Bad Apples (2026)

2026 seems to be the cinematic year of the Black Comedy. The world is dark and we need some comedy. We can’t laugh lightly, so we have to laugh with cynicism and fear. Gentle humour feels twee and inadequate as we face brutal truths about our politicians, our climate and some fellow human beings. Cinema is a place to escape, but we can’t quite shake off our cynicism and depression.

But Black Comedy is a difficult trick to pull off. At its best, it becomes a distorted mirror used to exaggerate themes, faults and satire. Some of the films I’ve seen have gone too dark (The Last Viking – good film, but too gory), or too weird (Lady – fabulous central performance, but loses a sense of purpose), or not funny enough (Rosebush Pruning – a good looking film that didn’t make me laugh enough). I’ve enjoyed watching them, but Bad Apples really showed what black comedy can do.

Bad Apples is set in the South West of England – traditional cider country. Saoirse Ronan plays Moira Spencer, a young teacher working with a group of year 6 pupils (10 – 11 years old). The film opens with a field trip to a local cider mill. The opening shots are of the apples being harvested. There are swooping shots of apples being dropped into large containers. A filtering process as they get funnelled onto conveyer belts and into juicing machines. There is just one problem. A lone trainer enters the flow. It is a pretty blunt metaphor about how a whole batch can be ruined by something that doesn’t fit. But it is also visually arresting.

The camera moves to a shot of a young lad with keen eyes, a bad haircut and one socked foot.

“Danny what have you done,” shouts Miss Spencer as she chases him through the factory.

And so, it is established that Miss Spencer is struggling. Her class get ignored as one child takes all the attention.

Miss Spencer is on borrowed time with the headteacher who thinks she is incompetent rather than in need of support. It is her job, after all, to manage classroom behaviour and if she can’t do that… Miss Spencer asks for help. She gets a dismissive tut.

Danny’s anger and frustration grow, and he injures another pupil, Pauline, who ends up at the bottom of the stairs with a broken wrist. Danny and Pauline are fascinating creatures, both disturbed and weird in their own ways. Danny is to be suspended. But no one can track down his father to tell him (no other parent is mentioned). And when an Ofsted inspection is announced the need to keep Danny out of the classroom intensifies.

A plot about a teacher kidnapping a child and locking him in a basement is dark. However, the supporting characters and the weirdness of it all keep it funny.

The plot heightens and twists in unexpected ways. We know that Miss Spencer crosses a line. Pauline is weirder and cleverer than anyone expected. And the apples continue to fall from the trees.

Was Danny the bad apple? Because once he is out of the classroom the other children thrive, showing their potential. Miss Spencer also tends to his educational needs, helping him ‘thrive’ in her basement. Or is Miss Spencer the bad apple? Because once she crosses that line, other people are happy to cross it with her. Or is policy which refuses to resource appropriate support for a troubled pupil the bad apple? “How can I afford that?”

In traditional comedy, we are fed a happy ending. A character overcomes their flaws and finds their place. In black comedy, the flaw finds its place and infects the society. It shows us how easy it is to cross a line, how weak the boundaries between good and evil are. Miss Spencer does not overcome her flaws. Instead, they are the thing that allows her to shine and become celebrated as we cross the line with her…

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Rachel Robbins | Vocal