Calling my fellow WLWs (women who love women): this is not a drill. Diablo Cody (yes, Jennifer’s Body’s Diablo Cody) is producing a witchy sapphic horror movie starring Lili Reinhart and Victoria Pedretti. Cue the gay panic.
The Forbidden Fruits movie release date is almost here. Set to hit theatres and Shudder on March 27th, Forbidden Fruits is giving major Mean Girls meets The Craft vibes as it centers around a witchy femme cult secretly run by a trio of millennial Momfluencers in the basement of a Dallas shopping mall after hours. This girly pop-flavoured cult is a clique of Free Eden (think Free People) employees dubbed “mall royalty”, who are horror’s answer to ‘The Plastics’ of Mean Girls. We have ringleader Apple (Lili Reinhart), followed by her minions Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) and Fig (Alexandra Shipp). Fresh blood comes along when a new hire, Pumpkin (Lola Tung), joins the pack and turns their toxic sisterhood upside down, exposing secrets, testing the bonds of female friendship, and, as the IMDB summary says, forcing the women to “face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate”. A story with complex female villains that explores performative feminism and toxic female friendship dynamics? We are seated.
Forbidden Fruits is completely female-written and directed. The film was adapted from a stage play titled Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die, co-written by Meredith Alloway and Lily Houghton. Likewise, the film’s screenplay is co-written by the duo and directed by Alloway in her big-screen debut. Oh, and did we mention the producer? It’s none other than Diablo Cody, the genius mind behind the sapphic horror cult classic Jennifer’s Body. With Cody behind the film and a prominent Gen Z LGBTQ figure like Lili Reinhart leading the clique, Forbidden Fruits is sure to be at least a little fruity (sorry, I had to).
We cannot talk about Forbidden Fruits without talking about the already iconic aesthetic. Judging by the trailer and the marketing, Forbidden Fruits has a 2000s fever-dream quality that is the perfect backdrop for a feminist, dark horror comedy and feels current in an era where 2010s nostalgia is dominating popculture. In their newly released poster, which pays homage to The Craft, it is clear that the creative minds behind the film are doing the due diligence of honouring the coming-of-rage, female-centred horror films that have come before it. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the hot pink horror/feminine rage aesthetic of some of these films is to die for.
In speaking of *aesthetic*, be sure to check out ShopFreeEden.com. We hear they’re hiring.
