Pop culture history meets blood-soaked memoir as a horror film aficionado and screenwriter recalls a life spent watching blockbuster slasher films, cult classics, and everything in between.
Horror films have
Horror films have simultaneously captivated and terrified audiences for generations, racking up billions of dollars at the box office and infusing our nightmares with unrelenting zombies, chainsaw-wielding madmen, and myriad incarnations of ghosts, ghouls, and the devil himself. Despite evolving modes of storytelling and the fluctuating popularity of other genres, horror endures. The Horror of It All is a memoir from the front lines of the industry that dissects (and occasionally defends) the hugely popular phenomenon of scary movies.
Author Adam Rockoff traces the highs and lows of the horror genre through the lens of his own obsessive fandom, born in the aisles of his local video store and nurtured with a steady diet of cable trash. From Siskel and Ebert’s crusade against slasher films to horror’s Renaissance in the wake of Scream, Rockoff mines the rich history of the genre, braiding critical analysis with his own firsthand experiences. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Non-Fiction Book Review Blog: The Horror of it All
The Horror of it All is Adam Rockoff’s love letter to horror. Rockoff describes his fascination with horror movies as a youth and how the genre was introduced to him like myself, and many others out there. We all have a story of the first time we saw a horror movie, whether it was with or without the consent of our parents. Probably not. For me, that movie was the second installment of Halloween, adeptly named Halloween 2. I once imagined myself writing a book such as this one, my own love letter to horror. But, in reality, such an undertaking would probably only surmise to a few pages before running out of content or just calling it quits altogether not wanting to face the challenge of undertaking what seems like the arduous task of writing a book. Thankfully, there is content already out there that I can divulge myself in and the title of Rockoff’s beckoned me.
I was eager to dive into this book when I ordered it from Amazon. Once it was in my mailbox, I picked it up, ran home, tore the box open, and began reading right away! That didn’t happen. In reality, it took me about a week or two before I would crack it open, but when I did I couldn’t put it down! Again, that didn’t happen. See, what I did there was reel you in with something (the anticipated review of this book) only to go off on a tangent and leave you hanging. But fear not, because here comes the review. Rockoff does something similar to this on more than one occasion in this book, often excusing his antics by politely claiming, “But I digress,” before diving back into the topic at hand. After the second, or third time, he did this it became a bit of a nuisance. Be it as it may, it was only a minor nuisance that I was able to look past.
His love for the horror genre is without question but, in the end, the book does come off a series of opinions which of course we are all entitled to, and felt more like a series of essays that were put together to form this book. He lost me a little when he said he was a fan of the Black Christmas remake but as a horror fan myself I too am guilty of being a fan of some pretty bad movies so who am I to judge? That’s the thing about horror, while some of us are incredibly passionate and very touchy when it comes to our beloved genre, we understand one another, for the most part, and have a discussion, or debate, about why this or that movie was good or bad is all part of the fun. Reading The Horror of it All is no different because in the end, we horror fans always find ourselves defending the genre and Rockoff does the same with his book especially when he discusses longtime film critics from Chicago, Siskel, and Ebert, who angered me on more than one occasion when they absolutely trashed the horror films of the 80s, in particular, the slasher film. Sure, it perturbed sixteen-year-old me but everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, and that never stopped me from watching them when I happened to catch them on the tube no matter how much I disagreed. Again, being a horror fan, I readily admit that a lot of movies I am a fan of are bad films for many but for some reason or another, I enjoy them immensely! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?
There is a lot to take in with The Horror of it All, and often it feels like Rockoff is all over the place. He talks of Fangoria and Rue Morgue magazines and their place in print media among the slew of others and of rock and roll’s plight to fend off Tipper Gore and censorship labeling on the packaging of CDs, etc. of which, spoiler alert, they did not win. To me, that whole chapter felt more like a filler, and I could have done without it. But, regardless, it’s there. While I was able to grasp a lot of what Rockoff was saying and can definitely see myself having a conversation with him about the genre, agreeing with a lot of what he said, there was a lot of which I could not agree with, and he came off as a bit, oh what’s the word, pompous. The book is peppered with jokes, many of which, in my opinion, fall flat and antidotes of the many times he opted to pay attention to a horror movie instead of a sexually charged and willing girl. Yes, you love horror, I got that much but really?
Still, I enjoyed The Horror of it All and was pleasantly surprised to learn that he penned the 2010 remake of 1978’s I Spit on Your Grave, which I rather enjoyed despite the subject matter of which I am not a fan. For the horror fan, you may get a kick out of it but, for me, I went in expecting a lot more and was also hoping to get a lot more out of it