Saagar Kote
Shudder’s ‘Mother of Flies’ is the story of a young girl named Mickey. She battles cancer and has not many days left to live. Her father, Jake, is her only source of support during the troubling time. Running out of conventional medical options to cure cancer, Mickey almost loses hope. She then decides to take a radical step to be free of the medical condition. Due to mysterious circumstances, Mickey is able to contact a witch named Solveig, who promises to cure her cancer. Despite Jake’s reluctance, Mickey convinces him to drive her to the woods where Solveig resides.
As the father and daughter arrive at the forest, Solveig warmly welcomes them, while also exhibiting strange behavior. With the odds stacked against Mickey, she has to challenge her own beliefs to become part of a witchcraft experiment to survive. As the story reaches a decisive point, Mickey’s present and future hang in the realm of uncertainty and potential danger. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Mother of Flies Plot Synopsis
Mickey is a music student who is battling cancer. Her dad, Jake, picks her up and drives her to a diner. A strange woman spots a dead animal and prays for it. Jake asks Mickey about how she was introduced to a particular woman, and she says the lady reached out to her. The strange lady in the woods releases flies from her mouth, and Mickey hallucinates a bloody, goo-like substance on her room’s ceiling. The lady remains in the woods, and Jake and his daughter drive towards a cabin in the woods, which is isolated and surrounded by rock structures. By the cabin, Mickey and her dad are welcomed by the same woman who earlier released flies from her mouth. The strange lady, who is a witch named Solveig, shows Jake and his daughter to their rooms. Solveig says the following three days will be difficult for him. The witch recalls others in the past who came to her for help.
Solveig and Mickey take a walk into the woods, and the latter says she was diagnosed with cancer at fifteen. Mickey says her uterus was removed due to cancer. Solveig then starts reciting prayers, after which Jake asks Mickey if they can leave. However, Mickey’s last hope is the witch. She wants to stay alive and doesn’t trust any doctors. The witch pricks herself with a twig on all her fingers and tells Jake not to utter the name of Jesus. Jake and Mickey look confused. The witch picks up a dead butterfly and eats it. She then touches Mickey’s hand with her bloody fingers, and the latter experiences something strange, like a very old woman touching her. Later, the witch seems to fly in the woods after looking at an animal’s corpse. In the past, the witch desecrated a grave by taking the dead baby out of the burial site and carrying it away.
Solveig draws two intersecting circles on a rock by the meadow. Solveig asks Mickey to show her the cancer area and then pours holy water over it. Mickey lies on one of the circles. Solveig commands Mickey to sing and then takes out the bloody and burning material from a snake’s egg and pours it inside as Mickey’s tummy mysteriously opens up. Mickey shows her bloody tummy to her father, and the witch says the cancer is slowly dying. In the morning, Solveig takes a walk and goes into a cave-like structure. She observes her surroundings and then goes to the snake. The snake hisses at her, and she comes close to it. Solveig then lets the snake enter her mouth and swallows it. Solveig takes Mickey out into the woods, and Jake is missing. It is the third day, and also the last day for Mickey’s cure. Solveig promises Mickey that she will live to be old.
We then see a deer that was previously dead, now alive. Mickey asks where her father is, and Solveig says he needs a moment alone. Jake seems to be suffering from a mouthful of flies. When Mickey asks Solveig why she’s doing this for her, the latter says that she is doing this because she asked. Solveig then takes a twig and pricks Mickey’s ear. Mickey goes into a trance, almost demonic. Solveig transfers the snake from her mouth to Mickey’s mouth. Mickey sits in the cabin room, and she looks dreadful. Jake says there is no such thing as magic and tells Mickey that they have to leave. Mickey’s belly begins to look more bloody, like something demonic is growing within.
She then sees a bloody woman on the ceiling crying for help. Mickey walks into a different section of the cabin and then tries to run away as Solveig spots her. Mickey seems to realize that something is very wrong with the place. Mickey keeps running away from the cabin, and Solveig seems to fly above her head, appearing as an older woman and herself simultaneously. Mickey sees strange faces in the tree and is then dragged away by Solveig.
Mother of Flies Ending: How Did Solveig Die? How Did She Resurrect?
Once Mickey asks her father to leave out of desperation, he reluctantly does so. Although he bears a heavy burden of abandoning her in the woods, he sees no point in staying. Jake drives away from the woods as Mickey looks on. He goes to a diner and reflects upon his choices. Jake goes to a motel and asks for a room for the night. Although this moment in the story looks casual at first, it turns out to be one of the most crucial parts of the narrative. The inquisitive receptionist learns from Jake that he is here to see Solveig. What she says next adds an essential layer of complication in the plot. She says Solveig was a witch and a necromancer who could trick death. Importantly, the receptionist speaks of Solveig in the past tense. She tells Jake that people have been putting stones on Solveig’s grave for years.
This shocks Jake, who says that Solveig is still alive. The receptionist then narrates Solveig’s story, which actually occurred almost two hundred years ago. She says that a couple of hundred years ago, Solveig brought a stillborn baby back from the dead. But the people in the community found out and burnt the baby alive. Solveig’s witchcraft, despite being dark, was never meant to hurt people. But the people couldn’t accept such a woman, and they buried Solveig alive. She started screaming for her baby and stayed in the dirt. For nearly two centuries, Solveig’s body and soul rested underneath the stones and in the grave. This is why people keep throwing stones onto the grave. When Jake asks if the house in the woods belongs to the same Solveig, the receptionist says there is no such house.
She also says the Solveig Jake is talking about may not be related to the woman from her story, since the real witch is dead. Meanwhile, Mickey keeps running away from the cabin, and Solveig seems to fly above her head, appearing as an older woman and herself simultaneously. Jake desperately drives towards the woods again. Mickey sees strange faces in the tree and is then dragged away by Solveig. Solveig places her in a different spot and says she suffered for centuries without love and was buried in the dirt.
Solveig says that Mickey heard her screams after a long time. This is how she rose from her grave. Solveig says Mickey can give her life. Solveig sees Mickey’s belly and pricks it. Thus, Solveig lost her life many years ago, but her soul persisted, which allowed it to make a psychic connection with Mickey to achieve resurrection. Despite the absence of a body, Solveig is still able to perform witchcraft, leading Mickey to believe she is real and alive in the physical world.
What Does the Childbirth Scene Signify?
Solveig sees Mickey’s belly and pricks it, after which she rips the tummy open and takes out the flesh. Mickey screams in agonizing pain as a baby seems to form from the flesh. Solveig embraces the baby like a mother. But the baby seems to show no sign of life. Solveig screams at the rocks on top of her grave. This moment in the story is one of doubt, regret, and a terrifying history. There are scattered and confusing clues in the story about the meaning of life and death. On one hand, Mickey wants to stay alive, but on the other, she also accepts death for what it is. Solveig’s only regret in her life is that she was not able to save the baby from the violence of the community. Earlier in the narrative, Solveig brings a dead deer back to life, using some kind of spiritual connection she has with the flies.
She is the mother of flies since she controls them through a seemingly psychic method. The flies enable her to move and control the fates of other beings. Her disturbing connection with the snake and the snake’s egg signifies that her world is one of different rules. What is death for people becomes life for Solveig, and the same perhaps holds true for light and darkness as well. Through Mickey’s cancerous body flesh, Solveig is able to facilitate the birth of a child using witchcraft. She wanted to see the lost baby again. Her psychic relationship with Mickey allows her to transfer something as poisonous as a snake to Mickey’s body and create human life. Earlier, she took the contents of the snake’s egg and infused it with Mickey’s belly. So the snake enters Mickey’s womb to presumably perform motherly duties, leading to childbirth.
However, the child isn’t a snake and is human. This could perhaps be related to Satan worship, since snakes are heavily symbolic of Satanism. Whether or not the baby is alive is not a question that the narrative answers clearly. Solveig achieves the task of resurrecting the baby, though it is not the same child that was burnt alive in the past. Thus, the childbirth scene is a poignant exploration of motherhood, grief, and Solveig’s will to save the child again after so many years.
Is Mickey Dead or Alive? Is She Free of Cancer?
Mickey seemingly dies after giving birth to the baby. The light fades away, bringing her closer to the end. But this doesn’t turn out to be the end of Mickey’s story. She fights a deadly battle against cancer, even to the extent of establishing contact with a witch. Jake drives to Solveig’s grave and sees Mickey full of blood. For a moment, he assumes the worst, but the situation turns out to be shocking. Mickey is still alive, and the belly is clean and free of any wounds. This indicates that Mickey was merely a vessel for Solveig to bring the baby back. After Mickey gives birth, Solveig presumably heals her quickly through witchcraft. Her belly is bloody, but not cut open. Jake hugs Mickey after realizing what has just happened.
A few days later, Mickey and Jake visit a doctor, who says that Mickey is free from cancer and that there is no chemical or radiation damage. The doctor says the results look too good to be true. This is one of the most emotional moments in the narrative, as it conveys multiple possibilities at the same time. Mickey is alive because she was never meant to die. Maybe she was always meant to go to Solveig’s spirit and survive. On the other hand, we should also consider the fact that Mickey was never going to survive with just normal healthcare. Solveig’s supernatural powers were the only way that she was going to survive the cancer.
She is finally cancer-free because Solveig doesn’t perceive her as a disturber of peace. In a world without magic or witchcraft, Mickey would never have made a psychic connection with Solveig’s soul, which turns out to be her greatest blessing, despite the twisted nature of the cancer-curing process. All in all, Mickey goes through an extremely dangerous, unconventional, and layered journey, which turns out to be the greatest victory of her life.
What Do the Skeletons Signify? Does Mickey Become a Believer?
In the past, a woman burned the baby alive in front of Solveig as other members of the community watched. Solveig looks on in horror. She is tortured and buried alive as people throw stones at her. She is given a bloody death because of her supposedly irreligious and blasphemous act of bringing back a child from the dead. In the present timeline, after Mickey is confirmed to be alive, she and her father take out the rocks from the top of the grave to see if Solveig’s body is still there. They find two decaying skeletons. One a woman and the other a baby. We hear noises from the past haunting the screen. This proves the point that Solveig was indeed buried on the spot many years ago, along with the baby. Since then, her spirit has been on a quest for some meaning. Though the skeletons rotted away, the spirits refused to die.
After telling Mickey that she is free of cancer, the doctor says the results look too good to be true. However, Mickey says she and her father believe it and need no further proof. They become believers in magic. This refers to Mickey’s contrasting belief when she didn’t pray in the past. Back when Mickey was battling cancer in chemotherapy sessions, she shared a bond with a fellow patient, who was a believer. However, despite her prayers, the believer died. At an easier time point in the narrative, Mickey tells her father that she will never pray, as it doesn’t mean anything. She refuses to believe in the divine.
However, her experiences with Solveig make her a believer in miracles and magic. Though she doesn’t become a religious woman, she becomes a different kind of believer. Thus, the film is a symbolic representation of a person’s journey from cynicism to faith, although it means something unique from Mickey’s perspective.
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