Alan Jones is a film critic, broadcaster and reporter on the Horror Fantasy genre and has travelled the world to report on movies in production. His first assignment was the original Star Wars in 1977, after which he became London correspondent for Cinefantastique magazine and reviewed for British magazine Starburst from 1980 until 2008. A film critic for Film Review and Radio Times, he has made contributions to the Radio Times Guide to Films, the Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction and Halliwell's Film Guide. He has also served as film critic for BBC News 24, Front Row on BBC Radio 4, and on Sky News programme Sunrise. He has worked for many of the long-established cinema magazines ? Empire, Premiere and Total Film, an article in which ? The Splat Pack ? is credited for the first use of a term that is now part of film industry jargon.