Cinema Macabre

Horror movies are big business. Ever since the first flickering images started appearing on that magical silver screen, people have enjoyed being scared. What is it that compels us to seek the kinds of experiences we wouldn't dream of wishing for in real life? Is it the visceral thrill, the physical kick to our system that we crave? Or are the reasons more deep-rooted? Are horror movies like waking dreams, sluicing out the clutter of our unconscious minds, purging our anxieties and fears by confronting us with them in a safe environment?Travel back along the memory-paths of any current practitioner of strange fiction, of any professional creator of bizarre imagery - be they artist, writer, movie-maker, perhaps a combination of two, or even all three - and you will find, embedded in those paths, glinting like gold, seminal moments from countless horror movies, nightmare images that shaped that particular individual's mind, influenced his or her life in positive, creative ways. In Cinema Macabre the editor, Mark Morris, asked fifty genre practitioners to elect their favourite horror movie and to wax lyrical about it. The choices are eclectic, enlightening, occasionally startling. Come with us as we delve into some of the most fertile, imaginative minds working in the genre today, as we examine what frightens those who in turn frighten us.Contributors include Neil Gaiman, China Mieville, Simon Pegg, Michael Marshall Smith, Brian Aldiss, Christopher Fowler, Kim Newman, Thomas Tessier, Tim Lebbon, Mark Chadbourn and Ramsey Campbell.