Russell often relies too much on name-dropping as a substitute for atmosphere, and of the four short tales included here only “Comet Wine” has much to recommend it. Add to these three novellas four middling tales of terror and an excellent introduction by film director Guillermo del Toro, and Haunted Castles turns out to be a satisfying collection. Jekyll plus the Paris Grand Guignol), Sanguinarius (the written confession of bloody Elizabeth Bathory)-constitute a worthy achievement in themselves. His exorcism novel The Case Against Satan (1962) pre-dated William Blatty’s The Exorcist by a decade, and his three novellas of gothic horror- Sardonicus (a nobleman cursed with a permanent rictus), Sagittarius (Dr.

Nowhere else in America could you find such talent-except possibly in The Twilight Zone-and it might never have happened without editor Ray Russell.īut Ray Russell was more than an editor: he was a writer of horror fiction as well. Russell began working for Hugh Hefner as an editor in the 50’s, and filled Playboy's pages with some of the best popular writers of the time: Henry Slesar, Frederic Brown, Kurt Vonnegut ('Welcome to the Monkey House' was first published in Playboy), Frederik Pohl, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, Jack Finney, Robert Bloch and Charles Beaumont. Pulp fiction nerds like me knew they must be lying, because we knew what Playboy was really good for, namely, all those wonderful short stories: the fantasy, the science fiction, and the horror.

Remember all those liars in the ‘60’s who claimed they bought Playboy for the interviews?

Haunted castles ray russell