The Adams family shares some secrets on their latest film Mother of Flies

The Adams family, a team of horror filmmakers, are back with their latest film Mother of Flies. The film follows a young woman with cancer (Zelda Adams) and her father (John Adams) traveling to the woods to meet a mysterious woman by the name of Solveig (Toby Poser), in hopes that she can cure her of her illness. We had the chance to sit down and chat with John Adams and Toby Poser about making this film.

The Horror Lounge: So, to start, I'm always so impressed with your dynamic making movies as a family. I was wondering if you could give some more insight into what it's like creatively developing all these stories and films as a family unit.

Toby Poser: Well, John and I spent a lot of time walking in the woods, that's our office. By the time we're finished with the walk, we have so many ideas, talking about the future, what we're currently shooting. We are just constantly slinging spaghetti into the proverbial air wall and coming up with something.

John Adams: Yeah, we just keep banging ideas until one gets boiled down to a simple piece, and when, when the first one hits simplicity, that's always the movie we shoot.

The Horror Lounge: So, in the case of Mother of Flies, what was kind of like the piece where it all kind of came together on the idea and how did they all land on that?

John Adams: Zelda, Zelda tested for like, something that showed that she had a proclivity to it for a type of cancer, and we were like, "Let's make a movie about it so that we don't have to f***ing think about it." We can make a movie about it and talk about it, and that's what we did.

The Horror Lounge: I love using film as a way to kind of work your way through those feelings, and a lot of that does show on screen, and I was wondering if y'all could go more into the process of making that because that's a really great anecdote right there.

John Adams: Yeah, yeah, we love making movies about what's really happening in our lives because that's something we know and we'd like to talk about real human issues. You know, if you look at each of our movies, like Where the Devil Roams is basically about a family that's splitting up because Zelda was going to college. So rather than make a drama about two parents that are sending their kid to college, we chop up the family with an ax.

The Horror Lounge: I love that.

Toby Poser: Yeah, it's so much more fun, and we have both had cancer ourselves, so it's, so it's like a lot of this. Stories in there are conversations we've had are stories that we've had with our experiences and in a way it's like Zelda is so familiar with those stories. She was kind of channeling them through this role in such a beautiful way and it's just super powerful. It's even fun talking about this stuff, because we do it all the time. We laugh a lot and we're just very honest about what we've experienced.

The Horror Lounge: And what is it about the horror genre that allows such open interpretations and development of those feelings and ideas?

John Adams: Well, the horror community is incredibly open-minded, very inclusive, film educated. It's a smart crew, and the horror community knows that the reason we all love horror movies is because we're actually talking about other things, but we're covering them up so they're more fun to talk about, you know, you can pick apart almost every horror movie and say "this kind of really is about this," and it's a great way for us to have a conversation with this terrific community about real issues.

The Horror Lounge: Absolutely, you're so right on the horror community. I've been watching horror films since I was six years old. I always love their use as a vehicle to talk about social commentary, political issues, personal issues. It's just such a transcending genre, it's an amazing genre for such discussions.

John Adams: Yeah, and different than a drama, you don't have to hit the nail right on the head. You can use metaphors, so it's a much more of an easy thing to talk about all this stuff.

The Horror Lounge: Absolutely. With this film being a kind of a fairy tale witch story, which I really dug, I feel like it's a kind of Grimms' Fairy Tale type of thing, which I really like. In fact, I made a note where I was like, it's so funny watching this after watching Weapons because I did notice a lot of similarities. I love that because I loved Weapons.

John Adams: We did too. It was fantastic.

Mother of Flies- Courtesy of Shudder

The Horror Lounge: In terms of the witch storyline and that sort of subgenre, were there any particular films that y'all pulled from to make this one?

Toby Poser: We can't pull from films but had a lot of fun reading about witches and how they've been maligned over the century just for like being menders and healers and, you know, the hypocrisy that is behind a lot of the persecution of, of witches. So that definitely was part of it and the lore underneath, but we more than anything, we just love getting witchy in the woods. We just love using our imaginations and being inspired by the nature and decay that's all around us. It's fun as hell.

The Horror Lounge: I love that they bring up the nature and decay because this film has some very beautiful and very haunting visuals. I made a note that every shot is beautiful, whether it's a valley or a decaying skeleton. It's all very beautiful. So I was wondering if you can give some more insight onto the artistic visuals and sort of artistic inspirations or things like that for this film.

John Adams: Well, I love that you said that because we wanted to celebrate the beauty of life and the beauty of death. They're yin and yang.

The Horror Lounge: They're both so beautiful in their own ways, there's some shots of the skeletons that kind of were reminiscent of the final shot in Nosferatu.

John Adams: When he decays and burns, yeah, on top of her body? I love that scene, her embracing the embodiment of death on her body. [To Toby] She loved that too.

Toby Poser: Yeah, I think Solveig really as like a death worker. She really respects and appreciates death and realizes that death craves the light.

The Horror Lounge: I love that. It feels like a direct correlation to the shot we see of her skeleton in the grave. It looked like the skeleton was screaming as it was holding he baby. It's an embracing.

Toby Poser: That was really important to us because we kind of get a glimpse of her before she was baby-less and then in the end when she finally is reunited with the one she's chosen to love, it's a joy, it's a scream of joy is how I look at it. It was really important with us.

John Adams: We talked a lot about that and you're the first person who's mentioned it. It's really nice that you're mentioning it.

The Horror Lounge: It was just a shot that stuck with me. "A scream of joy." I love that. The mouth gaping open while she's gripping it tight, even though it's just a skeleton, you can feel that grip around it.

John Adams: Yes!

The Horror Lounge: So, I am actually going to see Mother of Flies for a second time today. Is there anything I should look out for specifically on my second viewing? Anything hidden?

John Adams: There is something hidden… which is, Solveig's trying to beat death for that baby, and you'll notice that the father can hear it and see it. They both hear it and see it, and that's death trying to get to that baby right before Solveig can. So, see if you see what I'm talking about and afterwards you can say whether you do or you're like, "Nope, still don't see it."

The Horror Lounge: I'll definitely have to keep that in mind. I love little details like that.

John Adams: We worked really hard at making sure that it was subtle enough because we didn't want death to be like "roar I'm death." We had a lot of discussions about it. We were like, let's make it so subtle that only like 5% of the people will be able see what's happening.

The Horror Lounge: I mean, death can be subtle.

John Adams: It can be. It sneaks up on you. Death never comes and says, here I come, you know what I mean? It's lights on, lights off.

The Horror Lounge: What are you hoping that fans take away from Mother of Flies, when they walk out of it?

Toby Poser: I honestly love the conversations I have with people afterwards. I like talking about this simple mundane conversation of life and death. I know someone who's suffered, you know? Something I loved about making this film is it's not just the person who's dying, it's those who love the person who's dying, who have an incredible story they're living as well, I just love talking with people about humanity, and, and a lot of people want to talk about that after they've seen this film, and I like those conversations.

John Adams: Yeah, me too. I already love what everyone's taken away from it. I think most of all, it's the idea that when you really fight for your life, there's a large, beautiful, but brutal payment.

The Horror Lounge: Yeah, I love that because, again, trying to fight back on death, trying to cheat death or trying to get away from the inevitable. It never really ends well for anyone involved.

Toby Poser: Yeah, and love is a huge foe. Love and death are great bedmates.

The Horror Lounge: So to wrap up… all of you guys acting as a family, you guys are all writers, directors, and actors in this film. so is it easier or harder to build those on set or character relationships being family in real life?

John Adams: Oh, easy, easy,

Toby Poser: It's easy. We love working together.

John Adams: We trust each other. Everybody directs. So usually we go in there, we do whatever we want, and then people will have comments for each other like, "Hey, could you do it this way and that way?" and that's really helpful, and there's no stress about it. It's just fun.

The Horror Lounge: Right, I love that cause I know giving notes to each other and being that vulnerable, because to be performing and the arts are a very vulnerable thing. So being that vulnerable with each other as a family, I was curious about how that made it easier or harder to have those interactions like giving notes on a performance or giving notes on directing a scene. I love to hear that.

John Adams: I think that's a really great question. For me, it's hard to be emotional knowing that the camera is running, and so I actually asked the girls, I'm like, "Tell me, should I do more, do less?" and it's very helpful. Zelda, I notice is the same way, too. Zelda likes to be like, "How was that? How should we change it?" So, I think everybody has a lot of confidence and especially on those emotional things to be like, "was that genuine?".

Mother of Flies is now streaming on Shudder.