With love in the air this February, one film has us downright smitten with jealousy over how cool it looks. Forbidden Fruits shows how a performative popularity contest between witches can be a fun time — and a bloody mess!
Shudder has officially released the trailer for Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits, which will be premiering at SXSW on March 17. Following its world premiere, the film will be released in theaters on March 27.
The brief teaser and character posters hinted at what to expect from Alloway’s star-studded cast. However, the official trailer digs into what this coven truly has to offer.
The trailer itself opens by introducing us to the film’s main trio of witches: Apple, Cherry, and Fig.
According to the film’s synopsis, Apple is a Free Eden employee who “secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours — with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig.”
We see the women being their everyday bossy selves in the shopping mall they rule over. However, when Lola Tung’s Pumpkin enters as a new hire at the store, her encounter with the group, and Lili Reinhart’s Apple changes everything.
From here, the trailer sees Apple welcoming Pumpkin into the fold as she tries to get her acquainted with her little coven of fashionable witches. Through trial and induction, Pumpkin does eventually agree to join them.
Watch the Forbidden Fruits trailer:
However, the costs of expanding this sisterhood to include a new member might be too much for Apple to bear.
The synopsis also states Pumpkin’s induction into this group “challenges their performative sisterhood” and that the women “are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.”
This “bloody” demise is all but a certainty from the trailer, which also sees each member taking physically adverse action against one another.
As Pumpkin and Apple butt heads with each other and blood is spilled over little choices that Pumpkin makes within the group, the horror comedy explores how friendships can be ripped apart.
Forbidden Fruits stars The Summer I Turned Pretty‘s Lola Tung and Riverdale‘s Lili Reinhart. The film’s cast also includes Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Chamberlain, and Gabrielle Union.
According to Yahoo, the satirical mall slasher is based on the play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die, written by Lily Houghton.
Additionally, Houghton is credited as co-writing the script for the film with its director, Meredith Alloway.
Equally as exciting, Diablo Cody (writer of cult horror movies Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein) is producing the film. Also, Mason Novick, Trent Hubbard, and Mary Anne Waterhouse serve as producers.
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Forbidden Fruits releases in theaters on March 27.
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Chris Gallardo
Christopher Gallardo is an entertainment writer, critic, and member of New York Film Critics Online. While not running his own social channels, Chris can be found writing reviews and breakdowns on all things films and TV for multiple outlets. Plus, he loves Percy Jackson, animated films and shows, and Fallout! You can find him anywhere on social media at @chrisagwrites.