| Mother of Flies | |
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| Screenplay by |
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| Produced by | Toby Poser |
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Production company | Wonder Wheel Productions |
| Distributed by | Shudder |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Mother of Flies is a 2025 horror film featuring Zelda Adams as the cancer-stricken protagonist Mickey, John Adams as her skeptical father Jake, and Toby Poser in the dual roles of Mickey's late mother (in flashbacks) and the reclusive witch Solveig.
Mickey, a young college student, is dying of cancer after exhausting every medical option. She persuades her father, Jake, to take her from their urban home to the isolated Catskill Mountains, where a reclusive healer is rumored to work miracles. After winding forest roads, they reach the vine-choked cabin of Solveig, a strange woman living among herbs, bones, and ritual objects, surrounded by flies. Solveig agrees to attempt a cure, warning it requires three days of dangerous "death magic."
The first day begins with violent purification. Solveig forces Mickey to drink foul brews that make her collapse, then carves symbols into her skin with a bone knife to draw out corruption. Jake grows alarmed by the chanting and secrecy. Exploring a deserted nearby village, he learns former patients often died during similar treatments. That night, Mickey dreams of her late mother enduring the same rites. When Jake confronts Solveig, Mickey defends her, convinced the ritual is already changing her and refusing to leave.
On the second day, the ceremonies grow grotesque. Solveig immerses Mickey in rotting blood and flies as black fluid leaks from her tumors. She distills it into a potion Mickey must drink, triggering visions of insects devouring her illness. Jake finds Solveig's journal, revealing her youth in a death cult that practiced mutilation and twisted birth rites. Returning, he sees Mickey levitating in trance, her skin crawling with flies. When he tries to stop it, Mickey turns on him, desperate to finish.
By the third day, decay overtakes the cabin and insects choke the air. Though Mickey's tumors shrink, they become oozing, maggot-filled wounds, Solveig insists must complete their work. During a midnight ritual beneath a blood-red moon, Solveig binds Mickey to a tree and reveals she is Mickey's aunt, who once failed to save Mickey's mother. Jake uncovers proof of his wife's occult past, confirming the legacy.
In the climax, Mickey cuts herself open, releasing swarms of flies and dark fluid that purge the disease. Jake attacks Solveig with an axe, maiming her. As she dies, she curses him and insects pour from his wounds. Mickey mixes her blood with Solveig's, triggering a supernatural eruption that consumes the cabin.
At dawn, father and daughter escape the ruins. Mickey appears cured but subtly altered, her eyes faintly shimmering. As they drive away, reports describe fly plagues spreading through the mountains. Jake coughs up a single maggot while Mickey smiles quietly.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 98% of 45 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Somber and boldly intimate, Mother of Flies is a folk horror chamber piece that infuses its meditation on death with jaw-dropping practical effects and ferocious weirdness." [1] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [2] Critic and filmmaker Matt Zoller Seitz criticized the film's pacing, but commented that "There isn’t a shot that isn't meticulously created, lovingly fussed over, and suitable for framing", giving the film 2.5 out of 4 stars. [3] Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote: "It's a densely textured, quite gorgeous dive into folkloric witchiness that avoids nearly all anticipated clichés, finally arriving at something not so much terrifying as unexpectedly poignant." [4]