Mother of Flies Trailer & Poster Unleash the Adams Family’s Dark Folk Horror

Zelda Adams confronts death and ritual in the Adams Family’s haunting folk horror Mother of Flies.

The Adams Family’s Haunted Fairy Tale Mother of Flies Arrives on Shudder January 23

Shudder has unveiled the first trailer and poster for Mother of Flies, the latest dark, folk-tinged nightmare from the Adams Family collective — John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser — and it’s every bit the intimate, unsettling fairy tale we’ve come to expect from one of indie horror’s most singular creative units.

Set to debut on Shudder on January 23, Mother of Flies centers on Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young girl facing a deadly diagnosis who refuses to accept death quietly. Accompanied by her father (John Adams), she retreats deep into the woods in search of forbidden magic, turning to Solveig (Toby Poser), a mysterious recluse whose relationship with death is as intimate as it is ancient.

What follows is a three-day ritualistic descent into death magic — a process that is physically grueling, spiritually invasive, and deeply rooted in the land itself. Solveig’s practices are not framed as salvation but as transaction. Every cure demands a cost. Every curse becomes someone else’s blessing. As the rituals intensify, long-buried family secrets begin clawing their way to the surface, and the boundary between the living and the dead starts to dissolve.

Like much of the Adams Family’s work, Mother of Flies leans into atmosphere over spectacle, channeling grief, illness, mortality, and inherited trauma through folk horror imagery and intimate performances. Death is not a jump scare here — it’s a presence, a language, and a force that demands honesty. The newly released trailer and poster emphasize this tone: earthy, somber, and quietly terrifying, suggesting a film that’s less about escaping death than understanding it.

The film is written and directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser, and stars Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, John Adams, Lulu Adams, James Lindsay, Noble Wilson-Eiden, and Jessica Beveridge — continuing the family’s tradition of deeply personal, collaborative storytelling that blurs the line between myth and lived experience.

Horror Movies Uncut previously caught Mother of Flies during its festival run and reviewed the film out of Fantastic Fest 2025, praising its emotional weight and haunting restraint. You can read our full spoiler-free review here:

👉 https://www.hmuncut.com/post/fantastic-fest-2025-review-mother-of-flies

With its Shudder release now locked, Mother of Flies looks poised to reach a wider audience ready for something quieter, stranger, and more emotionally corrosive than standard genre fare. This is horror as ritual, grief as mythology, and survival as a dangerous negotiation with death itself.

Mother of Flies streams exclusively on Shudder beginning January 23. Keep an eye on HMU for continued coverage.

Directors: John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Screenwriters: John Adams, Zelda Adams, Toby Poser

Cast: Zelda Adams, Toby Poser, John Adams, Lulu Adams, James Lindsay, Noble Wilson-Eiden, Jessica Beveridge

Producer: Toby Poser

Editor: John Adams

Directors of Photography: John Adams and Zelda Adams

Music by: H6LLB6ND6R