Movie · 2026 · Horror, Comedy · 1h 43m · R · English
Curator score: 2.3/10 (133.5K ratings)
The coven just clocked in.
Overview
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours - with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain, Gabrielle Union, Hailey Summer, Jordan Duarte, David Pinard, R Austin Ball, Charlie Larsen, Siddharth Sharma, Jeff Sinasac, Kwaku Adu-Poku, Devery Jacobs, Zack Thompson, Jacqueline Byers, Harrison Byers, Caroline Vartanian, Aidan Almanza
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, queer-coded mall-set horror-comedy with strong camp energy, sharp visual appeal, and a clear appetite for mean-girl witchcraft theatrics. It sounds more like a vibe-first cult item than a fully satisfying genre knockout, but the premise and cast make it easy to see why it found an audience.
Best for
fans of stylish teen horror-comedy
viewers who like campy female ensemble dynamics
people drawn to mall-set nostalgia and liminal Americana
audiences who enjoy witchy, queer-adjacent subtext and social satire
Skip if
you want tightly plotted horror
you dislike ironic, meme-friendly dialogue
you prefer gore or scares over attitude
you are tired of glossy YA-coded ensemble movies
Overview
Forbidden Fruits aims for the sweet spot between teen-movie gloss and occult chaos, using the mall basement as a perfect little kingdom of insecurity, performance, and power games. The setup is instantly legible: a secret sisterhood, a new hire who threatens the hierarchy, and a slow slide from empowerment fantasy into bloodletting. That combination gives it a strong hook even before the first spell is cast.
Worth noting
What seems to land most is the tone. The movie appears to understand that modern cultish femininity can be both sincere and ridiculous, and it leans into that contradiction with confidence. The Letterboxd reaction suggests a film built for quotable lines, hot-girl menace, and a very specific kind of internet-era camp, with the mall functioning as both nostalgia machine and emotional trap.
Bottom line
It may not fully transcend its own aesthetic, though. The appeal sounds concentrated in mood, casting, and social texture rather than in narrative surprise or genuine dread. Still, for viewers who want a playful, poisonous cousin to the classic witchy-teen template, this looks like an easy recommendation.
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