There’s something special and wholly enthralling about a story that revolves around a group of complex gals. From Mean Girls to The Craft to Yellowjackets, we like to see films and shows dig into the complicated social dynamics between girls and women while also parsing through other resonant themes. And, the package is even sweeter when you throw a little blood, lies, and bad language into the mix. That’s what we get from Forbidden Fruits, a horror comedy co-written and directed by Meredith Alloway.
It follows a group of women who work at a trendy mall store by day and come together for witchy activities at night. There’s the queen of the crew Apple (Lily Reinhardt), a sales rockstar and the leader of the coven who is intriguing with an acerbic wit. Then, you have Fig (Alexandra Shipp), who is a bit nerdy with an engaging persona. Finally, there’s Cherry (Victoria Pedretti), who leans into the airhead blonde trope to an extent, yet has a dark backstory that drives her motivations.
When a fourth member named Pumpkin (Lola Tung) comes in and shakes up the dynamic, things threaten to go completely off the rails. And yes, a pumpkin is indeed a fruit. This movie gave us a rad new horror perspective, serving up laughs and thoughtful commentary. We caught up with her to dig into Forbidden Fruits’ origins, crafting the four protagonists, and her love for giallo films.
Nerdist: Forbidden Fruits is such a great film that maximizes its premise. I was surprised to learn that it is based on a play by Lily Houghton! What was it about that story that made you want to turn it into a feature film and how did you partner with Lily to do that?
Meredith Alloway: Well, thank you for the kind words about the movie! We really wanted the movie to feel personal to everyone, so that’s the highest compliment. [Lily and I] have the same manager, Trent Hubbard, who’s also a producer on the movie. He sent me the play and he was like, “Lily and I know this is a movie, but we just need some help cracking it.” And I read it and I went, “Mean Girls but slasher!” That was my first avenue in.
Lily and I got coffee and I had this whole pitch ready… Personally, what I loved about horror movies from growing up and watching them since I was too young was how creatives use the genre as a way to sort of communicate the emotions of how something can feel. And when I read the play, I was like, “Female relationships can feel beautiful, violent, scary, and incredible.” I got that from the play and I fell in love with the characters.
They’re actually named after flowers in the play. But I said, “Well, I think Fruits is more like the Garden of Eden.” Lily and I agreed, hence the name Forbidden Fruits. I loved the character dynamics and I felt like making it a slasher and setting it at a mall. Free Eden is actually a parody of a story in Union Square, New York where Lily actually worked and wrote the play. I wanted to use the slasher genre as a way to help the audience understand how these characters feel and to just heighten the stakes a little bit.
I love that. I’m glad you brought up the Mean Girls comparison because its very clear in this film. Outside of that movie, what other sources did you draw inspiration from? I’d imagine The Craft is one.
Alloway: Yeah, The Craft for sure! I think that the guiding light tonally was American Psycho. Satire is really difficult to do. I did not make my job easy [laughs]… What American Psycho does and Mary [Harron], the director, does so well is make it a fun, campy story. You can sort of laugh at it, but then you leave the theater and you’re like, “Oh, this is really dark.” And it’s actually exploring some political themes and beyond about many, many things. Even when we worked with the cast, I was like, think about the way Christian Bale takes his performance so seriously that it kind of allows us to laugh, but his world and the stakes are very high.
It’s the business card scene when everyone is comparing the cards and he’s sweating. That, to me, was the root for us from a tonal performance perspective for Forbidden Fruits. Visually, our DP Karim [Hussein] is incredible. It’s such an honor to work with him. He shot all of Brandon Cronenberg’s movies, who I’m also a huge fan of. And when we met, he was like, “I’m thinking Blood and Black Lace, giallo films.” And I screamed because I was like, “You’re the first person to know what that movie is and what that reference is.”
My banner statement to all departments throughout this was ‘60s by way of ‘90s by way of now. I love the patterns in the cinema coming out of those eras and the color palettes. I just love Bava films and giallo films that are very lush and beautiful, but the story is darker and sort of messed up.
The film definitely has that giallo aesthetic. It feels very surreal at some points yet Forbidden Fruits has some incredibly grounded elements, too. I appreciate its exploration of sexuality and performative sisterhood. Why did those specific themes resonate with you and what do you hope viewers gain from watching this film, outside of its obvious entertainment appeal?
Alloway: This story is really about women interacting with other women. And I think that was interesting to me, especially as someone who has had many groups of female friends throughout my life that are not this messed up [laughs].
Something that Lily and I faced, even in pitching the movie before we wrote it to producers, was some people being like, “Well, aren’t we supposed to be making art about women loving each other?” And I was like, “These women love each other.”
They are trying to build a garden and a cement block. They are all well-intentioned, including Apple, who’s sort of the leader of the coven. And they all want to be there for each other and want this to work. I had extensive conversations with the cast about that. I think that the characters exist in a capitalist system. Quite literally they’re in a store where Apple is like, “I need to sell a bunch of stuff so I can be manager.” There’s already a competitive nature and a capitalist foundation to their relationship because they all met working together.
I wasn’t really interested in overtly hitting the nail on the head with that. I think it’s more just in the actual nature of the premise. But I do think that the confessionals are moments in the movie where we see what’s really going on for all of these women. And I think a lot about if they just confess to each other, none of this would happen. If they just shared their true feelings and the parts of themselves that they feel shame around or conflict around with each other, I actually think that they would be there for each other. I like to hope that.
It’s so reflective of what women go through in society, whether they are single like these ladies or even married with children. There’s a lot of shrouding the truth behind a smile and doing what society tells you you’re supposed to do. And when you feel something different, you feel shame behind that and you don’t want to share those feelings. I feel like women of all ages will be able to not only have fun with the film, but be able to relate to it from that perspective.
Alloway: I really love you saying that. I think about the Fig confessional and [actress] Alex Shipp. It’s been awesome to see her bring that character to life. We had conversations about her character. She’s told that she needs to be a strong woman and a witch and in this coven, but that she can’t also be in love with Norman. I’m from Dallas, Texas so I completely understand wanting to rebel against how you grew up, not getting married early and making a man the focal point of my life. I see myself a lot in Fig and a lot of the characters.
What Apple and the Coven is offering is, “You can throw all those rules out the door, but now you have to abide by our rules.” It’s just a vicious cycle.
You’re essentially trading one societal box for another. I’m glad you brought up Fig and the process for trying to map out that character with Alexandra. I think all four women are so wonderfully distinct and complex, which makes this witchy group fun to watch. What was your character building process for each of them?
Alloway: It really stemmed from the play’s foundations… Personally, I wanted to see Lily Reinhardt be a villain whom you also empathize with. Her natural energy, when I met her, just fit Apple perfectly. She did a lot of character work and exploration on her end and would sort of fill me in on it. The biggest thing that I love that she speaks about is not judging Apple and really grounding that in her acting choices. Apple really feels like the things she’s doing are for the best, but then she also has this other side to her that she’s hiding from the girls.
It was really building that duality and the onion layers of Apple and not leaning into the cliche mean girl… Victoria [Pedretti], I’ve been such a fan of for years and all of her work. She is so great at playing complex people dealing with tragedy. I wanted to see her be a Bridget Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, blonde, Dallas type of peppy girl. I was like, “I think she is going to pull this off.” And she’s so funny in the movie. We traded references back and forth for many months.
And then Alex is a witch. I was like, “You do bone casting? You have to be in this movie!” She brought her own sort of essence to things. I think Fig is a tricky character because she’s very sort of awkward and loves birds, but then also fits into the group. And I think Alex threaded that needle so well, believing that she’s literally an astrophysicist, but then that she also can dance around at the Winter Solstice with the other Fruits.
Lola [Tung] is such a sweetheart. We’ve seen her in The Summer I Turned Pretty in this sort of innocent, coming of age story. I was like, “But Lola can do cunty, she’s a Scorpio!” I think her take on Pumpkin is that sort of innocent, but she’s got a little twinkle in her eye. There’s something more than meets the eye. Pumpkin ultimately is very ambitious. Lola is as a person too and again, she brought that essence to the character herself.
That’s amazing! I cannot wait for horror fans to see the film when it hits theaters. Nerdist is all about celebrating what makes your nerdy heart happy, whether that’s comics, gaming, or even gardening. Meredith, what do you nerd out about the most?
Alloway: I nerd out about ghosts. My favorite thing is going to an old ass place and finding the most haunted, creepy, spiritually dense spot in asylums, churches, catacombs, graveyards, battlefields, houses, hotels, with only one rule – NO SLEEPING. I don’t care how jet-lagged I am. A New Orleans hotel scarred me for life. But otherwise, any time I travel, I research the most ghostly black hole and will put visiting it in front of shopping, food, literally anything else. Okay, fine I’ll say it – the Bourbon Orleans Hotel was a wartime hospital, and I found out the hard way!
Forbidden Fruits releases on March 27.
The post FORBIDDEN FRUITS’ Meredith Alloway on Giallo Films and Witchy Women appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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