John Carpenter Goes Heavy With Cathedral, a New Horror Album and Graphic Novel
- More Horror
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
By Seth Metoyer, MoreHorrorMovies.com -
John Carpenter has spent decades shaping horror through a combination of stark imagery, relentless atmosphere and unmistakable music. Now the filmmaker and composer behind Halloween, The Thing and Prince of Darkness has returned with Cathedral, an original project that combines a graphic novel with a full-length companion album. That's the closest we'll come to a new horror film at the moment.
Both are available now.
The project grew from a vivid dream Carpenter had in 2024 involving an abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles and a descent into something far darker beneath it.
The graphic novel follows Lieutenant Christine Marks and detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield after the killing of a police officer draws attention to a long forgotten cathedral. Their investigation leads them into the building’s catacombs and toward a centuries-old evil imprisoned below.
Carpenter devel0ped the story with his wife and longtime creative partner Sandy King and writer Sean Sobczak. Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna handled the artwork, with Sian Mandrake on colors and Marshall Dillon on lettering. Storm King Comics published the graphic novel.
Carpenter Turns Up the Volume
The musical half of Cathedral comes from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, the trio behind much of Carpenter’s recent recorded work. This time, the sound gets heavier. Being a metalhead, as well as a guitarist, I really dug the guitar work on this.
Carpenter has described Cathedral as “kind of our first heavy metal album,” pushing his familiar synth-driven style into darker and more aggressive territory.
The album contains 14 tracks, with each piece corresponding to a section of the graphic novel. The structure turns the record into more than a standalone soundtrack. Readers can follow the book while moving through the album and experience the story with Carpenter’s score unfolding alongside it.
The connection between the music and imagery becomes especially interesting on Spotify.
The visualizer accompanying the track “Revenge” features a bloodied, pale-faced figure with black hair and darkened eyes. For horror fans familiar with Carpenter’s most famous creation, the image carries an immediate visual echo of Michael Myers.
However, The figure appears to belong to Cathedral’s own mythology rather than the Halloween continuity, but the resemblance creates an intriguing bridge between Carpenter’s past and his latest work. Nearly five decades after the blank white mask of Halloween became one of horror cinema’s most recognizable images, the visual language still resonates with horror fans.
From Halloween to Cathedral
Carpenter’s music has always functioned as a major part of his storytelling. His minimalist score for 1978’s Halloween became nearly as recognizable as Michael Myers himself. A few repeating piano notes could announce The Shape before audiences ever saw him move across the screen.
Cathedral extends that relationship between sound and imagery into another medium.
Instead of scoring a completed film, Carpenter and his collaborators built music around a graphic narrative. The result lets readers effectively create the pacing themselves: turn the page, follow the corresponding track and allow the score to provide the atmosphere.
The story also enters territory that should feel familiar to fans of Prince of Darkness. An ominous Los Angeles church, religious imagery, hidden catacombs and an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface all place Cathedral firmly within Carpenter’s particular brand of apocalyptic horror.
The project functions somewhere between an album, a graphic n0vel and an imagined film.
For longtime Carpenter fans still hoping to see him return behind the camera, Cathedral offers another route into that world. The visuals live on the page, the score offers up the tenson, and the rest plays out inside the reader’s head.
John Carpenter’s Cathedral graphic novel is available through Storm King Comics. The accompanying album by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies is available through Sacred Bones Records and on all streamin and digital platforms.
