This spring, my Aunt Beth died from most cancers. We weren’t shut, however our hugs have been lengthy. She lived in Alabama. She cherished faculty soccer. She owned chickens and had three sisters. “Mother of Flies” is a deeply private horror film that goes past encouraging viewers projection to viciously rip your demons from you. Specific to the world of its authors, the film doesn’t should remind you of anybody — or something — out of your actual life to depart you haunted by the whisper of connections you need to have had.
Winning the Cheval Noir for Best Film at Fantasia Fest 2025, “Mother of Flies” follows a younger lady named Mickey (Zelda Adams) and her anxious father, Jake (John Adams), as they search most cancers therapy from the witch Solveig (Toby Poser) in a distant location. The co-stars and filmmakers, collectively referred to as the Adams Family, have been spinning ghost tales of their yard within the Catskills for years. Their newest and most mature characteristic bottles that intergenerational dialog right into a disquieting lo-fi effort that rattles with great inconsistencies.
Rising to the moniker of “elevated” indie horror, years after that accolade stopped being cool, “Mother of Flies” is anchored in a supernatural thriller caught someplace between life and demise. Drawing from their very own experiences with most cancers, and the twin artistry that comes with additionally being the favored household punk band H6LLB6ND6R, the Adams elevate their gnarly but acquainted allegory about dealing with sickness to an otherworldly airplane. Smart type choices, fervent narrative dedication, and the form of intangible knowledge you may solely discover emanating from true devotees of style are just some causes to advocate the movie. It’s a cool-toned burst of regional agony that earns the comparability to Maryland’s “Blair Witch,” even when its chilling East Coast aura winds up unnervingly powerful to put.
You don’t have to have seen the Adams’ earlier movies (“The Deeper You Dig,” “Where the Devil Roams”) to understand their subsequent film as a triumph. That stated, with months to go earlier than it will get a launch from Shudder, now’s pretty much as good a time as any to obsess over the administrators. In “Mother of Flies,” an eerie nightmare set in upstate New York turns into a haunting and timeless dialog between guardian, little one, and God. Already trapped within the impermanence innate to any human bond, Mickey and Jake wrestle to grapple with an assumed demise order they by no means thought can be reversed.
“I’m your dad,” Jake pleads. “We’re a team.”
“I’m in this alone, and you’re in the alone,” Mickey spits. “So, go. LEAVE!”
Children shouldn’t cross earlier than their mother and father. But nobody ought to cross earlier than anybody, ought to they? That’s the kind of slippery philosophical debate loads of grownup kids don’t have with their caregivers except they discover earnest friendship of their later years. As co-writers and administrators, the Adams remodel their distinctive relationship right into a haunting exploration of existential dread that looks like listening in on a non-public household dialog. Edited with ferocious readability, “Mother of Flies” can’t pretend a price range it doesn’t have — however its auteurs’ figuring out portrayals create a pointy stress that pays off because the concern builds.
There’s one thing to be stated for auteurs like David Lynch directing themselves, and the Adams’ apparent esteem for each other as family members and collaborators encourages respect from the viewer. Ripping by way of visuals of various high quality, and pulsing with the electrical energy of a found-footage film (though the dialogue is way too creepy and deliberately stilted to suit that style), “Mother of Flies” does rather a lot with just a little. It’s an experimental outing that strikes a particular nerve, however the Adams’ determined reflection — on what fleeting time we’ve got with the folks we foolishly assume will all the time be there — scares you solely as deep as you let it. Mickey’s loss can resonate in your personal reminiscences, however there’s a temptation to search for the movie’s technical flaws as a method of escaping its stark and heartbreaking spirit.
That shagginess ought to as a substitute underline the three artists’ significance, and perhaps get them a shot at an precise price range. Explosive emotion from Zelda Adams recommends the filmmaker as an performing muse to observe, and he or she proves a powerful middle for the story. Meanwhile, Toby Poser articulates a energy of mysticism that means her title in each really sensible line from what looks like a mixed-medium script.
“The difference between the poison and a curse is the dose,” the witch Solveig says in considered one of a number of ornate proclamations the real-life rocker manages to drag off in opposition to all odds.
Opposite John Adams as a shaking protector — one who spends “Mother of Flies” working by way of the horror unfurling earlier than his daughter to largely no avail — Poser brings a vital assuredness to the affair that’s directly threatening and matriarchal. The archetypes these auteurs play are removed from convincing as grounded folks, however the roles are detailed sufficient to really feel ripped from the obscure description of somebody’s actual life. It’s in these sorts of liminal areas that the intense soul fueling this household of filmmakers proves best to see.
Debating the superstitious deserves of prayer, and casually batting round strategies of suicide in dialog, the all-too-likable father and daughter that drive “Mother of Flies” discover themselves slammed between the domesticity of actual demise and a larger-than-life hallucinatory power. The grinding rating from the Adams’ garage-punk music group snaps that imaginative and prescient into cohesive focus, and H6LLB6ND6R’s mix of atmospheric and folks sounds retains this ethereal 92-minute endeavor at a gradual clip. The result’s vivid fruit plucked from a deep-rooted tree that reveals no indicators of rotting quickly.
There are discussions I needed I’d had with my aunt, and different kin I’ve recognized to cross — conversations it appears Zelda is having along with her mother and father on the massive display screen. At a time when even horror lovers are frightened of isolation, “Mother of Flies” festers with emotions too scary to maintain inside. It’s imperfect, higher for it, and even languishing in grief, a transparent cinematic legacy prepared to start out.
Grade: A-
“Mother of Flies” is anticipated from Shudder in 2026.
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