Spoiler warning: We are discussing Apple, Pumpkin, Pickle, the coven, the storm, the fountain, and the mid-credits scene. If you haven’t watched Forbidden Fruits, go ahead and clock out of Free Eden now.
There are some workplaces where the biggest problem is an annoying manager.
Then there is Free Eden, where your coworkers might invite you to a secret witch cult in the basement.
At that point I don’t need HR.
I need unemployment.
Forbidden Fruits is the feature directing debut of Meredith Alloway, who co-wrote the screenplay with Lily Houghton. The horror comedy stars Lili Reinhart as Apple, Lola Tung as Pumpkin, Victoria Pedretti as Cherry, Alexandra Shipp as Fig, Emma Chamberlain as Pickle, and Gabrielle Union as Sharon. It opened in U.S. theaters on March 27, 2026, runs 1 hour and 43 minutes, and is rated R.
And yes, everybody really is named after food.
Just go with it.
Welcome to Free Eden, Where the Dress Code Includes Witchcraft
Apple, Cherry, and Fig work at a trendy Dallas mall boutique called Free Eden.
By day, they’re glamorous saleswomen convincing customers to spend entirely too much money.
By night?
They are a coven.
They meet after hours, perform rituals, cast spells, confess their sins, and live by Apple’s very particular rules.
The official synopsis describes Apple as the leader of a secret witch cult whose carefully controlled sisterhood starts unraveling after new hire Pumpkin arrives.
Pumpkin works at the pretzel counter.
Which apparently makes her practically mall peasantry to these women.
But once they learn her name is Pumpkin, suddenly she qualifies for membership.
Because obviously the ancient laws of witchcraft require coordinated produce.
Pumpkin Starts Noticing That Something Is Off
At first, Pumpkin is intrigued.
Who wouldn’t be?
New friends.
Pretty clothes.
Secret rituals.
A little witchcraft after closing.
Then she starts learning about Pickle, the former member who isn’t around anymore.
And that’s when the cute little sisterhood starts developing warning labels.
Pickle tells Pumpkin that Apple is dangerous and that the group isn’t nearly as empowering as it pretends to be.
We also learn that Apple previously manipulated the coven into hexing Pickle after Pickle fell in love with a man named Ashton, leaving Ashton in a coma and Pickle institutionalized.
Well.
That escalated from employee discount to felony energy very quickly.
The whole movie is really built around this idea:
Apple claims everything she does is about protecting women.
But somehow everybody she “protects” ends up terrified of her.
Interesting.
Everybody Has Been Breaking Apple’s Rules
Pumpkin starts discovering that the other women have secrets.
Cherry has been sneaking around with men.
Fig is in love with Norman and wants a life outside the group.
And Pickle is still carrying the damage from what Apple did to her.
Apple responds to this not by asking herself whether perhaps she has become controlling.
Of course not.
She becomes more paranoid.
Because nothing says healthy friendship like:
“Why does everybody keep betraying me?”
while you’re actively terrorizing everybody.
Pickle’s story ends tragically when she dies by suicide at the mall, something that finally pushes Fig toward breaking away from the coven completely.
Fig even reveals that her real name is Emily.
THANK YOU.
Finally somebody admits her mama did not leave the hospital saying:
“Yes. Fig. Perfect.”
Then the Mall Turns Into a Bloodbath
A severe storm traps everyone inside the mall just as the group is falling apart.
Fig announces she’s leaving.
Norman arrives.
Cherry attacks him with a meat cleaver.
People start screaming.
The mall locks down.
And suddenly Forbidden Fruits stops flirting with horror and fully commits.
Cherry gets caught in a malfunctioning escalator during the chaos.
Pumpkin and Fig try to save her, but she ends up being gruesomely crushed.
Then Fig is killed when falling glass from the damaged skylight strikes her.
I don’t know what kind of mall insurance policy covers:
witch coven + tornado + escalator death + flying glass
but somebody’s premium is going UP.
That leaves Apple and Pumpkin.
And now we finally learn why Pumpkin showed up in the first place.
Pumpkin Was Never Just the New Girl
Pumpkin reveals that she and Apple are actually half-sisters.
They share the same father.
Pumpkin didn’t wander into Free Eden because she desperately needed a retail job.
She deliberately tracked Apple down because she wanted answers about their father’s death.
Pumpkin believes Apple murdered him.
Apple doesn’t exactly deny the history, but she tells a very different story about who their father really was.
According to Apple, he maintained two families and eventually abandoned Apple and her mother, leaving them struggling while Pumpkin grew up with a completely different view of him.
Now suddenly their entire conflict gets messier.
Pumpkin grew up believing one version of this man.
Apple survived another.
And neither woman is remotely prepared for that conversation.
Naturally, they have it while covered in blood inside a mall fountain.
Family counseling appointments were apparently unavailable.
Forbidden Fruits Ending Explained
After Cherry and Fig die, Apple and Pumpkin wash themselves in the mall fountain.
Pumpkin has already positioned a doll with a hidden camera nearby.
She wants Apple’s confession recorded.
Pumpkin confronts Apple about their father and reveals the truth about being her half-sister.
Apple becomes furious that Pumpkin continues defending him.
The argument turns physical.
And Apple ultimately strangles Pumpkin to death, leaving her body in the fountain.
So much for sisterhood.
Apple survives and leaves Dallas.
Later, she arrives at another mall in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she encounters a new group of stylish women—this time named after flowers.
There’s also another Free Eden opening.
Oh no.
She’s franchising.
The movie basically tells us Apple hasn’t learned anything.
She’s simply ready to rebuild the same toxic system with new people.
Don’t Leave Before the Mid-Credits Scene
The movie has a mid-credits scene involving Sharon.
Throughout the story, Sharon has seemed like another mall employee.
Not quite.
She’s actually an undercover law-enforcement officer who has been investigating Apple.
And Pumpkin’s hidden-camera doll survived.
Sharon finds it.
Meaning Apple may have escaped the mall…
but she may not have escaped the consequences.
Now THAT is how you tease a sequel.
Not:
“Somehow Apple returned.”
We have evidence.
What Forbidden Fruits Is Really About
The witchcraft is fun.
The deaths are nasty.
The mall setting is wonderfully ridiculous.
But the movie is really poking at performative empowerment.
Apple talks about sisterhood while demanding obedience.
She claims to protect women while controlling their relationships.
She builds a space supposedly free from men’s power structures…
and then recreates the exact same behavior herself.
That’s the most interesting thing about the movie.
Sometimes toxic groups don’t look toxic from the outside.
Sometimes they have cute outfits, matching bracelets and motivational language.
Still toxic.
Just coordinated.
Horror Tea Verdict
Forbidden Fruits feels like somebody put The Craft, Heathers, and Mean Girls inside a mall after closing and then handed everybody weapons.
And I mean that affectionately.
The cast is the biggest reason it works.
Lili Reinhart understands exactly how to play Apple’s combination of confidence, insecurity and absolute delusion.
Victoria Pedretti looks like she is having a fantastic time as Cherry.
Alexandra Shipp gives Fig enough vulnerability to make her decision to leave actually matter.
And Lola Tung makes Pumpkin more than the innocent new girl wandering into somebody else’s madness.
The movie does get messy.
Some ideas are introduced without enough room to breathe, and the horror takes its time arriving.
But once the group starts turning on itself?
There we go.
Rotten Tomatoes currently lists Forbidden Fruits at 75% from 89 critic reviews and 72% from 250+ verified audience ratings.
Horror Tea Rating: ☕☕☕½ out of 5
Campy, bloody, stylish and deeply committed to proving one important lesson:
If your new coworkers invite you into the basement after the mall closes and everybody is named after fruit?
Keep walking toward the food court.