Film Review: FORBIDDEN FRUITS (2026): Lili Reinhart Gets a Juicy Role in a Movie That’s Closer to Being a Comedy Than a Horror Film
Forbidden Fruits Review
Forbidden Fruits (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Meredith Alloway, written by Lily Houghton and Meredith Alloway and starring Lili Reinhart, Jordan Duarte, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Zack Thompson, Lola Tung, Austin Ball, Jacqueline Byers, Emma Chamberlain, Gabrielle Union, Aidan Almanza, David Pinard, Siddharth Sharma, Jeff Sinasac and Charlie Henry Larsen.
Lili Reinhart (Hustlers) is a young actress who is just now finally getting a juicy lead film role worthy of her unique talents. In the new horror/comedy from director Meredith Alloway, Forbidden Fruits, Reinhart plays Apple, a devilish, charismatic young woman who works in a store called “Free Eden” in a mall. She’s part of a trio that also consists of Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig (the interesting Alexandra Shipp). When a new girl known as Pumpkin (Lola Tung) arrives to stir the pot, so to say, all hell is about to be unleashed on the characters in a way that is entertaining, if a bit dragged out at times in the movie’s middle stages. Whereas movies like Bottoms upped the game for offbeat movies about young females, Forbidden Fruits pushes the audience’s buttons at many given intervals and Reinhart runs away with much of the film as the wicked and fascinating Apple.
As the new girl, Tung is immensely likable. Tung’s Pumpkin has all the makings of the heroine of this twisted tale, but the evil girl known as Apple is the one who the movie actually follows more. With Apple’s nasty side perfectly conveyed by Reinhart, Apple becomes the quintessential “mean girl” in this new movie. Tung is also quite serious in this picture, too, depending most of all on the particular scene she’s playing. This film’s tone is much darker than either a light comedy or a dark comedy should be as scenes arrive later in the picture which are unpleasant to behold. This movie shifts to full-fledged horror in its last half hour and although there are clever sequences, the more violent ones aren’t easy to see coming from the movie’s beginning stages.
Pedretti’s own best scenes come when she is riding an escalator in the mall near the end of the picture and she gets her sandal strap caught in the escalator. Characters try to help save her, but Cherry sadly meets a rather (spoiler alert) gruesome fate as she graphically removes a fingernail and ultimately has her body crushed by the escalator as she goes right through it.
When Reinhart is on-screen, she essentially steals the show and rightfully so. She gets the best hairstyles and/or wigs, hands down. With the most sophisticated and opinionated character role in the picture, Reinhart’s Apple faces off with the new girl, Pumpkin, near the end with super entertaining results. As Apple picks a nickel up from inside a fountain while looking for pennies, she is brutal and dishes out some punishment to Pumpkin who is already one-step ahead of her and leaves evidence for a detective (Gabrielle Union) to decipher at the mid-end credits scene which leaves plenty of room for a potential sequel.
Tung is terrifically spunky as Pumpkin. Tung may not have the thunderous performance of Reinhart to show off, but Tung still gets the audience’s attention with some of her likable tendencies which make Pumpkin a strong female character in a movie full of female bonding and fighting (either verbal or physical). Most of the men here are secondary characters who might be taught a lesson or two by Apple and her curious entourage along the way.
Though the movie starts out like a comedy (complete with some unnecessarily dumb character development), it ultimately gets heavy-handed with one character being slit down the middle in one of the more gruesome scenes of the latter part of the film. Forbidden Fruits knows what it wants to do and does it whether the audience is ready for what the film decides to unleash or not. Expect some graphic violence at the end and anticipate Reinhart’s wickedness to prevail when the going gets rough.
Forbidden Fruits has some very good and unexpected moments, to be sure. Being directed by Alloway with smart and funny jokes frequently sprinkled into the action, the movie is violent and philosophical, sometimes at the same time. Reinhart is certainly the leader of this pack of girls and unleashes her wild side on all those who threaten to cross Apple or just simply fail to live up to her expectations.
There is also the mall setting of this movie that give it an interesting vibe. Forbidden Fruits plays with its themes in an intelligent way that includes borderline religious commentary for people who want to see Reinhart’s Apple talk about her own values while getting around with her “friends.” Set in Texas where the movie jokingly says there’s nothing exciting to do at one point, these female actresses present purposefully make their creations “do or die” characters that will please most young audience members and then some thanks to the film’s creativity.
This is pretty much Lili Reinhart’s coming-into-her-own movie role. She makes Apple a villain you’ll love to hate and watch for that mid-end credits scene at the conclusion where Union’s cop is now ready to take on the wickedly evil Apple. Reinhart has her own juicy role here in a movie that ends with a little less substance than it could have had in lieu of a great deal of cinematic style. Reinhart’s fans will adore her work in Forbidden Fruits and then some.
Rating: 6.5/10
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