Last Thursday, the Adams family premiered their 5th feature film in (almost) as many years, Mother of Flies, at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival. Days later, they won the Cheval Noir for Best Film in Competition, making them the first US film to snag the coveted prize at the international festival.
The Adams Family’s Best Work Yet: A Haunting Masterpiece
Mother of Flies is the best film yet by the DIY filmmaking collective (and also real-life family) known as John Adams, Tobe Poser, and their daughter Zelda Adams. The titular Mother of Flies, played by Toby Poser, is a commanding figure, one that will surely inspire awe and dread in the hearts of any audience. The film is moody and meditative, and always emphasizes the emotional trauma behind the creepy visuals. Often, the camera lingers on the natural beauty of the woods as nightmares and horrors unfold on screen.
A Personal Story of Survival and Emotion
“Every movie [of ours] is a documentary,” John Adams explained at an emotional Q&A after the film’s premiere. “This is a documentary of us finally being able to talk about something that’s been very hard.” The story focuses on Mickey (played by Zelda) and her father (played by John) as they visit Solveig, a holistic healer (Toby) who promises to rid Mickey of her cancer in three days. As her methods become increasingly intense, the father-daughter duo becomes divided.
Toby and John both pulled from their own history as cancer survivors to make this story feel emotionally raw and realistic. “It’s just powerful,” Toby explained, “being able to turn a dark thing into your dark thing by making a story out of it.” While cancer may be a driving force behind the plot of Mother of Flies, The Adams never dip into saccharine platitudes about the meaning of life or the fear of death. Everything in this film is punk and metal, including its approach to mortality.
The DIY Magic Behind Mother of Flies
There’s a fascinating DIY story behind every part of this film. The music is made by the family, and the digital effects are conjured up by longtime collaborator Trey Lindsay. The woods and the river on screen are part of the family’s own backyard, meaning that most of the animals in the film just happened to walk by the camera. The actors who perform a pivotal backstory scene are a group of female wrestlers who live near the Adams. The interior of Sloveig’s home used the leftover bark from another family member’s log cabin renovations. One memorable sequence involved using a cousin’s large snake, “a ball python,” chirped Toby during the Q&A. “His name’s Cooper!”
Celebrating the Beauty of No-Budget Filmmaking
Mother of Flies is a testament to DIY filmmaking. Using the resources around them, they manage to tell a story that highlights the mysterious beauty of the finite. “Everything feels really natural,” explained Zelda about their process. “We’re forced to work with nature, which is free, and so I think that’s our advantage.”
“No budget is the best budget,” added John, “because it makes us think about the truth of everything, and just cut right to it.” This sentiment was reflected by Cheval Noir jury president Pascal Plante. She writes about the jury’s decision: “This might not be the film with the most means or the flashiest camerawork, but it’s a film that, in a meta way, reminds us why we even bother to make films in the first place.”