Mother of Flies (2026) - Movie Review
Another Adam’s family movie, another great poster.
What if I told you that the best family in horror made a new movie?
Annnnnd, it’s the first American Film to win best picture at Fantasia Fest?
Annnd, I think it’s the best thing they’ve ever made?
Yeah, The Adams are back!
Let’s discuss.
Mother of Flies is a folk horror drama brought to us by The Adams Family made up of writers / directors, John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser. If you’ve ever read my blog before, you’ll know they’re some of my favorite people and filmmakers. Does that mean I’m biased? Yes, as is every reviewer. However, my admiration for the filmmakers hasn’t stopped me from giving an honest opinion. They make original stories with no budget, and creative lighting. They compose their own scores and do all their own special effects using tricks from the golden age of cinema. That doesn’t mean everything they make is good, but it means every experience is different. And in a homogenous, brain-rot culture of remakes and reboots, it’s a breath of fresh air.
This film focuses on Mickey and her father Jake as they make a trip across country in order to meet with a woman who says she can cure Mickey’s cancer. Jake thinks it’s all bullshit, but he’s also watched his daughter suffer through the surgeries and the multiple rounds of chemo. So, rather than try to talk her out of meeting with the woman, he accompanies her for morale support. What follows is a tense descent into madness and grief.
They’re smiling on the inside.
I had an incredibly hard time summarizing the film without giving spoilers.
This film is a nuanced game of smoke and mirrors between the filmmakers and the audience. Most will come to one conclusion, but others may go down a different path. If you don’t pay attention, you’re going to miss what’s really going on.
This is not a film to watch from behind the bezels of your phone screen.
The script is tight, yet the dialogue is improvisational, lending an organic feel to the relationship between our two leads. The chemistry is strong, as one would expect with the actors being close family members. However, there is an odd delivery to Toby Poser’s dialogue, that at first feels artificial / canned, until you realize why.
There are answers to every question asked, you just have to pay attention.
There’s so much story hidden in the scenery, overheard conversations, and imagery in every scene. Whether it be a specific type of mushroom given to the stubborn father, or the symbols utilized for the rituals performed on the long suffering daughter. Every single scene is a work of art. The actors are only part of the story, but they play their part perfectly. It was nice to see the entire family on screen together for extended scenes, and as a bonus we even get an appearance from Lulu Adams—who delivers the expected standout performance.
This is a perfectly paced slow burn.
This is a slow film, on purpose. If you weren’t aware, folk horror as a sub-genre is supposed to be. The terror is not in jump scares, but in the realization of how powerless we are as a species when confronted with the true, homegrown supernatural. My viewing partner said, “This is too slow.”—and less than 10 seconds later she was saying, “Holy shit.” It’s so refreshing to see a filmmaker take the risk to push the timing right to the edge, which led to blowing the viewers mind. Once that initial “Oh-Shit” moment hit, the film took off like it had a rocket strapped to its back.
The filmmakers outdid themselves in every level of production from sound design and lighting, to the incredible practical effects.
For a film with a budget this low, the quality of the lighting was mindblowing. This is the most beautiful film they’ve made. When paired with the fantastic soundtrack by H6llb6nd6r, it created a wonderful dreamscape.
You know a film is good when it could function equally well with and without dialogue. Hollywood wants us to forget that filmmaking is and has always been an art form.
Luckily we’ve got amazing people like The Adams to remind us.
The 2026 Fantasia Fest win, the first by an American filmmaker, was well deserved.
Check this one out streaming on AMC+/Shudder, you won’t regret it.
Oh, and Before I Forget:
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Oh Shit, he brought back Spoilers?
Yeah, don’t get used to it, but I had to vent out my thoughts here. Feel free to deride my opinions in the comments.
There’s a lot to unpack in the film and I wanted to do a lightning round of items I think help with my understanding of what was actually happening here.
The relationship between father and daughter is the first main conflict. Mickey and Jake’s relationship is contentious. There is an implication that her father has been absent for much of her treatment during her long battle with illness. He says he’s there to support her, but in the Gen-X fashion, he spends the trip negging her and the witch. He does this not because of his disbelief in the supernatural, but because he has lost all hope. He selfishly wants to spend more time with his daughter before she passes, disregarding the fact that Mickey still holds out hope for salvation. Jake’s journey in the film is that of redemption. He suffers, because his daughter suffers. He feels the crippling pain she experiences ever single day, and it crushes him. He doesn’t know it, but he shares her pain. He volunteers to share her pain the minute he tells the Witch he’s not going to leave.
Mickey fully expected to die, and only participated in the trip to see the Witch as a distraction. From the very beginning, Mickey is not enthusiastic about the journey. She is very aware that the woman who messaged her was probably a cook, but what does Mickey have to lose? She could sit at home and die, or go spend a week in the gorgeous natural setting. It’s not until she starts the ritual in full, that she realizes that what’s happening is real.
Life for Life, Death for Death - If you watched Full Metal Alchemist, you know the cardinal rule of alchemy: Equivalent exchange. What you want must be paid for in an equivalent value. To cheat death, you must trade for in equal shares. In this case, Mickey’s tumor is a living death within her. The tumor carries her DNA, much like a fetus would—which through the ritual allowed the witch to accept the death from Mickey’s womb to reunite herself with her stolen child. She paid death with death, that of Mickey’s tumor, and that of her own rest.
I am probably 100% wrong, but based on my readership numbers—I don’t worry about it too much.
I apologize for the slowdown in posts, I’m battling a serious illness. Thanks for sticking around, if you made it this far.
