Lili Reinhart’s R-Rated Witch-Cult Horror Casts a Spell on Rotten Tomatoes

Alright, so here’s one to keep on your radar if you’re into horror movies that get a little weird in a shopping mall: Forbidden Fruits. Not only does it have an R rating and Lili Reinhart running the show, but critics are already tripping over themselves to figure out what to make of it—even though it hasn’t actually hit theaters yet. That’s usually a good sign that a movie’s doing something interesting, or confusing, or both.

The Setup: Retail Nightmares and Secret Societies

The premise is a wild one. The whole thing is set inside a mall, and instead of your standard retail drudgery, you get a group of store employees who are part of what amounts to a cult (yes, really). Don’t expect sinister robes or goat sacrifices—think more along the lines of a tight clique led by Reinhart’s character, Apple, with Cherry and Fig as her top lieutenants. The balance of power starts to shift when a new girl named Pumpkin comes in and throws everyone off. Calling the group 'cult-like' isn’t much of an exaggeration, apparently.

So What Are Critics Saying?

Reviews are actually all over the place, so let’s clarify who’s saying what:

• Screen Rant (Graeme Guttmann): The movie is much more fun than deep, is packed with obvious genre influences, and, as he puts it, 'nuance has no home here.' So, don’t look for subtlety—or maybe even basic subtlety.
• Loud and Clear (Bethany Lola): If you stick around for the last 30 minutes, that’s where it really pops off. She goes so far as to suggest this could end up a feminist cult classic and singles out Reinhart as delivering her best work.
• Slant Magazine: This crew saw Forbidden Fruits as some kind of unholy mashup of Mean Girls and The Craft. They admit the movie never fully pulls off its transition from high school drama to horror, but they still found themselves spellbound.
• Collider (Ross Bonaime): Collider’s not sold. They say that with all its pieces, the movie should earn a spot next to its cult-classic inspirations—but instead it’s 'incomplete, half-considered and mostly a mess.' According to them, the movie can’t really pick a message and stick with it.

The Scorecard

Despite the split opinions, Forbidden Fruits is sitting at a decent 76% on Rotten Tomatoes (that’s from 37 critics, and yes, the movie isn’t even out yet—audience scores aren’t up). Whether or not the rating holds as more opinions come in is anyone’s guess.

Release Date (and What to Expect Next)

If this sounds up your alley—or you just want to see if it’s a train wreck or secretly genius—mark your calendar for March 27, 2026 if you’re in the US. This one’s going for a wide release, so there’s plenty of time for the hype (or backlash) to build.

To sum it up: Lili Reinhart is playing cult leader in a horror-comedy mashup set in a shopping mall, reviewers are divided but weirdly intrigued, and we might be looking at the next midnight-movie obsession—or just a messy curiosity. Either way, I’ll admit, this is more interesting than your usual haunted-house stuff.