Bad Apples is a 2025 dark comedy thriller directed by Jonatan Etzler (in his English-language debut – he is Swedish) from a screenplay by Jess O’Kane, based on the novel De Oönskade by Rasmus Lindgren. It had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025 and will be released in the UK a week next Friday, 18 September.

Maria Spencer (Saoirse Ronan) is a teacher at a Somerset primary school. Her class of ten-year-olds is regularly disrupted by Danny, who is basically uncontrollable. After a remarkably believable escalating series of events, Maria ends up with Danny locked in her basement. Since he threatens to tell everyone that she attacked him (thus destroying her career), she cannot let him go; so, she decides to care for him herself in the basement. And then along comes another of her charges, Pauline, quite the spookiest little kid you would ever want to meet, and things begin to escalate further as Maria tries to keep a lid on her crime.

At this stage I should stop explaining the plot. In any case, I need to remind you, as I needed to remind myself, that this is a black comedy. About halfway through the film, I was thinking that it could be a drama – as yet nothing had happened which was all that outrageous. I am sure you’re thinking that a primary school teacher kidnapping a small boy and keeping him in her cellar is a bit weird, but it honestly doesn’t seem it. It appeared to me as the best possible solution to the little b*#!%rs behavioural issues. But fear not, outrageousness is just around the corner.

Ronan is truly excellent as Maria, however one would expect nothing less. Both the kids do very well in their roles – the lad playing Danny must have had the time of his life – fancy being paid good money to behave really badly. And the supporting cast were also fit for purpose, although nobody really shone out, hence only one adult actor named above. I particularly liked the way the plotting allowed this to develop as a comedy drama until it became so dark and (deliberately) silly that one could have no doubts about the author’s intentions. And Etzler’s direction was tight enough to keep the whole thing barrelling along at just the right pace.

Bad Apples is a lot of fun – I recommend it without reservation. And perhaps it should be compulsory viewing for education professionals – this is how you should deal with unruly children!