Books by Peter Hutchings

The Historical Dictionary of Horror Cinema traces the development of the genre from its beginnings to the present. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries.

Horror is one of the most enduring and controversial of all cinematic genres. Horror films range from the subtle and the poetic to the graphic and the gory but what links them all is their ability to frighten, disturb, shock, provoke, delight, irritate, amuse, and bemuse audiences. Horrors capacity to serve as an outlet to capture the changing patterns of our fears and anxieties has ensured not only its notoriety but also its long-term survival and its international popularity. Above all, however, it is the audiences continual desire to experience new frights and evermore-horrifying sights that continue to make films like The Exorcist, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, Ringu, and The Shining captivate viewers.The A to Z of Horror Cinema traces the development of horror cinema from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries. Entries cover all the major movie villains, including Frankenstein and his monster, the vampire, the werewolf, the mummy, the zombie, the ghost, and the serial killer; the film directors, producers, writers, actors, cinematographers, make-up artists, special effects technicians, and composers who have helped to shape horror history; significant production companies and the major films that have come to stand as milestones in the development of the horror genre; and the different national traditions in horror cinema as well as horrors most popular themes, formats, conventions, and cycles.

The horror genre has proved to be one of the most consistently popular and the most disreputable of all the mainstream film genres. "The Horror Film" explores the key issues raised by this most contentious of genres. It considers the reasons for horror's disreputability and seeks to explain why horror has been so successful.