When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods. But every cure has its cost.
Mickey faces a deadly diagnosis, but she isn’t ready to die yet. Heading into the woods with her father, she seeks dark magic at the hands of mysterious recluse, Solveig, who has an intimate relationship with death and roots that go deep in the land. For three days, Mickey endures Solveig’s extreme rituals of death magic. But every cure has its cost, and every curse is another’s gift. As buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel, and Mickey finds herself facing dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know.
This film is a multi-layered masterpiece of symbolism and metaphor. It is a beautiful push for female empowerment and a spotlight on what can often be a painful existence for the fairer sex. We have our two protagonists in Solveig (Toby Poser), the Necromancer, whose relationship with death is absolute yet she has a wish to bring life back into the world, and Mickey (Zelda Adams), whose young body has decided to grow death within instead of life.
Holding onto a stubborn belief and a glimmer of hope, Mickey and her unconvinced father, Jake (John Adams), venture deep into the beautiful woods in search of alternative medicine—or perhaps magic—where regular science has failed them in the past. What they find is more than witchcraft; they uncover a dark, personal journey and a legend far older than either could have imagined.
Both Zelda Adams and Toby Poser throw themselves into their respective roles with great fervour. Mickey is a troubled yet passionate youth not yet ready to give up on the struggle that is life; a story that perhaps hits personally for so many of us who have had to deal with cancer taking a loved one or a friend. Her acting is visceral and real and terribly touching. Poser’s Solveig is flawless; you could not convince me that she does not practice some form or Wicca or Witchcraft. Talk about a perfect casting choice. Excellent execution.
While more of a slow-burning folk horror, there are still several unnerving, unsettling scenes, though they are—for the most part—strewn across the film’s 92-minute runtime. This is not a jump-scare film and more of an art production through the lens of a horror folktale. It’s a sad, disturbing, morbid, but beautiful film. The special effects are so good that I would not have considered this an indie production, and the acting, set locations and scenery, and editing are all what I would consider A-grade filmmaking. The Adams family just seems to keep getting better and better with each passing flick.
The film’s slow, warped soundtrack is also taken directly from the Adams’ family’s own band, H6LLB6ND6R, making this very much another completely family project. While the film may have been produced by Poser, the writing, direction, acting, set design, score, camera work, sound design, etc., were all done by either Poser or members of the Adams family, with very few things outsourced. I suppose that the family that slays together, stays together.
Mother of Flies is really a beautiful film (excluding the necrophilia and other not-so-beautiful scenes) that really stabs home on the issues of death and sacrifice, cancer and life and the duality and dichotomy of those subjects. It is a visual feast and a very artistically crafted horror that I would gladly recommend to fans of films like The VVItch (2015) or Midsommar (2019), or even a title like The Wickerman Man (2006), not because it’s better, but because it carries that same sense of folklore coupled with a deeper message that is not really too hidden. The metaphor is plain and powerful and ready to be digested, so to speak.
Thanks for reading, and as always, stay sordid. I have attached the poster and the trailer down below as well as a little into about the Adams family. The film begins streaming on Shudder on January 23rd, 2026.
John Adams, Toby Poser, and daughters Lulu and Zelda Adams (collectively known as The Adams Family) have been making films under the creative marquee of Wonder Wheel Productions since 2010. Features
include THE DEEPER YOUR DIG (2019, Dark Sky Films), HELLBENDER (2021, SHUDDER), WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (2023, Tubi), and MOTHER OF FLIES (2025, Shudder). The family’s films have been represented
by Yellow Veil Pictures for sales, festivals, and theatrical runs since 2021. John and Toby also directed the sci-fi feature HELL HOLE (2024, Shudder) and the episode Plastic Smile for Screambox’s “Tales from the
Void” (2024). The soundtrack for Adams Family films is performed by the family’s band, H6LLB6ND6R.
