Forbidden Fruits (2026) Review — The Coven Just Clocked In

The mall dies at nine o’clock, and you’ve seen it happen a hundred times: the gates rattling down over the storefronts like eyelids, the food-court lights buzzing out one by one, the piped-in pop music cutting off mid-chorus. What’s left is a concrete tomb with a pretzel stand in it — and every shadow suddenly looks like it’s waiting for you to turn your back.

But downstairs, behind the “Employees Only” door that doesn’t appear on any floor plan, the lights are still on. Somebody has drawn a circle in liquid eyeliner on the break-room tile. Five girls in mall uniforms are holding hands around a candle that smells like clearance-rack vanilla, and they are absolutely not praying for a raise.

Clock in, sweetie. The coven already started without you — and Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits (2026) is the shift you don’t get to leave early.

Plot Overview

Apple (Lili Reinhart) works the floor at Free Eden, a mall boutique with a name that should have been your first warning. By day she folds graphic tees; by night, in the store’s basement, she leads a full-blown witchy femme cult with fellow employees Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig (Alexandra Shipp). Their whole deal is empowerment with a body count — sisterhood as sacrament, hexes as team-building exercises.

Then Pumpkin (Lola Tung) gets hired, takes one look at the operation, tilts her head, and asks the question nobody in a cult ever wants to hear: is any of this actually real? What follows is 103 minutes of catty, blood-flecked chaos as the coven’s performative girl-power gets stress-tested — and every woman in that basement has to face her own poison, or end up face-down in it. Gabrielle Union (Sharon) and Emma Chamberlain (Pickle) round out the coven’s orbit, and I’ll stay spoiler-light from here, because the fun of this movie is watching the sisterhood curdle in real time.

What Works

The premise is a gift. “Mean Girls meets The Craft” gets thrown around a lot, but Forbidden Fruits actually earns it — the mall-as-pressure-cooker setting does genuine work. Here’s why: Alloway understands that a mall after dark is already a liminal nightmare, all fluorescent dead air and locked emergency exits, and she weaponizes that existing dread instead of just decorating with it. Every ritual scene feels like it could only happen here.

Lili Reinhart is terrifying in the best way. Apple has cult-leader charisma filtered through retail-manager energy, and Reinhart plays her with total true-believer sincerity — never a wink, never a nudge. That’s exactly why the comedy lands: the funniest lines in the movie are delivered like scripture.

Victoria Pedretti steals every scene she’s in. Cherry is feral, hilarious, and unhinged in precisely the register this movie needs — she’s the friend who’d help you move a body and then critique your form. The Cherry–Pumpkin friction is the engine of the whole second act.

The script crackles. Co-written by Alloway and Lily Houghton (adapting Houghton’s own stage play) and produced by Diablo Cody, the dialogue has that Juno-adjacent snap — quotable mean-girl zingers with actual teeth underneath. It works because the jokes are doing character work, not just filling silence between kills.

Alloway directs like she’s been doing this for years. For a feature debut, the confidence is startling: the basement rituals have genuine atmosphere — eyeliner sigils, candlelight, a bass-heavy score that vibrates in your molars — and when the gore arrives, it feels practical, nasty, and earned.

What Doesn’t Work

The third act plays it safe. For a movie this gleefully venomous, the finale leans on coven-movie beats you’ve seen before — if you grew up on The Craft, you’ll recognize the shape of the ending well before it arrives. It’s satisfying, just not surprising.

Fig gets shortchanged. Alexandra Shipp does strong work, but Fig is the least developed of the trio — she functions more as the coven’s third point of the triangle than as a full person. In a movie about women being forced to face their own poisons, hers stays frustratingly blurry.

A couple of needle drops try too hard. Most of the soundtrack slaps, but there are two musical moments that feel engineered to go viral rather than to serve the scene.

Trivia & Facts

Some coven intel for your next movie night:

• Forbidden Fruits is based on Lily Houghton’s stage play “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die” — Houghton co-wrote the screenplay with director Meredith Alloway.
• This is Meredith Alloway’s feature directorial debut, and she swings like a veteran.
• Produced by Juno mastermind Diablo Cody and Mason Novick.
• Premiered at SXSW on March 16, 2026, then hit US theaters on March 27, 2026 via IFC and Shudder.
• 103 minutes, rated R — for bloody violence, language, and extremely cursed sisterhood.
• Emma Chamberlain’s turn as Pickle marks one of the influencer-turned-actress’s meatiest screen roles to date.
• The film streams on Shudder, so the coven is never more than a subscription away.

Want more horror deep-dives like this one? Poke around the Think Horror wiki — it’s a graveyard of good taste.

Harper’s Extras

Harper’s Coven Cocktail: mix something pink, something bitter, and something you probably shouldn’t have taken from the break room. Drink it while wearing eyeliner sharp enough to draw a sigil. Take a sip every time someone says “sisterhood” like it’s a threat — you’ll be hexed by the third act.

If this scratched your itch, watch next: The Craft (1996) for the foremother vibes, Jennifer’s Body for the mean-girl horror-comedy bloodline — and if you want another 2026 horror-comedy where the body count comes with punchlines, check out my Ready or Not 2 (2026) review.

Harper’s hot take: the scariest thing in this movie isn’t the witchcraft — it’s how quickly a group of women who claim to love each other will turn a basement into a courtroom. Alloway gets that, and that’s why the horror sticks.

Where to Watch

Forbidden Fruits (2026) premiered at SXSW on March 16, 2026 and opened in US theaters on March 27, 2026 via IFC and Shudder. It’s currently streaming on Shudder and available for digital rental and purchase. Grab your coven, dim the lights, and whatever you do — don’t drink the break-room punch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Forbidden Fruits (2026) based on a play?

Yes! Forbidden Fruits is adapted from Lily Houghton’s stage play “Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die.” Houghton co-wrote the film’s screenplay with director Meredith Alloway.

Where can I watch Forbidden Fruits (2026)?

The film is streaming on Shudder and is also available for digital rental and purchase. It opened theatrically in the US on March 27, 2026 via IFC and Shudder.

Who directed Forbidden Fruits (2026)?

Meredith Alloway directed Forbidden Fruits (2026) — it’s her feature directorial debut, co-written with Lily Houghton and produced by Diablo Cody and Mason Novick.

What is Forbidden Fruits (2026) about?

It’s a horror-comedy about Apple, a mall store employee who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the store’s basement 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.