Red Room: Trigger Warnings #1
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A review by Jesse Baker
Red Room: Trigger Warnings #1 Review
By Jesse Baker
After a bit of a hiatus, we finally get a new issue of Ed Piskor’s snuff film themed comic book “Red Room”, now relaunched with a new #1 and subtitle “Trigger Warnings”. But ironically, the title’s proclamation that the story is self-contained is pretty much a lie.
“Red Room: Trigger Warning #1” might as well be “Red Room #3.2” as it explains a major plot twist we first saw in Red Room #4. In “Red Room #4”, we find out that Davis Fairfield, a civilian police station clerk turned Red Room killer had been busted for possessing snuff films (in the world of “Red Room”, possessing snuff film is treated by law enforcement on the same level of criminality as possessing child pornography in terms of severity). “Red Room: Trigger Warnings #1” tells how he got caught and more backstory about the murderous father of the year.
We find out that Davis has been killing for quite some time, even before his wife’s death. In one panel, showing a young version of Davis Fairfield stalking a victim, Davis is drawn in the style of famed murderer Edmund Kemp. Indicating new subtext for the character of Davis being a version of Edmund Kemp who managed to avoid capture for his murders and settled down to a life of a loving husband and father when he wasn’t murdering women.
Despite being paid by the villainous Mistress Pentagram to be her newest Red Room video stream murderer, we find out that Davis is still killing hookers and other random women on the side. The conversation comes up when Davis complains about having to use the subhuman inbred “CHUDS” that Mistress Pentagram breeds in captivity to use for her snuff film factory’s victims. Davis forfeits some of his Bit Coin payments for his risky behavior, but manages to continue to secure his daughter’s safety from his boss.
Sadly, Davis’s daughter comes close to finding out his secrets after following her father around. She catches him with a hooker (who he kills) though she doesn’t see him exit with the corpse in a pair of carry-on luggage bags. Going to his cabin, she catches Mistress Pentagram’s people loading a crate into a truck (containing her dad) and then some guts she attributes to a gutted deer her father killed, along with some of her dad’s tit torture pornographic magazines. Sadly, her father finds out that she’s been snooping on him but before he can confront her, Davis gets busted by the federal government for possession of snuff films.
Like previous issues, “Red Room: Trigger Warnings #1” features an extended “Red Room” snuff sequence. This issue’s sequence is one called “The Rat Queens” conceived by Davis for his employers: seven CHUD women have their ratty long hair tied together linking them together and, after one has their foot cut off, the seven women revert to a bloodthirsty cannibalistic fury that causes them to attack each other, with Davis (in disguise as the Decimator) kills them off one by one as viewers cheer him on and donate bit coins to Mistress Pentagram for the show. The “show” sequence features the usual chat room commentary, which implies the watches are all super rich people as they talk about expensive vacation spots and buying their kids into the college of their choices while watching the carnage.
All together a decent comeback issue for the series. Next issue is advertised with the introduction of a new set of Red Room killers, “The Pumpkinz”; a man and a woman who wear pumpkin themed hockey masks.
