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A Close Look at Horror Films Through The Eyes of a Lifelong Fan

"The Horror of It All: One Moviegoer’s Love Affair with Masked Maniacs, Frightened Virgins, and the Living Dead"";

Many folks aren't inclined to choose horror as their favorite film genre, and fewer will actually admit it.

When we think of movies in the theaters now, the likes of romance, action and comedy come to the forefront. But the horror genre should not be pushed to the side. It is a billion dollar industry.

The book, The Horror of It All, is a close look at the pop culture phenomenon as well as the author’s lifelong affection for such films. Author Adam Rockoff is an east coast native and UW-Madison graduate, and has been involved with horror films in a variety of ways, which includes writing two exploitation films, Wicked Lake and I Spit On Your Grave.

"I really have  just been an enormous horror fan since, I was going to say, was old enough to see these films. But the truth is since I was young enough not to see them," he says. 

Rockoff says his newest book is "going to bring (readers) back to the days of the video store and the VCR and the VHS tapes. And its going to dredge up these memories, for better or for worse, that a lot of these people have forgotten."

Rockoff will be at Bosewell Books on Wednesday to talk about his book and sign copies. He is executive producer at Chicago-based Flash Rock Films and has written another book on slasher films called Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film.