Terence Fisher is surely one of the great mainstream horror filmmakers - several of his films for Hammer are classics of their genre, and most are at least interesting. At best, his work drips with atmosphere and he was a master of racking up the tension and chills.

I watched quite a few of Fisher's Hammer movies in the past couple of years, some for the first time and others of which I hadn't seen since I was a kid (they showed up all the time on British TV back then). My favourite may be Brides of Dracula. Even though the Count himself does not appear, this is a masterful movie of its type, genuinely unnerving and creepy and proof - as if it were needed - of Peter Cushing's chops as a superb dramatic actor.

Honourable mentions: Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Gorgon, The Devil Rides Out.