A cult classic is being brewed: Forbidden Fruits Review/Analysis

by Sydney Preston

@Sydney_17

Here at The Diaries, we love nostalgia, girlhood and campy vibes. Put all of that together, add in some witchcraft and stunning clothes and set the story in a mall – now you have Forbidden Fruits.

A story of four girls working a retail job at a mall in Dallas, Texas; Forbidden Fruits exists in the universe where Mean Girls meets The Craft meets Jennifer’s Body a.k.a. a new cult classic.

Forbidden Fruits is a horror/comedy that follows Pumpkin (Lola Tung) as she befriends a group of three girls who also work in the mall – Apple (Lili Reinhart), Cherry (Victoria Pedretti), and Fig (Alexandra Shipp). The self-proclaimed “Fruits” are mall royalty. They work at the best store, get everything for free and are practically untouchable. When they accept Pumpkin into their exclusive group, however, she realizes the Fruits are more than they seem. She enters Paradise, a secret section of the mall where the Fruits practice witchcraft. We follow Pumpkin as she navigates the inner workings of her new coven and the darkness that is coiled around it.

“of woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die”

This is an electrifying film that is already getting rave reviews. Lili Reinhart gives her best performance to date, playing Apple flawlessly. Every word, every movement, every second on screen was calculated and stunning. The acting from each Fruit is continuously delivered again and again throughout the whole film. The campy writing style that comes from Diablo Cody-esque films needs strong actors who can fully embody their characters to make the outrageous dialogue seem grounded, and everyone rose to the occasion, including Emma Chamberlain, who made her acting debut in this film.

The horror genre does not typically aim for a target audience of young women, but with a film like this that has so much to say, the usage of horror/comedy perfectly enhances the story.

Horror is a widely misrepresented genre. People often look down their noses at horror films, saying that they are only for those who love violence. That could not be farther from the truth.

As Louis Peitzman said, “horror is the most consistent genre for social commentary... You can almost always look to two years prior to see what inspired it.”

There are many layers to Forbidden Fruits; the messaging runs deep throughout the entire film.

At the surface, this is a look into performative sisterhood and why it has formed in our society.

Performative behavior is putting on a façade to appear one way in order to obtain something else: attention, control, a sense of stability. That is what this sisterhood, this coven is to the Fruits.

They come to Paradise not necessarily because they believe in their undying loyalty to one another but because each girl desperately needs something.

Apple is desperate for control. She needs the girls to need her, but more importantly, to understand her and her darkness and still accept her.

Cherry needs a tether to Earth. She feels like a ghost drifting through life and believes that Apple saved her. Cherry is the only one of the girls who is fully in this sisterhood because it is the only thing that she has.

Fig is afraid of falling into the mundane world and being reduced to nothing. The coven gives her excitement, adventure, and the accountability to choose herself every time.

Then there is Pumpkin, who has never felt the warm embrace of girlhood. She doesn’t think that she is a girl’s girl and at first thinks that the entire coven is ridiculous, but she goes along with it because it is as close as she has ever been to feeling included.

The desire to have people to rely on who understand you vehemently. A community that is worth protecting. It’s the idea of sisterhood that is being sold to us. Needing the perfect group that all have their own unique aesthetic: the dominatrix, the baby spice, the goth, the boho babe, the cowgirl. There is a reason that this story takes place in a mall. Staying up to date on the newest trends and social scenes. Only being with the high-end stores and never interacting with the “cheap” stores. We like to think that girlhood is solely a spiritual connection between every woman, and it is to an extent, but it is also always being sent out to us that if you don’t have your ride or die babes or your coven, you’re lesser than.

The beauty of using performative sisterhood as the seemingly big message is that, just like the film, the writers are using the idea of a coven to weave in commentary on women in religion.

They are in their perfect coven but the glued together fragments of sisterhood are no longer looking ethereal.

Forbidden Fruits is based on the play “Of the Woman Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die” written by Lily Houghton. We even see Apple wearing a shirt with that same quote, a nod to the play and a nod to the religious undertones of the film.

In the Book of Genesis from the Bible, it says that the original sin is committed when Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, effectively ruining Eden. Experts say that forbidden fruits symbolize disobedience, loss of innocence, and moral autonomy. “It represents humanity’s perpetual struggle between obedience to divine will and the allure of autonomy and knowledge” (The Forbidden Fruit: Exploring the Symbolism and Interpretations).

The Fruits work at Free Eden, and above the store is where Paradise is located. Where they can dance and be free and feel glorious. When their Heaven is threatened by a venomous spirit, they go on a hunt looking for the snake. But they have all done something to stray away from the divine of their coven. Each girl is a forbidden fruit and each brings sin into Paradise.

The coven is a form of religion being sold to them. Beliefs that sound lovely but in practice leave them bitter and cold. It is a never-ending cycle of trying to be good and when they slip, trying to fix everything. They are in their perfect coven, but the glued-together fragments of sisterhood no longer look ethereal.

Forbidden Fruits takes this quote “of woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die” and twists it back on the brutality of man and how those roots are what led all of the girls to Free Eden, to their need for a coven.

There are so many layers to unpack with a film like this, but at its core, it truly is a fun and hilarious film. Forbidden Fruits is being described as an automatic sleepover movie. It’s the type where you can grab your friends and cackle at the hyper femme witches on screen. The quotes from this movie are bound to catch on in the everyday vernacular of all those who watch and aren’t boring.

Each rewatch will reveal a new takeaway that brings a whole new meaning to the film.

Whether you’re watching for the campy vibes or the seemingly never-ending metaphors, this is a film that will sweep you off your feet. I cannot recommend Forbidden Fruits enough.