Forbidden Fruits: Lola Tung Joins a Witchy Femme Cult in the Campy Horror Event of the Year
We’re breaking down everything you need to know about the Diablo Cody-produced horror comedy
By Alex Secilmis 19 February 2026
Courtesy of IFC and Shudder
One of the most hotly anticipated horror films of the year, Forbidden Fruits may well deliver the next great female-led dark comedy. Starring Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, and Alexandra Shipp, the film has been billed as a cross between Mean Girls and The Craft. Gabrielle Union and Emma Chamberlain, who appears in her first live-action film role, also appear.
A press release revealed the following plot details:
Free Eden employee Apple (Reinhart) secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours—with fellow fruits Cherry (Pedretti) and Fig (Shipp). But when new hire Pumpkin (Tung) challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
Courtesy of IFC and Shudder
Forbidden Fruits marks the debut feature of writer-director Meredith Alloway, with co-writer Lily Houghton adapting the film from her own stage play. Oscar-winning filmmaker Diablo Cody (writer, Jennifer’s Body, Lisa Frankenstein) is producing the film, and told Deadline: “Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it. It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
The witchy slasher sees The Summer I Turned Pretty star Lola Tung in her first leading film role. Tung, who describes her new-girl-in-town character Pumpkin as “sweet but spicy”, spoke with Collider about how Forbidden Fruits follows in the footsteps of classic women-led dark comedies “There are other generations: Mean Girls, Heathers, Jennifer’s Body, and these incredible stories that should keep getting told because they mean so much. I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to be a part of it.”
The film premieres next month at SXSW before a March 27th release in the US and Canada from IFC and Shudder.