With two Gen Z female leads, the archetypes of Mean Girls (2004), similar plot points as The Craft (1996), and is not as sexually driven as Jennifer’s Body (2009), Forbidden Fruits is a powder keg ready to explode in epic proportions. This masterfully insane ride, co-written by Meredith Alloway (Deep Tissue) in her feature debut and Lily Houghton (Blame) based on Houghton’s stage play Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die., is destined to be a queer-friendly cult classic and has the highest honor of having Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) as one of the producers.
L-R: Alexandra Shipp as Fig, Lili Reinhart as Apple, and Victoria Pedretti as Cherry in Meredith Alloway’s FORBIDDEN FRUITS. Photo courtesy of Sabrina Lantos. An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release.
Forbidden Fruits focuses on Apple, Cherry, and Fig (Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, and Alexandra Shipp, respectively) as they work at a store, Free Eden, in the mall. They’re best friends and everyone’s afraid of them; they’re the IT girls. They get what they want, do what they want, and be who they want. Apple is their ring leader, and everything is sort of normal and expectant, until Pumpkin (Lola Tung) [side note: botanically a fruit, culinarily a vegetable] enters the scene and slowly joins/infiltrates the group but doesn’t want to adhere to the strict hierarchy and anarchic regime that the others so willfully go along with. Pumpkin is the leading force behind possibly separating the group, causing a divide between Apple and the rest of the fruits, and making for an explosive climax and a truly unhinged third act.
Actors really need to bring their A-game for a project to meet expectations when it relies so heavily on the on characters and their presence while focusing on the dynamics between characters, how they perceive themselves, how they’re perceived by others, and how they carry themselves. Thankfully, the cast of Forbidden Fruits excels at every turn, delivering tenfold. Lili Reinhart (Hustlers), being the cult-like leader, Apple, is appropriately terrifying and sadistic in a role audiences are not used to seeing her in. She isn’t mean-spirited but there is something inherently evil about her character and the way she presents Apple is pitch perfect. While on the other end of this spectrum you have Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Movie) as Pumpkin who’s almost perceived as this too-innocent archetype of a character, but can carry her own and has seen some stuff. Tung’s performance juxtaposes Lili’s Apple excellently as it feeds into the biblical undertone of the movie — being in Eden’s Gaden, the serpent tricking Adam and Eve, fruit of the poisonous tree, etc.. Adding Victoria Pedretti (Shirley) and Alexandra Shipp (tick, tick… BOOM!) into the mix of the unfolding drama of Apple and Pumpkin as the ditz and overachiever archetype side characters works to balance the chaotic head-butting that eventually unfolds between Apple and Pumpkin. Overall, this is as much an ensemble piece as it is character driven mayhem between the two leads as everyone brings their all, and, in the end, we have an explosively entertaining destined-to-be-cult-classic that is going to have some of its most insanely over-the-top dialogue added to every lexicon.
L-R: Alexandra Shipp as Fig and Lola Tung as Pumpkin in Meredith Alloway’s FORBIDDEN FRUITS. Photo courtesy of Sabrina Lantos. An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release.
Is Forbidden Fruits a cautionary tale about knowing what you’re getting involved in before fully joining a friend group? Potentially. It’s more a combination of The Craft and Mean Girls with a splash of Jennifer’s Body for people who grew up on and/or love those movies. It is downright insane, dramatic, overzealous, and incredibly entertaining while also being magnificently unhinged. Forbidden Fruits is the exact type of movie you watch, tell all your friends about, then go watch again, and experience it with everyone for a group session. It’s a brain worm — you cannot stop thinking about it. It’s magnificently deranged, and whatever Meredith Alloway and Lily Houghton have up their sleeve next, consider us seated.
In theaters March 27th, 2026.
For more information, head to the official Forbidden Fruits website.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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