Mother of Flies trades jump scares for ritual dread

Surviving cancer only for it to recur, Mickey (Zelda Adams) decides to take a leap of faith by taking on the help of Solveig (Toby Poser), a reclusive healer living in the woods after receiving an invitation by her in one of Mickey’s dreams.

Journeying deep into a forest with her father Jake (John Adams), Mickey undergoes a three day-long ritual in order for Solveig to remove the stomach tumour within her.

As each day passes, the father-daughter duo are besieged by horrifying visions as they partake in Solveig’s odd, pagan rituals, which includes Jake consuming tea spiked with dangerous herbs.

Earthy witchcraft over cheap scares

A solid debut for 2026’s horror, particularly of the indie flavour, Mother of Flies is unlike most of its peers, effortlessly sidestepping cliches and modern jumpscare pitfalls.

Though the story at its centre of a young girl stricken by a painful, silent killer affliction is simplistic enough to say it is held together by duct tape, the core of the film is clearly its depiction of witchcraft – in flashes of unnerving, grotesque and fantastical imagery.

Mother of Flies’ spells feel less engineered for mainstream audiences and manifests instead as though moulded from deep within the earth itself, blurring the lines between whether it was purely made for cinema entertainment or if it is actually lifted from dusty, arcane Wiccan pages.

Family craft, sluggish pace

The film is directed and written by, and stars the Adams family – John and Poser are married in real life, with Zelda being their daughter (music is composed by them as well). Mother of Flies is impeccably put together for its low budget and largely succeeds at what it aims to do.

That said, the film’s only true downfall, for mainstream and hardcore horror fans, is its methodological, consistently and painfully slow pacing. Despite clocking in at the universally accepted runtime of 90 minutes, Mother of Flies’ pacing writhes by as slow as a lone maggot.

Despite how well the film is shot, and told through its spoken poetry-esque dialogue and narrations, these do little to alleviate how slow Mother of Flies is and it might be the final barrier that stops it from being enjoyed by a wider audience.

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 The Sun Malaysia