Rotten Apple (2013) – Don’t Taste the Forbidden Fruit

The wraparound to Night of the Demons has always perplexed me.

We see an old man being tortured by teenagers (and being mooned by pumpkin shorts), but soon find out that appearances may be deceiving.  He’s obviously planning something that involves apples and razorblades, and we know that it’s not going to be good by his demeanor.  The movie takes off from there, and the old man is no longer part of the story.

Until the end.

We are reintroduced to the old man, and he is enjoying a piece of pie in the morning.  His wife explains that they didn’t get that many trick or treaters the night before, and she needed “to do something with all those leftover apples”.  The old man has a moment of realization before his neck is sliced open from the inside out.  The wife comes over, kisses the top of his head, and tells him “Happy Halloween” as we figure out she was not as innocent as we thought she was.

The wraparound takes about 10 minutes total, and tells a much more complex tale then the one told in Rotten Apple (9:01 runtime).  This tale is much more straightforward, and immediately alerts us to who the bad guy is.  We are then marched to the film’s inevitable ending.

Jason, an obviously tortured soul, is introduced to us as he cuts his fingers with both razors and pricks it with sewing needles.  As the movie progresses, we come to find out that his friend Brian is now dating Jason’s ex, Anna.  The now couple is quite oblivious to Jason’s pain, and just want Brian to understand.

Little do they know that Jason has hatched a horrible plan, and somebody is going to pay a dear price.

The actors did a wonderful job, and I did chuckle at Brian’s I’m gonna get laid face.  The plan is evil, and from the moment it is introduced, I felt sorry for its intended victim.  The interactions between the characters was stressed (as it should be), and each one did a great job of emitting sympathy.

This movie actually climaxes a little too early.  Even though it is implied that Brian is going to get it early on, we are left knowing what the final scene will be.  I actually would have liked the film better if it would have set up some sort of Russian Roulette “who will be the victim” ending.  A film is memorable when the audience is left wanting more, and this film did a good job of cleaning up its story.

Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden when they tasted the forbidden fruit in Genesis.  Brian and Anna would be lucky to be cast out on their own.  Rotten Apple is definitely worth a look.