John Adams – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOTHER OF FLIES – Review by Nadine Whitney

January 28, 2026February 1, 2026 Nadine Whitney Adams Family, DIY horror, John Adams, lulu adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams

The Adams Family, composed of Toby Poser, John Adams, and their daughters Zelda and Lulu, have long been leaders of indie DIY horror. Up until Mother of Flies their most effective film was the witch coming-of-age folk horror Hellbender. Mother of Flies is the culmination of years of experimentation and refining their cinema-poetic voices and is simply extraordinary. Mother of Flies is an intelligent horror film rich in the tradition of dark fairytales. It is also replete with physical and mental agony. Blood flows, pain singes, and the poison of nature is compared with the poisons of medicine.

Festivals Reviews

HELL HOLE (Fantasia IFF 2024) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 5, 2024August 3, 2024 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Fantasia IFF 2024, Hell Hole, horror, John Adams, lulu adams, Toby Poser

Isolated by brutal weather in a desolate abandoned factory in the Serbian woods, an American fracking team are thrown into close quarters with a surly local crew and a pair of environmental scientists. With tensions already running high, chaos breaks out when the team drills into something unusual hidden below the surface, releasing a long-buried monster with a taste for human disguise. As the body count rises, the team rush to learn the dark secret of the strange creature before it gets them all.

Festivals Reviews

HELL HOLE (Fantasia IFF 2024) – Review by Nadine Whitney

August 5, 2024August 3, 2024 Nadine Whitney Adams Family, Fantasia IFF 2024, Hell Hole, horror, John Adams, lulu adams, Toby Poser

The Adams Family are the ‘can do, will do’ purveyors of indie horror. They turn their imaginative and intelligent scripts into gorgeous and gory films which resonate with their own punk and anti-establishment sensibilities. Hell Hole is hilarious, gross, and unafraid to make a statement about the various kinds of rapacity in the contemporary world. Fracking is a filthy business forced on (poorer) regions without the power to object to the environmental devastation wrought on them. No one gets a choice whether they’re going to be a host for the mollusc with a mission, either. Hell Hole is entertaining as hell and is yet another triumph for the Adams family. Long may they create!

Festivals Reviews

WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS (Fantasia Fest 2023) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

July 30, 2023August 11, 2023 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Adams Family collective, fantasia fest 2023, horror, John Adams, Toby Poser, Where the Devil Roams, Wonder Wheel Productions, Zelda Adams

The cold, dark claws of poverty have left deep marks on the family of travelling carnival performers at the heart of Where the Devil Roams. In socio-economic carnage left by the Depression, father Seven (John Adams), mother Maggie (Toby Poser) and daughter Eve (Zelda Adams) combine their struggling sideshow gig with a far more successful side hustle where they murder and pillage from the houses they come across as they travel across America from town to town in their beat-up ‘31 Chevy. Period films are not an easy thing to do on a budget, but with the integrity to stay true to their creative vision, the Adams Family collective once again harmonize their talents to perfection and pull off something most indie filmmakers could never dream of.

Reviews

HELLBENDER – Review by Lauren Anderson

February 14, 2022February 18, 2022 Lauren Anderson (Archived Contributor) Hellbender, horror, John Adams, lulu adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams

Hellbender is a coming-of-age horror movie in the witchy subgenre that has a rich history (think The Craft, Carrie, and even Jennifer’s Body). But the family filmmaking creativity behind this movie makes it noteworthy. What’s lacking in dialogue is made up for in trippy, gory scenes between mother and daughter that explore their rich history in witchcraft, making it worth the watch for avid horror fans.

Festivals Reviews

HELLBENDER (Fantasia 2021) – Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 17, 2021August 21, 2021 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas Adams Family, fantasia international film festival, Hellbender, horror, John Adams, shudder, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams

Izzy and her mother live an isolated but relatively happy life in the lush mountains, their reclusiveness supposedly because Izzy has a rare autoimmune disease. As Izzy soon learns, however, her mother has kept her squirrelled away from the world because they are both “Hellbenders”, defined as a hybrid of witches, demons and predatory animals. While her mother tells herself she has her powers under control, when Izzy learns that she too has these abilities, a mother-daughter power struggle collides with a supernatural coming of age story that at its heart is also a powerful tale of the maternal bond and that old chestnut, the circle of life. A film embossed with all the ferocity and heart and passion and craft of the most powerful of art, Hellbender is a reminder that when film like this is revealed as possible, we never should settle for less.