Le Journal

Governor Janet Mills speaks with the press at Portland City Hall Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer) " data-image-caption="Gov. Janet Mills speaks with reporters at Portland City Hall Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer) " data-medium-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/43384844_20260122_GovMills003.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/43384844_20260122_GovMills003.jpg?w=780" />The U.S. Senate campaign spokesperson for Mills only confirmed she was out of the state Tuesday.

Saco voters will decide Nov. 8 if they want to amend the city charter to allow a city mayor to be able to have a ceremonial office at City Hall. " data-image-caption="Saco City Hall. (Tammy Wells/Staff Writer) " data-medium-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/08/Saco-city-hall-wider-version.-1660052678.jpg?w=263" data-large-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2022/08/Saco-city-hall-wider-version.-1660052678.jpg?w=780" />If the amendment passes, Saco residents would be allowed to host guests in campers or motor homes on private property for 14 days.

Biddeford mobile home park resident Carol Normand speaks in favor of a 90-day mobile home lot rent increase moratorium Tuesday. (Screenshot/Biddeford City Council) " data-medium-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/Screen-Shot-2026-01-22-at-1.39.07-PM.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/Screen-Shot-2026-01-22-at-1.39.07-PM.jpg?w=780" />Several residents pleaded with the council to pass the proposal, saying the rising prices — which have more than doubled for some — could force them out of their homes.

Maine School Administrative District 75 offices. (Katie Langley/Staff Writer) " data-medium-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/IMG_9911.jpg?w=300" data-large-file="https://www.pressherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/IMG_9911.jpg?w=780" />The district is evaluating several options for its buildings and may close, rebuild or rehab some aging schools.

“The difference between a poison and a cure is the dose,” forest witch Selveig (Toby Poser) tells the skeptical father of a dying young woman in the horror film Mother Of Flies. This concept can be applied in both science and magic, and Mother Of Flies is informed by both Western medicine and occult practice, syncretizing these opposing forces by filtering them through its creators’ personal experiences with illness. The result is occult horror as potent as the snake venom in one of Selveig’s dreadful “cures.” Specifically, writer-directors John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser draw parallels between the powerful chemicals used in chemotherapy and the baneful magic of its title character, a necromancer who offers a college student a last-ditch treatment for her terminal cancer. Selveig first contacts Mickey (Zelda Adams) in a dream, a fact that Mickey declines to share with her dad Jake (John Adams) until they’re already at the witch’s Baba Yaga-esque hut. He wouldn’t have agreed to drive her there if he knew; she’s skeptical herself, but given her recent diagnosis, she has nothing left to lose. Selveig’s “cure” will take three days, and will be extremely painful. It will require Mickey to wade into the rot and decay that fuels Selveig’s power, confronting her own mortality in the process. Mother Of Flies accompanies the two step-by-step through the ritual, which is informed both by actual occult practices and Selveig’s fictional backstory. Selveig loves death. She’s intimate with it, both emotionally and physically. Poser gives herself completely to this strange, serious character, and her commitment is key to what makes the film work. The woods are an invaluable asset as well. As in their films Hellbender and Where The Devil Roams, the filmmakers favor a high-contrast look that renders the forest in saturated shades of green punctuated with eye-singing orange. The colors of death—bruised purple, deoxygenated blue—are similarly vivid, giving shots of maggots writhing in a pool of decomposing flesh an undeniable Gothic beauty. Images of bones and blood and corpses abound, and the overall vibe is like a heavy-metal music video in the best way possible. This is accompanied by an emotional gravity that comes from the film’s real-world context. Poser and John Adams are a married couple, and Zelda their daughter; together with older daughter Lulu Adams (who plays a small role as a hotel clerk), they’ve been making movies together for over a decade, developing their style as they go. Mother Of Flies is a new high for this tight-knit unit, drawing power from their own story as a family: Both Poser and John Adams are cancer survivors, and they have transformed that painful experience into an awesome work of art. An Adams family production is an inherently DIY affair: The writing, directing, editing, producing, cinematography, sound design, camera operation. costume design, set design, and set building for Mother Of Flies were all handled by Poser, Adams, and their children, who also make up the film’s core cast. (Even the doom-rock soundtrack was composed in-house by H6LLB6ND6R, a contender for the world’s coolest family band.) Combined with a minimal budget, this does mean the film has a few technical limitations. But getting hung up on those moments where the sound mix or video compositing are rough around the edges is missing the point. In a world where film production is increasingly consolidated into the hands of a few risk-adverse corporate entities, the Adams family embodies the spirit of true independent filmmaking. That wouldn’t matter if they weren’t doing it well, however, and Mother Of Flies outdoes many of its more well-funded peers in terms of both audacity and emotion. This is no paean to witchcraft as pop-feminist empowerment: Solveig’s magic is dark and dangerous, and the film is unblinking in terms of its relationship with death. Midway through their ordeal, Mickey asks her father what he will do if Solveig’s…