A Filmmaking Family: Exploring the Poser-Adams Indie Horror Dynasty

Filmmaking has always been an art form dominated by wealthy families and big box office names; be it early projectionists paving a way for subsequent generation’s filmmaking ventures, or an elderly director passing the torch to a younger relative. 

For example, The Coppola family capitalized off Francis Ford Coppola’s ability to earn opportunities beneath Roger Corman and later direct and produce such hits as “The Godfather” (1972), establishing his own production company American Zoetrope, which has assisted family filmmakers Gia Coppola, Sofia Coppola, and Roman Coppola alongside cousins Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman. 

While the horror genre doesn’t quite have a dynasty of filmmakers on the scale as the Coppola family, many filmmakers, including David Cronenberg and Dario Argento, have children who either direct or work in horror filmmaking. The commonality to many of these legacies is a connection to a well-established parent or relative ushering in the opportunity for a younger generation to show off their supposed chops. It is quite rare, however, that a family of filmmakers should rise alongside each other, as is the case with the Poser-Adams family: a filmmaking family known for their super low-budget horror films, consisting of couple John Adams and Toby Poser and their daughters Zelda and Lulu.

While Poser spent several years acting in assorted film and theater projects and Adams explored working in reality tv after a modeling career, it wasn’t until the couple decided to approach filmmaking in a novel way that they solidified their path forwards. The couple’s first film “Rumblestrips” (2013) stars Poser as a mother accused of growing marijuana, with Adams co-directing. The film was  produced with an ultra barebones budget, utilizing archival footage of Poser and the couple’s two young daughters to create a majority of the film. 

But it was daughter Zelda who creatively pushed the family’s future projects, identifying a common interest in horror, genre filmmaking, and period pieces with the family’s fifth project “The Hatred,” detailing the experience of a ghost (played by Zelda) whose family perished in a conflict with greedy Civil War soldiers. This film, shot primarily in the Catskills Mountains near the family home, marked a shift in the tone and intensity of the family’s films, solidifying the filmmakers in a darker, more emotionally charged light. Their next film “The Deeper You Dig” (2019), co-directed by Poser, Adams, and Zelda propelled them in the indie film circuit, as Zelda portrays a teen killed and disposed of by a drunk driver (portrayed by Adams), only to be confronted by the teen’s psychic mother (played by Poser). This film marks an elevation in the family’s directing and editing, crafting a tense story of deceit and the want for justice, while delivering some impressive scares despite an extremely small budget.

While the family’s films remain on the smaller end budget-wise, they continue to break boundaries when it comes to the kind of horror filmmaking making its way to mainstream outlets such as Shudder, with each film since their film “Hellbender” (2021) being streamed exclusively through the AMC-backed streamer. Since “The Deeper You Dig,” Zelda, Adams, and Poser have ventured into period pieces, with the post-WWI set “Where The Devil Roams” (2023) and period elements in both “Hellbender” and “Mother of Flies (2025).” With each subsequent film, the trio’s filmmaking chops and direction become even more solidified, with “Mother of Flies” presenting an extremely strong, albeit disturbing story of a teenager with a terminal illness who seeks occult solutions to her impending death.

 Since most members of the family participate in the directing, producing, and acting of their films, it feels refreshing to identify the growth in both the overall quality of the films and the performance by each individual. As a filmmaker and critic, I find myself excited at the prospect of what the Adams-Poser family will accomplish as their partnership with Shudder continues, their children become adults, and more attention is given to each subsequent film. 

While the family’s future remains to be seen, I hope to one day see what the family can do with a larger budget, be it with their shoestring budget background and indie sentimentalities. And with indie-produced horror films breaking into traditional theatrical exhibition, with films like “Terrifier 2” illustrating low budget films can bring in big box office numbers, there remains the possibility that the Adams-Poser family will be the next big horror darlings.