The Aurum Film Encyclopedia

The Foreword to all four volumes is the same, describing the proposed nine-volume encyclopedia as "covering the principal film categories or genres which have developed since the birth of the industry."

Tim Lucas described the first three volumes as "essential reference tools" and "eminently collectable as a set.

All subsequent volumes credit Hardy as editor, and provide a list of the contributing reviewers on the main title page.

Longer by 62 pages than the original version, the edition dropped most of the appendices due to space issues as well as the color section.

Like the science fiction volume, all known theatrically released films, including those from the silent era, have entries.

More than either of the two previous books, the horror volume is international in scope, providing coverage of all films from all countries that have ever produced a horror-related title.

The contributors to this volume were Tom Milne, Paul Willemen, Verina Glaessner (her credit was removed from the second edition), Julian Petley, and Tim Pulleine.

[2] In a later review, he described the book as "an intoxicating road map to further study and the enthusiasms of its authors(...)planted the seeds for the rediscovery and reappraisal of such cinéastes as Jesús Franco, José Mojica Marins, Pupi Avati, and Jean Rollin...Hardy's hefty tome redefined how horror cinema was perceived by its admirers more so than any other single work..."[6] An expanded second edition was published in 1993, with new entries on all films released through 1992.

[6] As noted by Hardy in his Preface to the updated edition, Kim Newman wrote nearly all of the book's new material.

[6] In addition, as stated in the preface, it dropped its reviews of two 1970s films: Don't Look in the Basement and Kiss of the Tarantula.

Newly added are entries on Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Blood Waters of Dr. Z, Curse of Bigfoot, Don't Look Now, King Kong, Dawn of the Dead, and all of the updated material from 1985 to 1992.

The contributors were Jeremy Clarke, Richard Coombs, David McGillivray, Tom Milne, Kim Newman, Tim Pulleine, and Paul Willemen.

As with previous volumes, the film reviews are unsigned, and so details regarding what material each writer contributed to the book has not been made available to the reader.

In addition to the published Western, Science Fiction, and Horror volumes, the remaining six “forthcoming” books were to be: Comedy, Romance, War, Epics, Musicals, and Thrillers.