Kim Newman is a novelist, critic and journalist. His non-fiction books include Nightmare Movies, Ghastly Beyond Belief (with Neil Gaiman) and The BFI Companion to Horror. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award and the British Science Fiction Award. James Marriott completed an MA in Film Studies at Exeter University and has wrote Horror Films, which was selected by The Times as one of their film books of 2004. He also wrote a series of essays for Creation Books and articles for magazines and websites including cult periodical Headpress ('Essential reading' Fortean Times). He died in 2012.

More than 300 movie reviews, broken down by decade, exploring horror's relationship to psychology and technology, as well as social and political developments through the years.; Boxed-out entries appear beside relevant film entries, covering writers whose work has had a profound effect on horror cinema, influential literary works, TV series that made an impact on the genre and other themes, figures and ideas. All the key horror themes, from comedy horror to slashers, are covered in feature spreads throughout.