The Adams Family Talk Necromancy and Emotional Horror in MOTHER OF FLIES

Toby Poser in John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser's MOTHER OF FLIES. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder release.

By Shannon McGrew

In MOTHER OF FLIES, the latest film from indie darlings the Adams Family, Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young woman facing a deadly diagnosis, heads into the woods with her father (John Adams) seeking dark magic at the hands of a mysterious recluse named Solveig (Toby Poser). For three days, Mickey endures Solveig’s extreme rituals of death magic. But every cure has its cost, and every curse is another’s gift. As buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel, and Mickey finds herself facing dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know. 

For the release of MOTHER OF FLIES, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with the Adams Family, consisting of Zelda Adams, John Adams, and Toby Poser, the creative trio behind the film. During the chat, they discussed everything from the deeply personal experiences that shaped the film, the role of necromancy and nature in the film, and how love and death intertwine at the heart of MOTHER OF FLIES.

It is such a pleasure to be speaking with you all today about your latest film! What inspired MOTHER OF FLIES, and did this story demand anything different from each of you compared to previous films?

Zelda Adams: All of our films often revolve around what we go through together as a family. This one felt like a pretty important topic. Cancer is part of our family history. Both of my parents are cancer survivors, and before making this film, I tested positive for Lynch syndrome, which means that I have a higher susceptibility to getting certain cancers. And we were like, you know what? This news sucks. Cancer sucks. Let’s make a movie about it. It was very therapeutic and empowering. 

John Adams: I think we each came into this movie with our own desires of what we wanted out of it. I wanted to celebrate all the people who struggle, not just with cancer, but people who just have tough curve balls thrown at them, and the heroism of all of us regular people, because life is beautiful, but it’s also brutal. We have a word that we always use in our family: brutaiful. We wanted to celebrate all the brutaiful people out there. 

Toby Poser: It was also equally important to give a nod to those who love and care for the people who are facing something really difficult, because most of us have been in those shoes, if not the other. This film is a love song to finding that balance between loving life, wanting to be alive, but also honoring and accepting the idea of death. I think that’s equally important here. That’s why we work with a Necromancer in the film. Death and life are sisters from the same mother.

Speaking of necromancy and witchcraft, all those elements felt deeply rooted in something ancient and primal. Were there specific films, folklore, or mythologies that influenced the look and emotional tone of the film?

Toby Poser: We love to incorporate poetry in our films, almost like a Greek chorus of its own, to spur on the story not just through dialogue or imagery. It’s a kind of music that is obviously always important for us. That also gives it an antiquated tone. As for inspiration, it’s fun to read about strong women in lore like Lilith, Khali Ma, Lamia, and the Libyan serpent goddess. I love reading about witchcraft and very strong women who were maligned, probably just because they knew a little bit too much. Those were great inspirations for this film, and particularly Solveig angle. 

John Adams: I had never really done any dives into necromancy, but it’s really fun. When you say necromancy, people think horror and terrible things, but what was really fun about the idea of necromancy in this one is celebrating science, actually. I was saved by chemotherapy and radiation. Chemotherapy is basically a magic potion that will kill you. There’s a whole line in the movie where the necromancer says, ‘The difference between a potion and a cure is the dose,’ and that’s exactly what chemotherapy is. It was really fun to use this incredibly knowledgeable woman, who’s basically a representation of science. 

Zelda Adams in John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser's MOTHER OF FLIES. Courtesy of John Adams. A Shudder release.

As a fan of design and architecture, I was immediately drawn to the witch’s house and the way in which it feels like a part of nature. How did you approach designing or choosing the location of the Necromancer’s house to reflect what Mickey and her father were going through? 

Zelda Adams: Because we are a small crew, we try to take advantage of everything that’s around us. There was a property we had access to that had a barn. They had just been doing some logging outside, and we noticed all the bark falling off the cut-down trees. We put it up inside the top room of the barn, and that made for a beautiful, very natural room. Then we built beds from the trees and got moss from the woods to create my bedroom, unlike my dad’s. We really want those rooms to be different, reflecting how Solveig viewed each of these characters. It was also important to show how, over the three days, Mickey’s room was changing a bit, like when the leaves fell from the trees. Things were dying a little bit in her room. I think the interiors were very representative of the storyline. 

John Adams: The outside of the house is our house, but Trey Lindsay, our beautiful effects wizard, composited in pictures of trees. That’s our house. If you drove up, you’d be like, oh my god, that’s the witch’s house! Trey did such a great job of making it look like it was growing out of the forest. 

Toby, you mentioned how life and death are so deeply intertwined, especially within nature. How did filming in the outdoors help shape the course of these characters?

Toby Poser: It’s so important and really helpful. We are always taking cues from nature about what to shoot. If you think about our films like The Deeper You Dig and Hellbender, in particular, we use a lot of carcasses. Dead animals, thematically, always fit our films, so we always come across them because we live in the wilderness. The flies really showed up for us, and that was really important. It was hot. We were shooting in the summer, and the flies just came up ready for their close-up, Mr. Demille, and we realized we had to use them. You just have to not let them sit too long on your face so that they can bite you, because then you’ll be left with a mark on your face for the rest of the week.  Where we live in the Catskills, every season is so generous. It just keeps giving gifts. So, it was very natural for Mother Nature to be our main actress, and she always shows up. 

The idea that every cure comes at a cost feels central to the film. What were you hoping audiences would reflect on when they walk away from the film? 

John Adams: For me, it’s the heroism of all of us dealing with big hardships because you do pay a penalty. There’s an emotional penalty. There’s a physical penalty. When those penalties are inflicted, and you do these things out of love, then it’s positive. We wanted to celebrate that part of the struggle to empower all our characters and to show their heroism, even though it’s tough, ugly, and painful. But to come out on the other side scarred, but standing, or dead, and that was the other thing, death is not a penalty, it’s also a reward. 

Toby Poser: On the surface, this film is about a girl striving to stay alive. But it’s also about bodies in many ways and what we will do to keep that heart ticking. I was really aware in the making of this that love is also an invisible warfare, and that’s what we see through the caregiver in the father. That’s what keeps Solveig alive for centuries, and so I’m never afraid of or ashamed of touting the power of love, the warfare of love. That’s something that I think when people do like this film, that’s what they’re tapping into. It’s love that makes us want to stick around. It’s love that wants to let people go in peace and acceptance. It’s the superpower of all.

MOTHER OF FLIES will be streaming on Shudder on Friday, January 23rd.