Shudder is leaning back into handcrafted horror with “Mother of Flies,” the latest from DIY genre collective The Adams Family — filmmakers John Adams, Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda Adams and Lulu Adams, the team behind “The Deeper You Dig” and “Hellbender.” The new film, which won Best Film at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival earlier this year, will be available on the platform on Friday, January 23.
READ MORE: 16 December Films To Watch: ‘Marty Supreme,’ ‘Anne Lee,’ ‘Is This Thing On?’ & More
The story centers on Mickey, played by Zelda Adams, a teenager staring down a deadly diagnosis who flatly refuses to go gently. With her father, played by John Adams, she disappears into the woods to seek out Solveig, a mysterious recluse portrayed by Toby Poser, whose “intimate relationship with death” and deep roots in the land make her both healer and executioner. Over three days, Mickey submits to Solveig’s “extreme rituals of death magic,” where every cure has a cost, every curse is someone else’s gift, and the line between sacrifice and annihilation starts to blur.
As the rituals escalate, buried secrets claw their way to the surface, and the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel. Mickey’s quest not to die becomes something stranger and more unsettling: a confrontation with “dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know.”
Fantasia’s jury, led by Pascal Plante of “Red Rooms,” gave the film the festival’s top prize and a pointed endorsement: “A film that, in a meta way, reminds us why we even bother to make films in the first place. A true indie that feels authentic, vital, and impeccably crafted.” That quote could double as a mission statement for the Adams’ entire body of work, which has always favored hard-earned atmosphere and familial collaboration over slick polish.
“Mother of Flies” is directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser, from a screenplay by the trio. The cast also includes Lulu Adams, James Lindsay, Noble Wilson-Eiden, and Jessica Beveridge. John Adams and Zelda Adams serve as directors of photography, John Adams edits, and the score comes from the family’s band H6LLB6ND6R.
“Mother of Flies” streams on Shudder starting January 23.
