Ray Russell (1) (1924–1999)

Ray Russell’s The Case Against Satan is a small book with a heavy weight. First published in the 1960s, it predates The Exorcist yet feels spiritually tangled with it—both as a product of its time and as a challenge to it. What starts as a simple exorcism story soon reveals its true shape: a parable of repression, power, and the dangerous conflation of faith and fear.

What makes this book so compelling isn’t just its eerie atmosphere or theological debate—it’s the pain simmering show more underneath. It’s the way a girl’s suffering is interpreted through the lenses of patriarchy and dogma. And it’s the question the book keeps whispering: who’s really being tormented here?

This is not a scream-filled horror story. It is quiet, restrained, and unsettling in the way a shadow moves when no one else sees it. There are moments that feel almost too real—if you’ve ever struggled with mental illness, or been told that your suffering was somehow spiritual, this book may hit closer than you'd expect. I’m grateful for content warnings. Books like this deserve a chance to be read when the reader is ready.

Russell’s prose is stark, but not without beauty. And there’s a kind of sad wisdom in its pages. The ending doesn’t offer full redemption, just a glimmer of possibility. Which, honestly, feels more honest than most horror stories dare to be.

Highly recommended for fans of theological horror, spiritual ambiguity, and quieter tales of possession that leave the door open for multiple readings.

Content Notes / Trigger Warnings

Mental illness & institutionalization
Religious trauma & spiritual abuse
Gendered power dynamics
Psychological distress presented as demonic possession show less

Everything I have ever read by Ray Russell has a certain character that is hard to describe. The prose is old-fashioned and could have been written in the late 19th or early 20th centuries--but the horror is more than up-to-date. The germ of the idea behind each story is brilliant, the plotting is air tight, and the execution is usually faultless. Russell is simply one of the great horror writers in history, and if this collection doesn't please you (or disturb you), well, I just don't know show more what to say. There is a nice introduction by the film director Guillermo del Toro to set the stage. Unlike a lot of intros, it doesn't spoil the stories to come. del Toro's favorite differs from mine - but no matter. You must read this book.

Sardonicus *****
Perfect, a masterpiece. Doctor travels to Bohemia at the behest of a woman he had a strong affection for some years earlier. But it is her husband, the title character, whose face is frozen into a horrible grin, who dominates the tale. His story and his fate are not to be forgotten.

Sagittarius ****1/2
As well-written as Sardonicus, but a bit more far-fetched. This tale, which speculates on the existence of a real Mr. Hyde, is a joy to read.

Sanguinarius *****
More horrifying than the first two stories combined! A princess tells the story of her terrible fate. This is strong stuff, indeed, and not for younger readers. As in the first two stories, Russell's writing is simply stupendously good. He has as good an author's voice as any I have ever read.

Comet Wine *****
A wonderful story, especially for those with a bit of knowledge about Russian musical history, about an encounter with a great--but somehow unknown--composer and his opera based on the Brothers Karamazov. The story is told in letters from the poet Lord Henry Stanton to Sir Robert Hargraves (yes, the same person in Sardonicus).

The Runaway Lovers ****1/2
An older Duke marries a beautiful young woman, but after a time she strays. His punishment for her and her lover is about what you would expect after reading the other stories in this volume. Cynical to say the least!

The Vendetta ****1/2
Another story in the form of a letter from Lord Henry Stanton to Sir Robert Hargraves, it tells of a painstaking plot for revenge. Very gothic, very atmospheric (which is redundant), and very effective.

The Cage *****
Fittingly, this collection ends in a hidden dungeon of a towering castle and it involves a Count's punishment of his wife for an affair, but it is the twist ending that makes the story. show less

Poe meets the sensibility of De Sade in this collection of all Ray Russell's Gothic tales, mostly written in the 1960s when Russell was still closely associated with Playboy (he had been its Editor in the previous decade) and was writing screenplays for William Castle and Roger Corman.

The most famous are those making up the trilogy Sardonicus, Sagittarius (my personal favourite of the three) and Sanguinarius but there are four others which fit into a corpus with recurring narrators and show more similar styles that keep strictly to the Gothic.

The stories are much like the horror films where we would expect to see Vincent Price as the star but there is more of an edge here. One suspects that Russell saw some signs of 'evil' in the world that was created under Hefner and that he extended it into his faithful replays of the Gothic.

The stories always look backward into the past (like most of Corman's films). Russell is skilled at weaving his tales into the 'real world' of the past - for example, 'Comet Wine' is set in the St. Petersburg of the 'Five' and he is at pains to be accurate in presenting the Hungary of Bathory.

The stories do not make Russell the equal of Poe, Lovecraft or Ligotti by any means but they are well crafted and 'authentic' as late expressons of the Gothic sensibility albeit with a very twentieth century sympathy for monsters who are sometimes only monsters by circumstance. show less

I didn't mind the first book I'd read from Ray Russell, The Case Against Satan, and it's how the author landed on my radar. Well, that and the striking Penguin covers.

When I saw this one, to be honest, the title kind of put me off. Haunted castles? Meh.

Still, great cover, and an author I'd enjoyed. Sure, I'd give it a shot. Glad I did.

The three novellas that open this collection, Sardonicus, Sagittarious, and Sanguinarious, are just a blast, with the second and third exploring the Jekyll and show more Hyde and Elizabeth Bathory myths.

The shorter stories that round out the collection bring back characters from the first of the novellas, and present some finely-wrought, gruesome little gothic horrors.

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the gothic horror story, but Russell has the writing chops and the ability to turn a wonderful phrase, and toss in a neat little twist right at the end, to make each one of the stories in this collection an absolute keeper. There isn't a stinker in the lot. show less