MOTHER OF FLIES

****

Directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser.

Starring Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, John Adams.

Horror, US, 92 minutes.

Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - UK Premiere

Nobody makes films like the Adams family, whether it is on a production, visual or storytelling level. The end credits are always amusing, just to see how many roles each member takes on, covering all bases. The scripts, usually written between Toby Poser and her husband John Adams and their daughters Zelda and Lulu are helped to the screen with several behind the camera roles filled out by each family member, from directing and editing to composing and many more in between. Such a hands on approach to each film they have made, has resulted in an already extraordinary body of work where each film feels and looks truly unique, not only from each other but from anything else in today's cinematic landscape.

For their sixth horror feature they deliver their most ambitious work yet with MOTHER OF FLIES. Ominous from its opening frames of obscured carcasses in varying states of decay and putrefaction, we glimpse a naked figure revelling within all the blood and the bile, while Toby Poser’s distinctive sing-song voice quietly intones of how much death is a part of life. This gothic charnel house atmosphere soon gives way to a more familiar environment where we meet Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young student suffering from what seems to be terminal stomach cancer. Meeting with her father Jake, they drive across the country to meet Solveig (Toby Poser), a mysterious woman who lives in the woods as a healer. Living in a spectacular, and literal, treehouse, Solveig’s otherworldly nature and old-fashioned ritualistic ways seem ill-equipped to tackle Mickey’s illness, something which the cynical yet good natured Jake is all too eager to comment on. Mickey however decides to store all her faith in Solveig, only to discover the dark, old and terrifying secrets this otherworldly figure harbours.

As intimate as any of their previous films, particularly HELLBENDER which also saw Poser and her daughter Zelda take centre stage as well as featuring music from their family band H6LLB6ND6R, this film has a particularly oppressive and often nightmarish quality. There is also a visceral quality, not just in how the film handles its supernatural elements but in the way that Solveig deals with Mickey’s cancer. The way in which Mickey herself deals with it, and her caring father, lends the film a tender yet unsentimental quality. It is worth noting that both Toby and John have both suffered from cancer in the past, leading both to remark that this film is just one way of tackling that trauma.

The fear of death is one of the main themes of horror fiction, but very few films in the genre tackle the actual subject head-on. The Adams family are more than ready and prepared to do so, resulting in a film that balances its supernatural elements with a melancholy edge that bleeds over from its recognisable real world situations. By deftly mixing the horrific with the emotional, the result is one of the most original horror films in quite some time, further proving the distinct talents of one of the most creative and essential forces in horror cinema today. 

Iain MacLeod