Mother of Flies Review

Most people don't have the time, money, or energy to watch many movies, so when you do get a chance to watch something, you want it to be worthwhile. That's why Rotten Tomatoes exists: to give a snapshot of whether a movie is worth your time. But does it always work? I'll be watching all of Rotten Tomatoes’ Certified Fresh movies from this Wikipedia list, and we'll see if these movies are really worth the hype.

Movie 3 of 2026:

Mother of Flies, directed by John Adams, Toby Poser, and Zelda Adams, was a very pleasant surprise of a horror movie. I was expecting a typical low-budget straight-to-streaming experience, but what I got was incredibly inventive. I can also appreciate that it was made by a real-life family.

The story is about college student Mickey (Zelda Adams), who has cancer and has only been given a few months left to live. Her father, Jake (John Adams), agrees to take her to what seems like a homeopathic retreat run by an eccentric woman named Solveig (Toby Poser). Right off the bat, the film does a great job establishing an eerie atmosphere, but not so eerie that I was wondering why they didn't just leave. The character motivations were completely believable. Of course, Mickey wants to try anything, and of course, her skeptical father wants to do what he can to make her happy.

Solveig doesn't immediately come across as a malevolent figure. Honestly, I don't think her motivations are malevolent at all. We learn that she is a necromancer who utilizes nature to cast her spells. At the end of the day, though, doesn't all medicine come from nature? This is why her character felt so earnest instead of just a one-note horror villain. The excellent performance definitely helped with that as well.

I want to shout out the fantastic sound design. It really elevated every scene and added a sense of foreboding, which definitely added to the watching experience. Honestly, all of the design elements were top-notch, from the production design to the cinematography; it all helped establish the world that we were in. I also found the script to be really solid. I appreciated that we got to see most of the backstory for our witch, instead of just being told about it. I feel like a lot of movies that maybe don't have the highest budget would just convey that in an exposition dump, but the care and time were taken to add those scenes, which elevated the story as a whole.

Horror is my favorite genre, and I especially love a lot of body horror movies. There were a lot of body horror elements here, which were done with excellent makeup and gore effects. I don't usually get squeamish with horror movies, but there were definitely some scenes here that made my skin crawl. mainly the scenes that had to do with snakes. I definitely wouldn't recommend this to a horror novice, but if you're a fan, it'll probably be right up your alley.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%

Is it worth the hype?:

If you are a horror fan, then absolutely. Excellent design choices and committed performances make this feel like more than a lower-budget horror movie. There were definitely moments that freaked me out, but in a good way. If you think you can handle it, it's definitely worth a watch.