This spring, my Aunt Beth died from cancer. We weren’t close, but our hugs were long. She lived in Alabama. She loved college football. She owned chickens and had three sisters. “Mother of Flies” is a deeply personal horror movie that goes beyond encouraging audience projection to viciously rip your demons from you. Specific to the world of its authors, the film doesn’t have to remind you of anyone — or anything — from your real life to leave you haunted by the whisper of connections you should have had.
Winning the Cheval Noir for Best Film at Fantasia Fest 2025, “Mother of Flies” follows a young woman named Mickey (Zelda Adams) and her worried father, Jake (John Adams), as they seek cancer treatment from the witch Solveig (Toby Poser) in a remote location. The co-stars and filmmakers, collectively known as the Adams Family, have been spinning ghost stories in their backyard in the Catskills for years. Their latest and most mature feature bottles that intergenerational conversation into a disquieting lo-fi effort that rattles with wonderful inconsistencies.
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Rising to the moniker of “elevated” indie horror, years after that accolade stopped being cool, “Mother of Flies” is anchored in a supernatural mystery caught somewhere between life and death. Drawing from their own experiences with cancer, and the dual artistry that comes with also being the popular family punk band H6LLB6ND6R, the Adams elevate their gnarly yet familiar allegory about facing illness to an otherworldly plane. Smart style decisions, fervent narrative commitment, and the kind of intangible wisdom you can only find emanating from true devotees of genre are just a few reasons to recommend the film. It’s a cool-toned burst of regional agony that earns the comparison to Maryland’s “Blair Witch,” even if its chilling East Coast aura winds up unnervingly tough to place.
You don’t need to have seen the Adams’ earlier films (“The Deeper You Dig,” “Where the Devil Roams”) to appreciate their next movie as a triumph. That said, with months to go before it gets a release from Shudder, now’s as good a time as any to obsess over the directors. In “Mother of Flies,” an eerie nightmare set in upstate New York becomes a haunting and timeless conversation between parent, child, and God. Already trapped in the impermanence innate to any human bond, Mickey and Jake struggle to grapple with an assumed death order they never thought would 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 pass before their parents. But no one should pass before anyone, should they? That’s the type of slippery philosophical debate plenty of adult children don’t have with their caregivers unless they find earnest friendship in their later years. As co-writers and directors, the Adams transform their unique relationship into a haunting exploration of existential dread that feels like listening in on a private family conversation. Edited with ferocious clarity, “Mother of Flies” can’t fake a budget it doesn’t have — but its auteurs’ knowing portrayals create a sharp tension that pays off as the fear builds.
There’s something to be said for auteurs like David Lynch directing themselves, and the Adams’ obvious esteem for one another as loved ones and collaborators encourages respect from the viewer. Ripping through visuals of varying quality, and pulsing with the electricity of a found-footage film (although the dialogue is far too creepy and intentionally stilted to fit that genre), “Mother of Flies” does a lot with a little. It’s an experimental outing that strikes a specific nerve, but the Adams’ desperate reflection — on what fleeting time we have with the people we foolishly think will always be there — scares you only as deep as you let it. Mickey’s loss can resonate in your own memories, but there’s a temptation to look for the film’s technical flaws as a means of escaping its stark and heartbreaking spirit.
That shagginess should instead underline the three artists’ importance, and maybe get them a shot at an actual budget. Explosive emotion from Zelda Adams recommends the filmmaker as an acting muse to watch, and she proves a strong center for the story. Meanwhile, Toby Poser articulates a strength of mysticism that suggests her name in every truly brilliant line from what feels like a mixed-medium script.
“The difference between the poison and a curse is the dose,” the witch Solveig says in one of several ornate proclamations the real-life rocker manages to pull off against all odds.
Opposite John Adams as a shaking protector — one who spends “Mother of Flies” working through the horror unfurling before his daughter to mostly no avail — Poser brings an essential assuredness to the affair that’s at once threatening and matriarchal. The archetypes these auteurs play are far from convincing as grounded people, but the roles are detailed enough to feel ripped from the vague description of someone’s real life. It’s in those kinds of liminal spaces that the bright soul fueling this family of filmmakers proves easiest to see.
Debating the superstitious merits of prayer, and casually batting around methods of suicide in conversation, the all-too-likable father and daughter that drive “Mother of Flies” find themselves slammed between the domesticity of real death and a larger-than-life hallucinatory force. The grinding score from the Adams’ garage-punk music group snaps that vision into cohesive focus, and H6LLB6ND6R’s blend of atmospheric and folk sounds keeps this ethereal 92-minute endeavor at a steady clip. The result is bright fruit plucked from a deep-rooted tree that shows no signs of rotting soon.
There are discussions I wished I’d had with my aunt, and other relatives I’ve known to pass — conversations it seems Zelda is having with her parents on the big screen. At a time when even horror lovers are petrified of isolation, “Mother of Flies” festers with feelings too scary to keep inside. It’s imperfect, better for it, and even languishing in grief, a clear cinematic legacy ready to start.
Grade: A-
“Mother of Flies” is expected from Shudder in 2026.
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