Film critic Dmitry Komm has been teaching a horror film course at the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences of St. Petersburg State University for many years. In his book, based on the materials of this course and a series of articles in the magazine "The Art of Cinema," he acquaints the reader with the traditions of a horror and thriller film, the diversity of schools and trends on different continents and in different socio-cultural conditions, as well as with the work of the most significant directors who created the horror canons: Alfred Hitchcock, Roger Corman, Mario Bava, Dario Arar gento, Brian De Palma and others. The book can be recommended to students of humanitarian universities, as well as a wide range of film lovers.