INDIE horror film Mother of Flies, the latest from the Adams Family –Â purveyors of low-budget supernatural thrills – is a twisted coming-of-age fairytale that is both atmospheric and deeply unsettling.
Starring the filmmaking clan of married couple Toby Poser and John Adams, and their daughter Zelda Adams, their latest work – arguably, their best yet – is a paganistic paean to the divine feminine and the Earth’s continuous cycle of birth, growth, decay, and rebirth.
Complete with gory body horror sequences, potent sorcery, and elegiac worship of nature’s unbending constant, Mother of Flies unfolds like a potent dream with moments of truly nightmarish imagery. Now streaming on Shudder, this witchy folk-horror tale is one that will provoke the senses and trigger a jittery defence response.
A dark night of the soul excursion into an enchanted woodland sees father and daughter Jake and Mickey (John and Zelda Adams) set off on a road trip to meet with a mysterious spiritual healer after Mickey’s cancer returns. Solveig (Toby Poser), draped in a black shawl, strikes a formidable pose, as the mystical sorceress offering an unorthodox cure.
The clock is ticking down for Mickey, and with modern medicine not providing her with a corrective remedy, she decides to keep an open mind during her weekend at Solveig’s. Her father is not convinced she will find a cure for her life-threatening illness in this foreboding forest, but he’s there for moral support despite his own doubts about Solveig’s true intentions.
A heady and evocative horror movie, it makes up for its slow and languorous pacing with some visually stunning and intoxicating settings, a thought-provoking and inciteful plot, as well as some jaw-droppingly creepy moments that linger long after the final credits.
Mother of Flies is independent horror at its most inventive, energetic and downright possessed.
(4/5)