A festering in your mind that one can't shake Mother of Flies (2025)

When there's no other hope for a cure, a door opens for dark things to seep and spread slowly morphing into a living nightmare that is far more terrifying than death itself. Mother of Flies (2025) is the newest horror film from shoestring budget meister Adams family, written, directed, and shot by daughters Zelda and Lulu, mother Toby Poser, and father John, who all star in the film as well.

Mickey (Zelda Adams) travels with her father, Jake (John Adams), to visit Solveig, a woman in the countryside who has appeared in Mickey's dreams promising her a cure for her terminal illness. Mickey and Jake are slowly pulled deeper into Solveig's strange world, as it becomes more obvious Solveig is a witch Jake can't help but to start to doubt her intentions with his daughter. Mickey on the other hand is fine with Solveig's eerie words and rituals that become more bizarre and painful because just as Solveig said it is no different than the trials she was put through by medical doctors in her youth but how much further will this go and will the result be what Mickey is hoping for or is she being used for something much more sinister?

This folk horror film isn't the typical dribble bubbling out of mainstream horror film production companies which is a relief but one can admit the glacial pace of the film can be a test for audiences expecting a scare a minute. Those of us who can hold on with Mickey though are in for a treat because what this film does have is an atmosphere that oozes with dread and slowly wriggles into your mind whether you're willing or not. The homemade low budget qualities do leak through at moments though whether it be some stilted acting, blown out exposure between shots, weird needle drops that don't entirely work for the mood of the scene, and not so great CGI swirling about. Toby Poser's performance as the necromancing witch though is truly spell binding which gains its power from some great writing in her lines talking about the desperation that comes with death's icy grip at the nape of your neck. The set design is really beautiful as well with the decrepit cabin tree house out in the middle of the woods and how nature has completely taken over the space whether its the tree coming through the middle of the main living area, the mossy moonlit bed for Mickey, or the nest of old jagged branches and dead leaves for her dad Jake.

Mother of Flies (2025) will slowly become a cult classic that will stand at the folk horror podium with the likes of Messiah of Evil (1973), Blood on Satan's Claws (1971), or A Field in England (2013), its just up to us initiates to build an audience for indie films like Mother of Flies and to not let them slip between the cracks of film history.

★★★½