The book is the first attempt at a socio-philosophical understanding of the cinema of John Carpenter in Russian. "Halloween", "The Thing", "Aliens Among Us" and many other films by the cult director have long been considered classics and traditionally attract the attention of film researchers. However, even in the West, they rarely become the subject of systematic reflection using a consistent scientific methodology. Turning to the concept of the "political unconscious" of Fredric Jameson, Evgeny Degtyarev argues that Carpenter's films convey ideological content hidden even from the director himself. According to Degtyarev, an analysis of this content and the socio-historical context in which it arose will help to better understand the meaning of individual films by the master of horror and the significance of his legacy for popular culture as a whole. The monograph will undoubtedly attract the attention of both specialists - film scholars, cultural scientists and philosophers, and the widest range of readers interested in modern cinema and mass culture.