Forbidden Fruits is already a cult classic horror movie, I fear. The film follows Pumpkin (Lola Tung), a pretzel-bite slinger, who infiltrates the cliquish cult of Apple (Lili Reinhart), Fig (Alexandra Shipp), and Cherry (Victoria Pedretti). Pumpkin is curious about the dynamic between the Fruits and that certain, supernatural je ne sais quoi they wield throughout the mall.
From day one, the tongue-in-cheek posters and fierce little outfits of Forbidden Fruits established a strong visual identity — and I was already sat. Because, as a ’90s baby and former material girl obsessed with Kacey Musgraves’ “Simple Times” music video, I had been starving for a feature-length film about American mall shenanigans.
When I finally watched Forbidden Fruits, the aesthetic did not disappoint. Free Eden, the boutique at the center of Meredith Alloway’s witchy slasher, looks like if Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour threw up on Free People or Altar’d State. It made everything about the film’s plot that much richer.
I loved the seance scenes between dressing-room hookups, and you loved the blood-letting among glitter pens, sequins, and lace. And this is the beauty of pink horror: The term, which normally describes books in the genre, refers to works that address the social pressures that women face through horror.
If you’re now a card-carrying member of Forbidden Fruits hive, pour a little bubbly and enjoy the following pink horror films. These movies aren’t just women-fronted horror, but movies with that sickly sweet, pink-tinged aesthetic. They smell like Victoria’s Secret body spray and remind you that going through a borderline homoerotic toxic frenemy era is a canon event.
The Love Witch, dir. Anna Biller
We can’t talk about Forbidden Fruits without talking about another modern horror classic that centers women’s magic: The Love Witch. It’s peak pink horror because the film shows a constant tug-of-war between Elaine decentering men and falling back into her boy-crazy ways — a central tension in Forbidden Fruits.
Pink is also a literal motif in The Love Witch. Elaine is dressed in all pink when she meets her landlord at the tea room and delivers a crucial line that tells you everything about her journey as a woman: “The day he left me was the day that I died and was reborn… as a witch.” Watching Elaine lean into her dark feminine energy in a room awash in pink florals is peak pink horror.
Jennifer’s Body, dir. Karyn Kusama
If there is a godmother of pink horror movies, it may very well be Jennifer’s Body. Female revenge emerges as a theme in Forbidden Fruits, and it’s also present in Jennifer’s Body. And again, this entry into the pink horror canon has a strong visual aesthetic. Pink is everywhere: The singed tongue of Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) when she proclaims, “I am a God,” or her pink-and-red-heart track jacket as she flounces through the school hallways.
I always think of the early scene of Jennifer’s room as emblematic of everything to love about this movie: Here we have a demon chilling in her room with salmon walls, a magenta lightshade, a cutesy bedspread, and an emo boy band up on the wall. Then, boom: We get one of the most iconic pink horror movie title cards since Rosemary’s Baby.
Also, in a full circle moment for pink horror, Diablo Cody, who wrote and produced Jennifer’s Body, produced Forbidden Fruits as well.
Black Swan, dir. Darren Aronofsky
If Darren Aronofsky did one good thing, it was giving us the gold-standard crashout queen movie of the 2010s: Black Swan. This psychological horror film astutely depicts the pressures women face, especially in visual industries like modeling, acting, or performing arts. Women’s brains become a monster of their own making, and that is horrific enough.
The Black Swan aesthetic is very much “girlhood depression,” and one of the eeriest lines of the film touches on this visual theme explicitly. “Look how pink! So pretty,” Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) croons, romanticizing the mere grapefruit that will make up her food intake for the day.
For better or for worse, this trending Black Swan audio has endured among cinephile girls on social media for the longest time, which shows just how hard Aronofsky’s pink horror film hits 15 years later.
The Substance, dir. Coralie Fargeat
Can you girlboss too close to the sun? This is the question that Forbidden Fruits asks; ditto with this film. And so much of The Substance is literally pink: Sue’s plush lips, the diluted blood passing over white tiles into the drain, Monstro Elisasue painfully oozing corporeal form. The most noteworthy instance of pink in this pink horror film is the cut-out, glittery latex bodysuit Sue wears in The Substance.
While so many of the close-ups on Sue’s body, especially in this outfit, have made a lot of viewers uncomfortable, it was all crucial. Like everything in Fargeat’s film, the bodysuit feels like a direct jab at the overbearing social directives about what is beautiful or desirable.
Bodies Bodies Bodies, dir. Halina Reijn
Top notes: Rainwater and white liquor. Middle note: Dirty chlorine. Bottom notes: Sweat and that faint powdery scent all drugstore makeup has. This is what Bodies Bodies Bodies smells like. Reijn’s murder-in-the-dark game movie is one part playful, two parts sinister.
After watching both films, it’s clear that Forbidden Fruits and Bodies Bodies Bodies are cut from the same sexy, terrifying cloth. Stranded in a mansion during a hurricane, an all-star cast of messy bitches go a little stir-crazy and end up majorly violent. Sound familiar?
And of course, pink is a pervasive theme in Reijn’s film. From Pete Davidson’s pink hoodie, to the toxic lesbian subplot, to the cattiness that turns lethal, Bodies Bodies Bodies is pink horror at its finest. Because what’s more pink horror than a slumber party gone horribly wrong?
Categorized:Editorials