Adam Rockoff Explores The Horror of It All
Debi Moore
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If a book described as “a memoir from the front lines of the horror industry… one moviegoer’s love affair with masked maniacs, frightened virgins, and the living dead…” sounds up your alley, then read on to learn about Adam Rockoff’s The Horror of It All and how you can meet the author himself in either Wisconsin or Illinois later this year.
From the Press Release:
Scribner is pleased to announce the May 12, 2015, publication of Adam Rockoff’s THE HORROR OF IT ALL: One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead. Throughout his life, Rockoff has been transfixed by horror films. Not only a passionate fan and critic, he has worked within the industry as a screenwriter, producer, and consultant. He wrote a critical examination of the slasher genre, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, 1978-1986, that was eventually made into a documentary which premiered on STARZ.
An aficionado, he has watched and re-watched (and then re-watched yet again) not only the classics but also the obscurities of the genre with delight and endless fascination. No one but the thoroughly obsessed and committed Rockoff could write this part-history, part-memoir celebration of horror.
In THE HORROR OF IT ALL, he tells us his own often funny, personal story of discovering horror movies as a kid in his local video store in suburban New Jersey and going on to write and produce his own films. At the same time, he delivers a comprehensive and entertaining history of the genre, including its evolving relationship to shock culture and commercialism, and its connections to figures as varied as Tipper Gore, Charlie Sheen, and Siskel & Ebert.
In his spirited critical analysis of the most revered and slandered horror movies, Rockoff is unafraid to defy accepted interpretations, and he finds virtues in the most maligned and forgotten movies and unabashedly takes down what he sees as the most overrated movies. With original commentary and unique insight, Rockoff gets to the heart of why fans have been persistently attracted to graphic images of violence and fear even as they’re repulsed by them.
Rockoff is the screenwriter of Wicked Lake, a film so depraved it caused Ron Jeremy to storm out of the theater in anger. However, his 2010 adaptation of the classic exploitation film I Spit on Your Grave received nearly unanimous praise from horror critics. When he’s not getting his hands bloody, Rockoff runs the television production company FlashRock Films.
Gripping and engaging, THE HORROR OF IT ALL is a must-read for film nerds, fans of the horror industry, and anyone fascinated by the enduring popularity of the genre.
MEET ADAM ROCKOFF:
May 19 * Anderson’s @ Two Doors East * Naperville, IL
May 20 * Boswell Books * Milwaukee, WI
May 21 * The Book Cellar * Chicago, IL
July 20 * Madison Public Library * Madison, WI
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