This spring, my Aunt Beth died from most cancers. We weren’t shut, however our hugs have been lengthy. She lived in Alabama. She beloved school soccer. She owned chickens and had three sisters. “Mom of Flies” is a deeply private horror film that goes past encouraging viewers projection to viciously rip your demons from you. Particular to the world of its authors, the movie 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.
Profitable the Cheval Noir for Finest Movie at Fantasia Fest 2025, “Mom of Flies” follows a younger girl named Mickey (Zelda Adams) and her frightened 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 generally known as the Adams Household, 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 fantastic inconsistencies.
Rising to the moniker of “elevated” indie horror, years after that accolade stopped being cool, “Mom of Flies” is anchored in a supernatural thriller caught someplace between life and loss of life. 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. Good model choices, fervent narrative dedication, and the sort 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 robust to position.
You don’t must have seen the Adams’ earlier movies (“The Deeper You Dig,” “The place the Satan 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 nearly as good a time as any to obsess over the administrators. In “Mom of Flies,” an eerie nightmare set in upstate New York turns into a haunting and timeless dialog between dad or mum, little one, and God. Already trapped within the impermanence innate to any human bond, Mickey and Jake battle to grapple with an assumed loss of life order they by no means thought can be reversed.
“I’m your dad,” Jake pleads. “We’re a crew.”
“I’m on this alone, and also you’re within the alone,” Mickey spits. “So, go. LEAVE!”
Kids shouldn’t go earlier than their dad and mom. However nobody ought to go earlier than anybody, ought to they? That’s the kind of slippery philosophical debate loads of grownup kids don’t have with their caregivers until 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 seems like listening in on a non-public household dialog. Edited with ferocious readability, “Mom of Flies” can’t faux a funds it doesn’t have — however its auteurs’ figuring out portrayals create a pointy rigidity that pays off because the worry 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 means of visuals of various high quality, and pulsing with the electrical energy of a found-footage movie (though the dialogue is way too creepy and deliberately stilted to suit that style), “Mom of Flies” does loads with just a little. It’s an experimental outing that strikes a selected nerve, however the Adams’ determined reflection — on what fleeting time we now have with the folks we foolishly suppose will at all times 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 possibly get them a shot at an precise funds. Explosive emotion from Zelda Adams recommends the filmmaker as an appearing muse to look at, and he or she proves a powerful heart for the story. In the meantime, Toby Poser articulates a power of mysticism that implies her identify in each really sensible line from what seems like a mixed-medium script.
“The distinction between the poison and a curse is the dose,” the witch Solveig says in certainly one of a number of ornate proclamations the real-life rocker manages to tug off in opposition to all odds.
Reverse John Adams as a shaking protector — one who spends “Mom of Flies” working by means of the horror unfurling earlier than his daughter to principally no avail — Poser brings a necessary 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 brilliant 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 “Mom of Flies” discover themselves slammed between the domesticity of actual loss of life and a larger-than-life hallucinatory pressure. 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 people sounds retains this ethereal 92-minute endeavor at a gradual clip. The result’s shiny 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 family members I’ve recognized to go — conversations it appears Zelda is having along with her dad and mom on the large display screen. At a time when even horror lovers are scared of isolation, “Mom 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-
“Mom of Flies” is predicted from Shudder in 2026.
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