POWER-SPECIAL EFFECT: THE GENESIS AND POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL MISSION OF VISUAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TRADITION OF AMERICAN HORROR FILM

Relevance. Establishing the dependence of the nomenclature and nature of artistic and technical techniques used in cinema on the socio-cultural and political-ideological context is a significant scientific problem and allows us to form a new, interdisciplinary subject field in modern cultural studies. The aim of the research is to analyze the direction of the evolution of the visual and political essence of cinematic special effects in the context of historical and cultural transformations of Western society in the late XIX – early XXI centuries, as well as the features of their use in the tradition of American horror films. Methods. The article uses a number of methods that allow carrying out the comparative, semiotic and psychoanalytic analysis of the essence and artistic practice of using special effects in Hollywood cinema. Results. The formation of the artistic practice of American horror films is directly related to the use of technical methods that allow you to keep constant audience interest in this film production. Special effects in various film genres are the result of rethinking the experience of circus, theater and photo art in constructing a thanatological hyperreality that displaces images of the objective world and replaces them with dynamic illusions. A sharp escalation in the use of these techniques indicates the emergence of new instrumental opportunities for creating and promoting secondary reality. And the ever-widening gap between the real and the cinematic world demonstrates the growing alienation of the public from traditional forms of social practice, which causes a jump in simulation experiments in horror films and an increasing interest of the authorities in visual ways of attracting, retaining and unconsciously controlling the attention and behavior of the mass audience. Findings. The range of cinematic special effects creates a visual technology for managing fear, forms a special horror habit, which is a commercially profitable and most popular political and ideological task of a Hollywood horror film.