Julian Petley is a Professor of Screen Media and Journalism in the Department of Social Sciences, Media and Communications at Brunel University and one of the authors of The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies/The Aurum/Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror. His list appears on pages 398 of the first edition (Harper & Row, 1985). He notes omitting films that were covered in the Science Fiction volume (Death Line, Demon (1976), It's Alive (1973), Quatermass II, The Thing), Scream and Scream Again, calling the genre notoriously difficult to define. He regrets his bias toward Anglo-Saxon productions, noting foreign films as "an embarrassing lacuna in my cinematic education," blaming British distributors and the "xenophobic philistinism" of the BBFC, as well as noting television productions he wanted to honor. He lists his top ten in alphabetical order. His honorable mentions are listed in the order he mentions them in his explanatory paragraph.
