Forbidden Fruits (2026)
Official Synopsis
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of a Texas-area mall after hours with coworkers Cherry and Fig. When new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
William’s Review
Forbidden Fruits is the kind of movie that sneaks up on you, not because it is terrifying from the start, but because it spends most of its runtime convincing you it might not really be horror at all. For a long stretch, it plays more like a fun, witchy, mall-set comedy with bright colors, strange rules, and a very specific personality. It reminded me of The Craft, but not in the darker, gloomy way people might expect. This is more like if the girls from The Craft were obsessed with The Spice Girls instead of The Cure.
That lighter tone worked for me more than I expected. The movie has a lot of style, and even when the story is intentionally silly, it feels like the filmmakers know exactly what they are doing. The coven rules, the emoji-only texting, the confessionals to Marilyn Monroe, and the fruit-themed names all create a world that feels ridiculous but consistent. It is campy, but it is campy in a way that feels controlled and it just worked for me.
The cast is also a big reason the movie works as well as it does. Victoria Pedretti is especially fun as Cherry, giving the character a ditzy, bubbly surface while still letting you feel the sadness and insecurity underneath. That balance keeps her from being a one-note joke, and it makes the later horror moments hit harder than they would have otherwise.
For most of the movie, I was wondering whether this was really going to commit to being horror. Then the final act hits, and the movie goes completely off the rails in the best way. It suddenly becomes bloody, violent, and much more intense than the rest of the film prepares you for. That shift will not work for everyone, but for me it gave the movie the jolt it needed.
I landed on Streamer because I do not think this is essential viewing, but I do think it is a fun Shudder watch. It is messy in places and not every story beat fully lands, but the energy, performances, and wild final stretch make it worth checking out.
That lighter tone worked for me more than I expected. The movie has a lot of style, and even when the story is intentionally silly, it feels like the filmmakers know exactly what they are doing. The coven rules, the emoji-only texting, the confessionals to Marilyn Monroe, and the fruit-themed names all create a world that feels ridiculous but consistent. It is campy, but it is campy in a way that feels controlled and it just worked for me.
The cast is also a big reason the movie works as well as it does. Victoria Pedretti is especially fun as Cherry, giving the character a ditzy, bubbly surface while still letting you feel the sadness and insecurity underneath. That balance keeps her from being a one-note joke, and it makes the later horror moments hit harder than they would have otherwise.
For most of the movie, I was wondering whether this was really going to commit to being horror. Then the final act hits, and the movie goes completely off the rails in the best way. It suddenly becomes bloody, violent, and much more intense than the rest of the film prepares you for. That shift will not work for everyone, but for me it gave the movie the jolt it needed.
I landed on Streamer because I do not think this is essential viewing, but I do think it is a fun Shudder watch. It is messy in places and not every story beat fully lands, but the energy, performances, and wild final stretch make it worth checking out.
Amy’s Review
I did not expect Forbidden Fruits to be as fun as it was. Going in, I thought it might be another witch movie that either took itself too seriously or tried too hard to be edgy, but this one surprised me by being much lighter, brighter, and sillier than I expected. For most of the movie, I kept thinking it felt more like a cute, witchy hangout movie than a full horror movie.
The whole thing has this glitzy, girly, mall-coven energy that made it easy to watch. The outfits, the names, the rules, and the Marilyn Monroe obsession were all ridiculous, but they were ridiculous in a fun way. I especially liked Cherry played by Victoria Pedretti who made her funny and sweet, with something sad underneath it all. She made me laugh the most, and I think she gave the movie a lot of its charm.
For a while, though, I was not sure where the horror was. It reminded me more of something like Practical Magic than something that was actually going to scare me. There were witchy elements and some darker things happening in the background, but most of it felt playful and campy. I was entertained, but I was also waiting for the movie to show me why it belonged fully in horror. Then the literal tornado hit and I understood why it was labelled horror.
The movie goes from silly and colorful to bloody and intense very quickly, and there is one kill sequence in particular that got to me because it played directly into a fear I already have. I had to look away, and I was definitely squirming. It felt like the movie suddenly turned into Final Destination for a few minutes, which I was not prepared for based on the tone of everything that came before it.
I am giving it a Streamer because I had fun with it, but I do not think it left me with enough fear, dread, or emotional impact to rate it higher. If I had watched this in my twenties, I probably would have loved it even more. Now, I see it as a fun, stylish, witchy movie with a surprisingly brutal ending that is absolutely worth watching on Shudder.
The whole thing has this glitzy, girly, mall-coven energy that made it easy to watch. The outfits, the names, the rules, and the Marilyn Monroe obsession were all ridiculous, but they were ridiculous in a fun way. I especially liked Cherry played by Victoria Pedretti who made her funny and sweet, with something sad underneath it all. She made me laugh the most, and I think she gave the movie a lot of its charm.
For a while, though, I was not sure where the horror was. It reminded me more of something like Practical Magic than something that was actually going to scare me. There were witchy elements and some darker things happening in the background, but most of it felt playful and campy. I was entertained, but I was also waiting for the movie to show me why it belonged fully in horror. Then the literal tornado hit and I understood why it was labelled horror.
The movie goes from silly and colorful to bloody and intense very quickly, and there is one kill sequence in particular that got to me because it played directly into a fear I already have. I had to look away, and I was definitely squirming. It felt like the movie suddenly turned into Final Destination for a few minutes, which I was not prepared for based on the tone of everything that came before it.
I am giving it a Streamer because I had fun with it, but I do not think it left me with enough fear, dread, or emotional impact to rate it higher. If I had watched this in my twenties, I probably would have loved it even more. Now, I see it as a fun, stylish, witchy movie with a surprisingly brutal ending that is absolutely worth watching on Shudder.