Independent filmmaking is essential to the bloodflow of the Horror genre. No other genre has inspired so many filmmakers to grab a camera and a few friends and head to a desolate wooded area to make a film. Hell, most of the modern classics are pure DIY productions (Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project). Continuing the tradition of indie films with vision and purpose, the Adams family, composed of Zelda Adams, John Adams, and Toby Poser bring forth their new collaborative feature Mother of Flies.
Like their 2021 gem Hellbender, Mother of Flies melds witchcraft with thoughtful and relatable human pains. As Mickey (Zelda Adams) struggles with cancer and its treatments, she decides to visit a witch named Solveig (Toby Poser) who has promised to heal her in three days. Mickey brings her father along (John Adams), who has been by her side through all manner of treatment and though supportive, remains skeptical about Solveig’s promise and his daughter’s willingness to try such a radical approach. As the days pass and the ritual takes its toll on both of them, the cost of such magic begins to materialize.
The Adams excel at mood and pure creativity, not just in their visuals but also in their doom-filled approach to horror. Mother of Flies is a slow and deliberate film, like their previous work, but the small details they reveal as the story progresses do more to haunt viewers than any sudden burst of gore and violence (of which there is plenty as well). Small moments of Solveig walking the woods, performing esoteric rituals, collecting ingredients for some unknown spell or concoction. These do not do much to move the story but they fill the movie with a sense that the filmmakers stumbled upon an actual witch going about her daily routine.
The cinematography contributes to this atmosphere of lived-in darkness, casting a heavy gloom throughout the film that ratchets up the tension. Zelda and John, both credited as cinematographers, do an excellent job of using the gloomy woods to frame characters in striking compositions that could adorn any black metal record cover of the 80s and 90s. This coupled with imaginative and striking use of CGI works to give the film the signature Adams family look: a tactile world of darkness and fantasy embedded in a recognizable reality.
But most importantly, Mother of Flies delivers a hauntingly poignant tale of survival and belief that goes beyond what horror has been able to portray through magic and witchcraft in the past. Zelda Adams and Toby Poser shine as two souls in search of a life through death, albeit via different pathways. There is always a sense of something wicked and sinister brewing, but Mickey’s journey and her conflicts with her father’s own disbelief add a refreshing tenderness to the film. And even then, there’s no denying the power of the Adams to conjure up some truly hellish imagery. If there ever was a cinematic equivalent of Blackened Doom Metal, the Adams family films are it.
