The Rough Guide to Horror Movies is a comprehensive guide to the world's scariest films. Conjuring up vampires, monsters, ghosts and zombies, it tells the stories behind the movies that have frightened us from the birth of cinema to the present day.

Features include:

• The canon: The lowdown on 50 essential horror movies, from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari to Scream, via Psycho, The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre — with dozens more films reviewed in brief trroughhout the book.

• The icons: The directors, the actors and the best of the monsters, including Roger Corman, Boris Karloff, Dracula and Freddy Krueger.

• The origins: The influence of fairy tales, gothic novels, "penny dreadfuls" and Stephen King.

• The history: How horror has been revolutionized during the past hundred years by sound, television, video and special effects and has become one of cinema's most popular and profitable genres.

• Around the world: Including classics from Mexico, Spain and Australia and the recent chillers from East Asia.

• And everything else you need to know: Websites, festivals, magazines and merchandise