An abandoned cathedral and a gruesome murder. Something ancient and supernatural lurking beneath Los Angeles. If it sounds like the opening scene of a lost John Carpenter movie, that’s precisely the point. Created as the companion to an original graphic novel written by Carpenter, his wife and longtime creative partner Sandy King, and writer Sean Sobczak, Cathedral unfolds like a movie that exists somewhere just beyond the screen. Each track corresponds to a specific section of the story, with prompts in the album’s liner notes encouraging listeners to follow along. The result is an immersive Carpenter universe rendered in panels, riffs and ominous synthesizers.

Musically, Cathedral picks up where Carpenter’s legendary film scores left off but cranks the amplifiers even higher. The eerie minimalism found in the music of Halloween, The Fog and Assault On Precinct 13 is always lurking, it’s embedded in his musical DNA. But this time the machinery is heavier, and unmistakably metal. Carpenter has always understood that music can be horror’s most potent weapon. “It’s all about making the music work,” he says. “Put this thing on and imagine you're watching a movie.”

Daniel Davies provides much of the album’s metallic muscle, unleashing soaring, serpentine guitar lines across the opener “Primeval,” “Elevator” and the bruising “Lord Of The Underground.” Elsewhere, Carpenter and son Cody Carpenter steer the narrative into darker territory, with synths looming over “Desolation In The Underworld” and the mournful “Death Of The Mapmaker.” On “Abandoned Cathedral,” strings and electronics collide in a piece that almost feels like it was conjured instead of composed.

Unlike the Lost Themes albums, which imagined scores for movies that never existed, Cathedral has a tangible story to follow, continuing the evolution of Carpenter’s remarkable second life as a musician. For a filmmaker who helped redefine horror through images, Carpenter has always known that terror begins in the ear. His music can reduce fear to two repeating notes, explode with the force of a rock concert, or seep into the subconscious like something best left unnamed. Cathedral opens another door into the haunted house of Carpenter’s mind. But enter at your own risk, because something is waiting.