Editorials
Blood In the Bleak Midwinter: The Satanic Horror of February
There’s something distinctly February-coded about Satanic Horror.
The shortest month of the year may be dominated by a romantic holiday, but the days themselves feel icy and cold. The twinkling lights of Christmas have long since gone out, and we’re so far away from spring that it often feels as if the sun never fully fills the sky. We find ourselves trapped in wintery isolation where dangerous secrets threaten to take root. Satanic horror adds color to this frozen world with the blood-red passion of sinister devotion. While most modern members of the Church of Satan simply reject Christian doctrine in favor of indulgence and self-possession, demonic killers in cinema are known for their unbridled depravity, unleashing bloody violence on a frozen world.
Producer Gavin Polone’s feature directorial debut, Psycho Killer, perfectly encapsulates this strange dichotomy with a hellish murderer stalking his victims through the barren streets of a snowy hell. Penned by the screenwriter of Se7en and Sleepy Hollow, Andrew Kevin Walker is no stranger to this horrific juxtaposition. His stories are filled with grimy and picturesque violence that adds gruesome color to a desolate world. Psycho Killer is no exception. The horror begins as an unsuspecting member of highway patrol is murdered on the side of a snowy road in front of his wife and fellow officer. Now Jane Archer (Georgina Campbell) must hunt down this larger-than-life villain while struggling with the trauma of her sudden loss.
We follow Jane on a harrowing quest to catch the masked man known as Psycho Killer (James Preston Rogers) and end a series of elaborate kills designed to honor his dark lord. All the while, a haunting voice is fanning the flames. The epitome of debauchery and excess, Mr. Pendleton (Malcolm McDowell) broadcasts his satanism, pushing Psycho Killer forward in violence.
James Preston Rogers as Psycho Killer in 20th Century Studios’ PSYCHO KILLER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Polone paints both sides of this harrowing story in stark contrast. Devastated by her husband’s death, Jane’s life becomes a series of bleary days plagued by memories of that frozen road where she watched a killer take her husband’s life. She begins drowning her pain in this investigation, and we fear what waits for her on the other side. Meanwhile, her nemesis practically bathes in blood. Often shown in a dark, crimson light, this sadist in a radioactive mask views his victims as inhuman tools to destroy in honor of his dark savior. Decorating his crime scenes with pentagrams scrawled in his victims’ blood, Polone evokes Valentine’s Day iconography twisted into symbols of pain.
This nihilistic atmosphere mirrors another icy horror film also set in the winter snow. Osgood Perkins’ 2024 shocker Longlegs opens with a child playing outside in heavy drifts. The “almost birthday girl” is approached by a strangely jovial man who ominously references his “friend downstairs.” We will learn that this pale-faced stranger is a serial killer named Dale Kobble (Nicolas Cage), known to the world as Longlegs.
For decades, the devilish dollmaker has been murdering entire families with a nearly undetectable MO. Each targeted family has one thing in common: a 9-year-old daughter born on the 14th day of any month. Aided by a reluctant assistant, Kobble creates a life-sized replica of the child that is then delivered to the family’s home. But these figurines are much more than artificial playmates. Inside the doll’s intricate head is an orb designed to emit low-level frequencies that destabilize the family home. The fathers become overwhelmed with diabolical whispers that slowly push them to unthinkable acts of violence.
Nicolas Cage as Longlegs
Like the infamous Psycho Killer, Longlegs does not have a motive for his crimes other than a deep devotion to Satan. His reverence for “the man downstairs” becomes a double entendre for both hell and a basement workshop in which Kobble crafts his deadly gifts. Lee investigates this killer in the brutality of an Oregon winter, constantly shielding herself from the cold while struggling to connect with her unstable mother. Meanwhile, Kobble completes his meticulous work in a murky room lit only with neon red light, as if he were crafting these dolls in hell itself. Both killers have dedicated their entire lives to the service of their master’s plan to bring an approximation of hell to Earth. Each act, regardless of its gruesomeness, becomes a loving sacrifice designed to showcase their all-consuming devotion.
Though the film pushed Perkins to new levels of fame, Longlegs is not his first foray into the world of satanic horror. His 2015 debut, The Blackcoat’s Daughter, leans into the unsettling dichotomy of wintery isolation and passionate pain. Originally titled February, the film also unfolds in dual timelines as we follow a killer and her prey. When Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Rose (Lucy Boynton) are both left behind at their posh boarding school over midwinter break, they sense an ominous presence on the mostly deserted campus. A dark figure approaches Kat in her dreams, predicting her parents’ grisly deaths. This “blackcoat” steps into the devastating void, nudging the traumatized teen toward violent acts.
Meanwhile, Rose hopes to see blood of her own as she prepares to tell her boyfriend she may be pregnant. The two struggle to coexist in this icy and deserted campus, searching in vain for a small bit of comfort. It seems February’s icy loneliness is what drives Kat into Satan’s arms. A mysterious phone call from her dark companion kicks off a violent murder spree. She not only slaughters the two nuns tasked with her care, but stabs and decapitates Rose herself. Using a pillowcase stained with her victims’ blood, she drags their severed heads into a subterranean boiler room where she vigorously prostrates herself in deference to her new patriarch. She’s finally found some semblance of warmth in the furnace’s hellish, red glow.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
The story plays out in a parallel timeline as a mysterious young woman named Joan (Emma Roberts) hitches a ride to the troubled boarding school. She manages to befriend a grieving father named Bill (James Remar), who attempts to take her under his wing and fill the void in his own bleak life. But Joan’s devotion to Satan proves stronger than his optimistic support, and Bill realizes he’s walked into a trap. Stranded on the icy road, he and his wife become Satan’s latest sacrifice. Like Psycho Killer and Longlegs, The Blackcoat’s Daughter explores the dangerous paths we take to erase the desolate pain of loneliness.
At some point in our lives, we’ve all tried and failed to secure love. Perhaps we’ve been rejected on Valentine’s Day, struggled through an uncomfortable birthday, or tried to recover from a sudden loss. However, it’s our tolerance to life’s miseries that builds our stress tolerance and resistance to pain. Though admittedly, this resilience feels more difficult in February when we just want to warm up with those we love. Polone and Perkins lean into the month’s iconography with nightmares that bloom in the absence of love.
Rather than a crimson token of affection or sentimental valentine, the blood these three killers spill represents the fire of satanic violence. Kat, Kobble, and the mysterious Psycho Killer all wind up bathed in the blood-red glow of satanic devotion, a heat born in the icy heart of February.
Longlegs
Auteur Filmmaking is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days in reference to big name directors like Quentin Tarantino and even Wes Anderson, but the truth is that film is a collective medium, and no one person can be responsible for every single aspect of a particular production. However, the smaller a film’s budget, the bigger the individual impact of every creative decision behind it – and the easier it becomes to identify a genuine auteur.
This isn’t necessarily a judgement of value, as blockbuster filmmaking comes with its own challenges and a good movie remains a miracle regardless of how big the crew is, but I’ve always been more interested in soulful b-movies produced by handfuls of passionate artists than blockbusters backed by creative armies.
That’s why I love exploring low-budget franchises that never left the hands of their original creators, as you really get to know the artists involved with these flicks and can accompany their evolution over a period of time. With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to join me in this multi-part series as we look into a vampire saga helmed by one of the most fascinating auteurs of the 1990s. Naturally, I’m referring to Ted Nicolaou’s criminally underrated Subspecies!
The Birth of an Unlikely Horror Franchise
A proud graduate of the University of Texas’ Film program, Nicolaou got his start in the industry as a sound technician working on Tobe Hooper’s original Texas Chain Saw Massacre. From there, the filmmaker would go on to work for notorious indie producer Charles Band, the founder of both Empire Pictures and Full Moon Productions. According to Nicolaou, Band would usually contact him with an offer to direct a feature after more prominent filmmakers, such as the late, great Stuart Gordon, had already refused, meaning that his projects tended to have lower budgets and more inexperienced crew members.
The plans for Subspecies began almost immediately after the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, with screenwriter David Pabian turning in an initial draft of the film after a Romanian producer contacted Band and explained that Romanian tax incentives could cover the cost of film production there so long as Full Moon took care of the post-production process. Since Stuart Gordon was unwilling to travel to Romania, Ted Nicolaou ended up taking over the picture.
However, while the financial incentives meant that this Romanian-American co-production could look and feel much more expensive than it really was, with Nicolaou scouting for locations in advance and selecting real castle ruins to be featured in the movie, the director was soon faced with an incredibly difficult shooting process. In interviews, Nicolaou would later describe the experience as something of a nightmare, with language barriers and the generalized distrust of capitalist outsiders sabotaging many of the team’s plans for the film.
In fact, the script, which had already been altered by Band, ultimately had portions of it rewritten by both Jack Canson and Nicolaou himself in an attempt to adapt the story to their unique limitations.
Radu Is One of Horror’s Greatest Underrated Villains
In the finished film, which was released directly to video in 1991, we follow a pair of American anthropology students, Michelle (Laura Mae Tate) and Lillian (Michelle McBride), as they reunite with their Romanian colleague Mara (Irina Movila) in her native land. The group intends to study the folklore surrounding the secluded town of Prejmer, but their research is cut short by the return of Radu Vladislas (Anders Hove) – the evil son of a vampire king (Angus Scrimm) who had previously established a truce with the region’s human residents. It’s now up to Radu’s human-loving half-brother Stefan (Michael Watson) to protect the girls from a fate worse than death as the power-hungry vampire seeks to control a magical artifact known as the Bloodstone.
Right off the bat, you may have noticed that the film’s premise sounds decidedly old-fashioned when compared to other vampire movies from around the same time. While the 1990s saw the rise of cool-looking bloodsuckers with badass elements borrowed from Westerns, as well as the sexy aristocrats of Anne Rice’s stories, Subspecies has a lot more in common with Nosferatu and the Hammer Horror series than any of its contemporaries.
This is both a blessing and a curse, as the film falls victim to overly familiar genre tropes while also standing out as a rare example of a ’90s vampire flick that isn’t afraid to flex its muscles as a Creature Feature. In fact, I’d argue that the presence of age-old clichés is a small price to pay when confronted with one of the most compelling vampire antagonists in all of cinema.
Named after Vlad the Impaler’s real-life brother, Anders Hove’s Radu is such a fascinating character and the main reason why Subspecies is still worth watching 35 years later. From his animalistic mannerisms to the joy he feels in simply existing as a chaotic creature of the night, and that’s not even mentioning the iconic makeup that almost certainly inspired the undead from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Radu is a hypnotic presence harkening back to a time when audiences didn’t mind purely evil villains that couldn’t be redeemed through tragic backstories or sex appeal.
Gothic Atmosphere on an Indie Budget
Of course, the film’s Romanian setting and authentic art direction do a lot of the heavy lifting whenever Radu isn’t around. From the masked festivals of the village to the visually interesting selection of local extras, Subspecies’ multicultural elements help it to stand out when compared to similar flicks from the ’90s.
That being said, Nicolaou’s unique eye for special effects and exciting action sequences – as well as Vlad Paunescu’s excellent cinematography – make the movie a delight for fans of expressionist cinema and old-timey gothic horror. While the crew is obviously dealing with limited resources, many of the flick’s blemishes (such as the odd stop-motion demons that serve Radu) end up feeling more like charming idiosyncrasies than actual flaws.
I’d argue that the only real issue here is pacing, as there are long stretches of film where the protagonists are simply bumbling around without realizing what’s really going on around them. Thankfully, the gorgeous visuals and surprisingly effective soundtrack usually make up for this. Besides, how can you dislike a movie where shotgun shells are loaded with rosary beads and our lead vampires duke it out in a dramatic swordfight that would feel out of place during the golden age of Hollywood?
Your overall enjoyment of Subspecies will mostly depend on whether or not you find low-budget corner-cutting and janky practical effects charming rather than distracting, but I know I’ll keep coming back to this Full Moon feature again and again in the future.
That being said, while this first movie is worth revisiting by its own merits as the birth of an indie horror icon, I’d like to invite you to join us as we look into the cult sequel Bloodstone: Subspecies II soon.
You must be logged in to post a comment.