Here’s a pitch: what if the goofy FruitHead gag from the commercials wasn’t a punchline, but an origin story? Decades after a hex on a bag of Gushers warped a young performer, the grown-up “FruitHead” comes calling, and the tone shifts from sugary to sinister.
Yes, Gushers is leaning all the way into spooky season by resurrecting a piece of ’90s childhood lore—the FruitHead commercial, and mutating it into a full-on horror short. The new film, simply titled FruitHead, partners General Mills with Imagine Entertainment and director Mike Diva, with Emmy winner Bradley Whitford playing a vain TV director who, years later, must face the cursed consequences of his own ambition.
Viral creator Chester Collins co-stars as the former kid actor whose life was, quite literally, transformed by that fateful ad shoot.
“The Fruitheads ad has lived rent-free in the heads of Gushers fans for nearly 30 years, and they still can’t stop talking about it on social media,” said Stephanie Lensing, Brand Experience Manager for Gushers at General Mills. “So, this Halloween, we’re finally giving them what they want with a reimagining of that ’90s ad with thrills and a bit of the humor our fans love from Gushers.”Take a look at the 9:19-minute film below:
It was so much fun to play this character and reimagine the original FruitHead ads to give them this haunting backstory,” said Whitford.
Fans can stream FruitHead now on the brand’s site, with an in-person fright to match: a pop-up in NYC, led by Edelman, where creepy oranges (ripped from the film) “invade” the Village Works Bookstore for one night only.
The short will also screen at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival this fall, and Gushers is rolling out theater-style boxes in stores nationwide so you can bring the nightmare home for movie night.
Expect a social scare-fest, too, behind-the-scenes tidbits, FruitHead “sightings,” and more across Gushers’ TikTok and Instagram, because if the FruitHead is going to haunt your feed, it may as well come with snacks.
ALSO READ:
Cat’s Pride & Two by Four make odor… very hard to ignore
