Bad Apples trailer - Saoirse Ronan kidnaps her most disruptive student

[ActivationRune]

Paramount released the trailer for Bad Apples and it is a much darker premise than the marketing initially let on. Saoirse Ronan plays Maria, a primary school teacher whose class gets thrown into chaos by one extremely disruptive student named Danny. After an escalation the trailer only hints at, Maria ends up kidnapping the boy and locking him in her basement, which sets off the rest of the plot involving a manhunt and her own unraveling.

Jonatan Etzler directing feels like a natural fit given his background in short films that lean satirical and uncomfortable by design. The tone here sits somewhere between dark comedy and genuine thriller, and the trailer does a good job of not tipping its hand too far in either direction. Based on the novel De Oonskade, this has apparently been generating festival buzz since its Toronto premiere last year.

What makes the premise work in the trailer is how the film seems interested in community complicity rather than just Maria's individual choices. There is a line implying the parents barely react to Danny going missing, which suggests the satire is aimed at more than just one teacher's breakdown. That angle gives the whole thing more weight than a simple kidnapping thriller premise would otherwise carry.

Eddie Waller as Danny looks like he is going to be one of the more memorable child performances of the year based purely on this footage. The trailer frames him as almost cartoonishly evil in a way that works for the dark comedy tone being established. Ronan meanwhile plays the unraveling teacher with the kind of controlled intensity she has built a career on.

This one hits theaters September 18 and already carries an 83 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes heading in, which is a rare thing for a film this tonally risky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nhu80EmVQE

[QueueDay]

Ronan playing morally compromised characters continues to be one of the more reliable things in modern cinema right now. She has this ability to make questionable decisions feel understandable without ever fully excusing them on screen. Curious how far the film pushes her character before pulling back toward any kind of redemption

[HeartbreakKidCurtis18]

Been following this since the Toronto premiere last year and it is nice to finally see wider audiences getting access to it. Sometimes these festival favorites get buried or delayed for way too long before general release. Glad Paramount pushed for a proper theatrical rollout instead of dumping it quietly

[QuoteMiner22]

The kid actor here looks unsettling in a way that reminds me of some of the better horror movie children from the past decade. Hard to tell from a trailer alone but that level of committed nastiness from someone so young is impressive if it holds up.

Going to be interesting seeing how audiences split on rooting for either character given how the premise is framed

[WildManJericho80]

Robert Emms and Rakie Ayola in the supporting cast is a nice touch even though neither gets much time in this particular trailer cut. British character actors like that tend to elevate whatever material they are given without needing huge amounts of screen time. Hoping the full film gives them room to actually contribute

[Isla]

That Rotten Tomatoes score heading into wide release is a good sign since a lot of these festival darlings end up disappointing once the general public actually watches them. Toronto crowds tend to be more forgiving of tonal risk than mainstream audiences though. Still cautiously optimistic based on the trailer alone

[Brett42]

Something about the parents barely reacting to their kid going missing is the detail that sticks with me the most from this trailer. It suggests the film is aiming at something bigger than just one teacher's bad decision spiraling out of control. That kind of social commentary layered under a genre premise usually works well when done with restraint

[IronFist38]

Etzler's short film background really shows in how confidently weird some of these trailer beats are cut together. There is a rhythm to the editing that feels more assured than a lot of first time feature directors manage. If the full runtime sustains that energy this could be a real breakout for him

[Nomad]

Not going to lie the premise alone sounds like something that could go wrong in a lot of different ways depending on execution. Kidnapping plots involving children are always a tricky needle to thread between dark comedy and something genuinely upsetting. The festival reception suggests they pulled it off but I want to see it myself before fully buying in