current hook-ups, and leader Apple’s dark past and how it all ties to the other cult members, specifically Pumpkin.
The movie is full of campy twists and turns, dry humor, and a dash of Gen Z flair that makes the film, not breaks it. Is the dialogue groundbreaking? No, but it’s most definitely enjoyable. It leans into being unserious, and yet you will find yourself caring about the fate of the characters and this weird, girly mall cult.
Warning: it will take a turn for the gory. It’s a horror drama with blood and fighting, but it’s much more than that. The styling and cinematography make the film feel like something out of the ’90s. It’s along the lines of Jennifer’s Body or a surreal, women-centered novel like Mona Awad’s Bunny. Each character has a distinct style in line with their fruit names, along with nods to the original text, such as Apple’s shirt in the final scene, referencing the title of the play.
If you love messy women who work retail jobs stepping into their independence while still contemplating their loyalty to their cult—which is all they know—this movie is right up your alley. The whole theater was reacting out loud, laughing or gasping at every turn. It’s just a chaotic shopping cart full of fun—one you will be waiting to sink your teeth into. Though the film has moments where the girls’ trust sours and times where they could dive a little deeper, if you lean into the silliness, the film itself is far from rotten.
