And other viewer questions, answered.

Shudder’s new movie Forbidden Fruits, directed by Meredith Alloway, has all the trappings of an awesome slasher film: it’s full of powerful, stylish young women, it restores mall culture and alludes to what happens to mean girls after high school, plus it’s set in Texas (like the best of the slashers). And yet, I found myself asking, what is this movie about?

Forbidden Fruits Movie Plot

To review the Forbidden Fruits movie plot in brief, let me paraphrase what happens in the trailer: Apple (Lili Reinhart), Fig (Alexandra Shipp), and Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) are saleswomen at a clothing store at a high-end mall called Free Eden… but any Elder Millennial can take one look at the stock and logo font and clock that it’s shorthanding Free People, especially since their store is nestled between mid-tier athleisurewear competitors like Alo and Lululemon. My guess is that it’s only because of the women’s shady business practices of price-marking at the counter/behind the client’s back to juice up their commissions that the producers chose not to get that Free People product placement. (FTR I like all three of those brands, too.)

The fact that Apple is leading a cultish coven based on kitsch and sisterhood might have also been a sponsor deterrent, but that’s the main thread of the plot, so it’s indispensable. Their opening ceremony (I don’t know what else to call it) happens in the fitting room area of their store, and it covers the “four retail seasons” in fruits. They make a concoction in a sparkly boot. They confess to Marilyn Monroe, their martyr who was constantly underestimated due to her “beauty and perfectly placed mole.”

This is all really cool, but I found myself asking—as I am lately wont to do of many horror movies—to what end? What is this spell for? What is the purpose of the cult? Y’all can be friends without the coven, if you want.

Anyway, Free Eden is down a salesperson, so when cute little Pumpkin (Lola Tung) shows up with her Auntie Anne’s—I mean Sister Salt’s—pretzel samples, Fig is determined to get her in the door through the omnipotent and offscreen manager, Sharon (Gabrielle Union), “Sorry, we just have a thing about Sister Salt’s. It’s like, the bottom of the food chain….”

Pumpkin responds with my favorite line of the movie: “It’s okay. My job doesn’t define me. My hotness and personality do.”

Vibes

‍I should admit here, I’m an Elder Millennial myself, meaning that I’m the exact target demographic for this audience—and I really, really wanted to love this film. An Elder Millennial remembers when hanging out in malls was cool and unironic, we mostly shop online now, and we remember when both super-thick eyebrows were on trend after we overplucked them in middle school.

We also remember all those low-rise pants and we (I) are not nostalgic for them—they weren’t flattering on anyone but Aaliyah even then, let alone now when I’m clinging to the vestiges of youthful attractiveness while desperate to maintain full range of emotion in my forehead.

I remember the illusion of girl power a la the Spice Girls and needing to classify everyone as a ___ Spice. If my tone didn’t give it away, I’m not nostalgic for that, either.

At least, not actually. I do appreciate the fun, bubblegum-sexy look in an ironic way, the way they did it on 30 Rock, in which “I am a very sexy baby!” takes everyone aback.

The problem is, that tone, the one of “I can be a feminist and still be a badass who likes glitter, etc.” does not seem to be a priority.

What seems to be an amalgam of the vibes from Mean Girls, The Craft, and The Love Witch doesn’t really shape up to be the girl power pop anthem that I wanted…

The dialogue starts off that way, for sure, like when Fig says, “Dead ass!?” at hearing Pumpkin’s name is Pumpkin. Or when Fig tries to get off the radio by saying, “There’s a woman down here wearing sweatpants and going through a break-up… it’s a lot.”

Or this golden interaction:

APPLE: …and then I threw my coffee on his dick.

CHERRY: Wait, you threw your coffee, or your latte?

APPLE: Latte. Stop, this is serious.

Oh, also: flawless soundtrack. No notes. ‍

Except for to ask, when did we, as a culture, start saying “scantily clad?” Kudos to Haute & Freddy for accurately hyperbolizing that dumb phrase in this epic song.

But still, all those great lines are frontloaded, and the tone (and maybe the purpose) slowly ebb and wash out as the movie progresses.

Cast of Characters

Cherry is hands-down the best element of this film—she’s the reason I stuck it through to the end. It’s a running gag throughout Forbidden Fruits that she has “unattractive qualities” like “the compulsion you have to make yourself the main character in everyone else’s story” … but maybe that was the problem with the whole film. Cherry’s the only one with even a little complexity.

‍(spoilers start here)

‍Here’s a list of things I know about the characters collectively:

‍They’re from Texas
Apple, Cherry, and Pumpkin all have dead dads
They work at the mall
Could be any age from 23-37

Cherry

‍Super hot, Baby Spice equivalent. She is the friendliest one, and she wants to be Apple’s “mini-me.” Her family all died in a super-fast house fire. (The source of which is not acknowledged… I think we’re supposed to think it’s Apple’s doing?) Apple is very controlling, and even though she helped Cherry “get sober,” she also does stuff like forbid her from drinking the boxed (bagged) pink wine during their ceremony and outlaw having sex on Wednesdays. Which is a fun Mean Girls homage. And which is, maybe intentionally, exactly when Cherry chooses to hook up with all the food court guys.

The sex montage is the most self-aware part of Forbidden Fruits: Cherry dresses up in all most ridiculous the Free Eden merch and then engages in whichever sexual act looks the silliest for the costume. Love it. Wish the whole movie had that tongue-in-cheek irreverent tone. But it doesn’t.

Fig‍ ‍

Fig got this job after finishing her undergrad in (some kind of) science to save up for grad school. She has a secret boyfriend, Norman (Siddharth Sharma), (named after Norman Bates—EXCUSE ME, RED FLAG?) who works as a server in one of the mall’s sit-down restaurants, and she’s excited that he wants to take her to see Ed Sheeran.

Pumpkin

Might be up to something. She doesn’t seem super invested in the cult/coven, and she’s interested in getting re-con on Cherry and Fig, especially in a way to pry them away from Apple. Reason, unknown until the very end. So unknown and unprecedented until the very end that it seems like a true flaw in the script’s plot.

‍Apple

The redhead/Posh Spice equivalent. She lives in her van and maybe killed her dad. Apple hates “boys” and insists everyone only speaks to them in emojis. She even starts the cult/coven—or at least the Hex Era of the cult/coven—to get rid of their old bff Pickle’s boyfriend.

If that sounds vague, that’s because it is—it’s not because I wasn’t paying attention. There’s just not that much there.

So, is it horror?

Yes, definitely yes. A true slasher… but without as much gore as it could have had, and we don’t get any of that until about the fourth act.

When we do get the gore, it really delivers on the scariest parts of the shopping mall: you got it. The escalator. And the shoelace (or stiletto heel) getting caught in the treads.

And the second mall fear also delivers: getting trapped in the mall overnight, albeit this time as safety from a sudden storm, even under those glass skylights…

And then, of course, there’s the fear of falling into the atrium…

All those fears are realized in this film.

Like I said, Forbidden Fruits as a concept is really solid. But a solid concept and vibes and one excellent charismatic actor in an otherwise flattish role does not counterbalance the lack of momentum in plot, underdeveloped characters, and tonal negligence.

So, is Forbidden Fruits movie feminist?

‍In a sense, yes: Forbidden Fruits centers a female friendship. They very seldom even talk about men, so it definitely passes a Bechdel test. It’s even refreshingly not anti-men: In the cold open, Apple is the shitty one. Granted, the guy who pulled up next to her was being a creep, but she’s the one who encouraged him and then physically assaulted him.

‍And, Norman is one of the few male characters in the film, and he shows up to the coven meeting after Fig’s text warning him off because, “You said you weren’t safe. I came to see you.” Aw.

In another sense, it is not feminist: this whole schtick is completely toxic and functions to keep all the women down, together, and the tone is not self-aware enough to nail that fact down.

So, is Forbidden Fruits movie gay/queer?

‍Alas, even though it has every reason to be about Apple’s internalized homophobia, we barely touch on the possibility that she might be attracted to Cherry. (I mean, looking back at the film afterward, she definitely is obsessed with her, but on today’s screen, it’s queer-coded at best, queer-bait at worst.)

Apple does lick blood off Cherry’s fingers when she cuts herself with the boxy cutter… and she does try to kiss Cherry in the fourth act (and fails) after trying to control her throughout. And the new cult she finds at a new mall gives screen time to a much-shorter, manicured middle fingernail. It seems like an IYKYK situation, and I don’t claim to know.

But, ultimately, you should judge for yourself!

Oh, and don’t forget to watch all the way through because they did that shit that is becoming so popular, hiding the denouement halfway into the closing credits. Bon appetit.

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Where to watch Forbidden Fruits the movie: March 27, 2026 in U.S. theaters

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If this story stuck with you, then you might also enjoy…

—Okay, I’ll Try to Explain UNDERTONE Movie’s Ending and Plot
—The Long History of Toxic Cosmetics
—The Beauty Who Created the Beast
—A Brief History of Poisoning

What is the FORBIDDEN FRUITS Movie about? Girl Power, Witchcraft, Retail Therapy