Bad Apples walks a very fine line between being the kind of movie I typically don’t like and the kind of movie I really do. Starring Saoirse Ronan and Game of Thrones alum Jacob Anderson, the film follows a newly hired primary school teacher who becomes so overwhelmed by a particularly troubled student that she eventually locks him in her basement. It’s a premise that, if it were more interested in making a straightforward social statement than embracing the sheer absurdity, could very easily become tiresome. Fortunately, director Jonatan Etzler seems more than happy to take the idea to its absolute limits, and the result is a pretty bonkers little thriller.
Ronan plays Ms. Spencer, a well-meaning teacher whose classroom is increasingly disrupted by Danny (newcomer Eddie Waller), an exceptionally nasty student who seems determined to make life miserable for everyone around him. He’s vandalizing cars, disrupting lessons, throwing things, using vulgar language, and even throwing another student down a flight of stairs, leaving her with a broken arm. Eventually, Ms. Spencer reaches her breaking point and, after a confrontation that escalates out of control, locks Danny away in her basement. And not just for an afternoon, or even a few days. What feels like months pass, and the longer Danny remains out of the classroom, the more it seems that everyone else is thriving.
The other students begin performing better across their subjects, discovering their talents and finding ways to express themselves through drawing, writing, and performance arts. And their parents notice the difference, too, and are impressed with Ms. Spencer’s lessons and become increasingly invested in preserving the newfound harmony of the classroom. The film keeps escalating this ridiculous arrangement until it reaches its outlandish climax, with the parents actively encouraging school officials to keep quiet about Danny’s whereabouts and allow Ms. Spencer to continue holding him captive for the benefit of the school community. It’s such an absurd turn that stays committed to the bit til the last second. The movie essentially writes itself into a corner, but then keeps digging.
A lot of the film’s success comes from how straight Ronan plays everything. There’s a very particular acidic tone to her performance, portraying Ms. Spencer as someone who understands that she’s done something deeply wrong but has become invested in the consequences of her own decision that she feels compelled to follow through. She’s not playing the situation for broad laughs, and that makes the increasingly outrageous circumstances even more unpredictable. The supporting cast is similarly committed to the premise, particularly Waller as Danny, whose obnoxiousness makes it easy to understand how Ms. Spencer could reach such a breaking point, even if her eventual response is obviously indefensible.
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Nia Brown is a pesky standout as Pauline, the student who was injured by Danny and eventually discovers Ms. Spencer’s secret. She’s a particularly insufferable little brown-noser who, in her own way, gives Danny a run for his money. Rather than immediately exposing what she’s discovered, Pauline begins blackmailing Ms. Spencer into giving her clothes and special opportunities to show off her talents in front of the class. It’s a funny turn of the plot that gives the film another welcome source of tension in the second half, and Brown commits to the character with the same enthusiasm as everyone else.
Where Bad Apples starts to lose me is in its attempt to turn all of this into something more socially meaningful. I can see what Etzler is reaching for, and there’s certainly a thematic purpose lurking beneath the increasingly absurd premise, but I don’t think the film ever quite builds toward it effectively, nor does it successfully close the gaps between an absurd genre movie and something that cuts a bit deeper. The parents’ decision to keep quiet about Danny’s captivity is already a pretty enormous leap, but the way that arrangement eventually unravels feels especially poorly constructed. It only takes one whistleblower to threaten the entire operation, making the collective complicity of the parents feel less like a believable extension of the film’s ideas and more like a plot contrivance designed to get everyone to the finish line.
Then there’s the final sequence, with Danny digging himself out of Ms. Spencer’s basement in what amounts to a Shawshank Redemption-style escape, before running along the highway as the film abruptly cuts to credits. It’s a strange place to leave things, and not necessarily in a way that feels intentionally provocative. Maybe they really did write themselves into a corner, dig themselves out, and not know where to go next. Endings are hard, and Bad Apples certainly isn’t the first movie I’ve had a decent time with only for it to botch the resolution.
Still, there’s plenty to enjoy along the way. Etzler crafts an acidic little thriller with a flattering visual style, and the performances are plentiful and entertaining enough to keep the ridiculous developments engaging. I thought quite a bit about Leonie Benesch’s The Teachers’ Lounge while watching, though Bad Apples is considerably less interested in getting bogged down in the contemporary social implications that film tries to maneuver through. This is a much more fun, twisty, and inviting proposition, one that still has some teeth if you choose to dig a little deeper but doesn’t require you to do so to have a good time.
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I think Etzler is poised to make something considerably better than this, particularly if he can find a way to make his thematic ambitions as effective as his instinct for escalating a smartly unique premise. But Bad Apples is still a solid indie thriller, and one that I had a pretty good time with despite some trepidations about its landing.
Score: 6/10
Movie Details
Bad Apples (2026)
- Released
- Runtime
- 1 hr 40 min · 100 minutes
- Rated
- Director
- Jonatan Etzler
