Stylish but superficial exploration of fear in horror films. The book is structured in a series of very short chapters, one per film, with a quick analysis of what makes each film so fear-inducing. It is, however, more subjective in its decision of which films are most frightening than I think the author is willing to admit. Frankly, I began to be sceptical in the introduction, where Glasby claims that he doesn't include Jaws or Alien as horror films because "scaring us is not their primary objective," apparently, to which I call bullshit. There are in fact no animal horror films here at all, and no eco-horror either. That's a subjective criticism in itself, given that these are the horror films I most enjoy personally, but I think when you're trying to put forward a list of "the scariest movies ever made" you either need to justify your biases or put forward a more objective rationale for including them (or preferably both). When you don't have even a single film representing some of the major sub-genres of horror, it's time, I think, to consider whether stacking your best-of list with serial killer films is a result of personal preference. (It's fairly obvious that serial killers, violent sadism, a dose of supernatural horror, and found footage is the horror Glasby likes best.) And personal preference is fine, as far as it goes, but relying on it limits the analysis of fear which is the goal of this book by excluding other types of fear produced by other types of horror films.

It's a pimped-up version of My Favourite Horror Films, basically, and it is very stylish, but it is also, as I said, a bit thin. Likeable enough, but I won't be referencing it in any of my own scholarship, for instance.