Amid a strong year for horror releases, the low-key Gen Z film Forbidden Fruits is quietly gaining traction and building a devoted following despite underperforming at the box office. Directed by Meredith Alloway in her feature directorial debut, the film draws comparisons to genre favourites such as The Craft, Mean Girls and Heathers, and has earned largely positive reviews from critics. Its trajectory contrasts with Focus Features' Obsession, this year's biggest horror hit, highlighting how smaller, under-the-radar titles can still find lasting appeal even when overshadowed commercially by bigger releases.

Forbidden Fruits stars Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp and Lola Tung, but had only a limited theatrical release and failed to make a significant box office impact, a mismatch between reception and revenue that the article suggests marks it out as a future cult classic. It arrives in a particularly strong year for the genre, one that has also produced hits including Markiplier's Iron Lung, Sam Raimi's Send Help, Adam Scott's Hokum, Nia DaCosta's 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Kane Parsons' record-breaking Backrooms. Obsession, meanwhile, has become the highest-grossing original horror film of the century and the highest-grossing non-animated original film of the past decade, despite a sub-million-dollar production budget.