Dollar Bin Horror Spotlight - Bill Adcock

Bill Adcock was born in Buffalo, NY, where he's spent the ensuing 22 years. Bill has been a "Monster Kid" pretty much the entire time -- some of his earliest memories are of watching CLASH OF THE TITANS and some of the 1960s and 1970s Godzilla films on television, and of checking out every book on monster movies my local library had to offer. When he got to college, Bill initially studied to become a biologist, before realizing just how terrible he was at chemistry, at which point he switched majors to History. In May 2009, he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History, which he hasn't quite been able to turn into a career just yet. For his awesome blog, Radiation-Scarred Reviews, Bill Adcock is in the Dollar Bin Horror Spotlight.

Q: How did you get started horror blogging?
A: Well, I'll be honest. It's not the prettiest of stories...In December 2008 I came to the realization that the relationship I was in was failing. Nothing catastrophic, but we were growing apart, and it was clear that it wouldn't last much longer. We were kind of clinging as long as we could...and I needed something to distract myself, to keep me from brooding about the impending break-up and being depressed. I stumbled across the horror review blog Bearded Weirdo Reviews and thought to myself, "I could do that." December 23rd I registered Radiation-Scarred Reviews on Blogger, and the rest, as they say, is history. RSR very quickly grew into a real joy in my life.

Q: Where did the Radiation theme come from?
The B-grade horror and science fiction films of the 1950s are what I kind of grew up on, and remain my favorite (and most familiar) sub genre of horror films. And generally, if the monster in those movies isn't from space, it was created by radiation from atomic testing. When I first started RSR, I was thinking I'd focus on these 1950s monster movies, but by the time I wrote my first review I recognized that that was really limited, and I very quickly expanded to low-budget horror cinema of all sorts.

Q: What has been your favorite review to date?
Oh jeez, that's a tough one...If you look at the reviews, there's a definite evolution. My earliest reviews have extremely long, detailed synopses, while more recent reviews have more detailed analysis, and I'm much happier with the look and tone of more recent reviews. If I had to pick just one review that I'm most happy with, probably either RE-ANIMATOR or THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD

Q: Whats coming up next for your blog?
If I could really predict that, I'd be cashing in on the lottery, hehe...but seriously? The only thing I can really say for certain is that I'll be reviewing ZARDOZ as a favor to my friend J.T., and reviewing the Vincent Price classic THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, a film I've been putting off for way too long. Other than that, I'm looking to continue my trend of increasing scholasticism in my reviews. I've been studying film criticism as it relates to horror films, and I'm looking to incorporate that into my reviews without losing the sort of irreverent tone I've got.

I'm looking to build up my readership more, maybe make a few dollars off the site, meet some people (I'll be attending the horror convention Monster Mania 14 in March) and further entrench myself in the horror community. I've got a couple other ideas for RSR's future, but nothing I can really talk about just yet.