The article presents some opinions on the problem of existential fear of death as an emotional state that accompanies anxiety and worry about the end of an individual life. The features of the fear of death in adolescents are shown. And also an analysis of modern studies of attitudes to death, the theoretical basis of which are two main concepts, is presented. It is shown that the theory of fear management of death considers it as a universal phenomenon, a basic motive of human behavior. The novelty of the study consists in describing the evolution of attitudes to death over the past century and the discussion of the term "fear of death" in the context of changes that have occurred in society. To achieve this goal, an empirical study was conducted using psychodiagnostic techniques aimed at studying actual fears.