When a teacher’s solution to a disruptive student is a basement lockup
In short: In the dark comedy thriller Bad Apples, a primary school teacher’s attempt to manage a disruptive pupil spirals into a disturbing kidnapping. What begins as an accidental injury evolves into a calculated confinement that a community of parents eventually chooses to protect.
Directed by Jonatan Etzler, the film is an adaptation of the 2020 Swedish novel De Oönskade by Rasmus Lindgren. Etzler, a former teacher, relocated the setting from Sweden to Southern England to mirror the perceived similarities in the dysfunctional school systems of both nations. The story follows Maria Spencer, a Year 5 teacher in Somerset, whose life unravels after an altercation with a disruptive student, Danny, leads her to abduct him and imprison him in her basement.
The narrative explores a chilling moral compromise: as Maria tutors Danny in secret, her classroom thrives, earning her professional praise during Ofsted inspections. The tension escalates when a student, Pauline, discovers the secret but uses it to blackmail Maria for special treatment. The film’s central conflict reaches a climax during a parents' evening when the truth is revealed. In a surprising twist, the parents decline to report Maria, opting instead to provide food for the captive boy to ensure their own children's continued academic progress.
The film features a notable performance by Saoirse Ronan, who sought the role to play an unsympathetic character, a departure from her typical good-hearted roles. While critics have praised the film's unsettling atmosphere and Ronan's acting—with an 83% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes—some, such as Variety's Guy Lodge, have criticized the believability of the adult characters and the heavy-handedness of the title's metaphor. The film's production was filmed on location in Bath, using a real school site and teacher consultants to ground its satirical take on the education system.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Bad Apples (2025 film)
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