Forbidden Fruits

by Mike McGranaghan

The Craft is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to movies about covens. Andrew Fleming’s 1996 chiller is stylish, well-acted, and serious about the issues its young female characters face. Those same qualities apply to Meredith Alloway’s debut feature, Forbidden Fruits. In fact, the two movies would make a terrific double bill. This latest coven story is quite likely to become an enduring cult favorite, just like The Craft.

The film takes place at a high-end fashion boutique called Free Eden that’s situated inside a shopping mall. Employee Apple (Lily Reinhart) and co-workers Fig (Alexandra Shipp) and Cherry (Victoria Pedretti) use the back room to conduct witchy business after hours. That includes praying to their “goddess,” Marilyn Monroe. The trio needs a fourth member to fully complete their coven, and they find one in Pumpkin (Lola Tung), a worker at the mall’s pretzel shop. What they don’t know is that Pumpkin has a hidden agenda in joining the group.

Much of Forbidden Fruits is funny. Each of the women has her own distinct personality. Apple is intense, Cherry is slightly clueless, etc. Watching them alternately compliment and clash with each other leads to some decent sized laughs. Similarly humorous is their outlandish clothing, which they wear specifically to call attention to themselves. These are not subtle witches; they want eyeballs on them. There’s an emphasis on hotness, although, ironically, relationships are not a goal and sex is sometimes forbidden.

The actresses work up a nice group dynamic. Reinhart is especially good, playing Apple as a master manipulator. Her evil comes from the way she exerts control over her fellow witches. A subplot about a former member helps infuse Apple with a hint of ruthlessness. Pedretti provides lots of comic relief as the ditzy Cherry, and Shipp turns Fig into a secret half-participant who buys into some of the rules and disregards others.

Tung is the emotional core of the film. We gradually learn why Pumpkin has infiltrated the group, leading to an unexpectedly hefty final confrontation with one of the other witches. For all the wicked fun Forbidden Fruits provides, there’s also a potent look at the rivalries that can develop between people when their individual needs collide, or a perceived sense of injustice rears its head.

Alloway keeps the tone bouncy throughout, juggling lighter moments with heavier ones in a manner that stays true to the characters. Stylish photography, set design, and music selection add to the effect, giving Free Eden and the antics happening within the mall an alluring vibe. And yes, there are hexes placed on unsuspecting victims in Forbidden Fruits, so anyone seeking witchy mayhem will get their money’s worth. A couple of them lead to incidents of hilarious/horrific gore. What more could anyone want from a picture that combines covens and shopping malls?

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