In 1968, George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and Roman Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" brought a new slant to the horror film, bringing zombies and witchcraft into a contemporary setting, and much closer to home than the cardboard Transylvanias of earlier films.

This work is a critical overview of the horror movie genre from the late 1960s with a discussion of over 2000 films - masterpiece and monstrosity alike.

Kim Newman is a film critic and broadcaster and contributes to BBC Radio 4's "Kaleidoscope" and BBC TV's "Cover to Cover".