RED ROOM #1 (Spoiler-Free Review)

Red Room #1 is gory, disturbing, brutal, yet the scariest part of the book is the dark realness of its subject. Snuff has been around for decades. In hushed clandestine circles, this genre and its VHS roots grew into the forbidden forest of the dark web and has become more available to those in “the know”. Movies such as 8MM and Videodrome have depicted the violent voyeurism of this taboo genre. In walks Ed Piskor and his brutal, mind-blowing, and fascinatingly grotesque Red Room.

Red Room is a tale of the dark web and the modern horrors that live in that nefarious corner of the internet. The idea of red rooms and what “supposedly” goes on is stomach-turning on so many levels, however, it makes for some really great horror and this is where Ed Piskor comes in and completely terrifies and entertains. Piskor does a great at delivering quality horror that will have the reader coming to different pre-conceived conclusions up until the last jaw-dropping panel. 

Ed Piskor’s brilliant way of intertwining good storytelling while using your own mind to scare you is genius. From Davis Mayfield to his daughter Brianna and the mysterious Mistress Pentagram, the characters in Red Room don’t take center stage but simply lend their service of diving into the reader’s conscience and asking the question of “how far is too far”. I enjoyed how he worked the characters and made sure they knew their place and didn’t force un-needed development that could have taken away from the overall story. Red Room #1 has all the makings of a great horror story and really hit on some solid genre wickets. Instead of having some reincarnation of Jason Vorhees, Ed Piskor went with the simple approach and decided to recruit your mind to help scare, disgust, and entertain you and I can’t wait for more! 

Is Red Room for everyone, absolutely not but if you are a fan of horror and taboo topics I would strongly recommend you grab a copy because this is horror at its finest. Halfway through I started to get visions of one of my all-time favorite horror writers Clive Barker. I’m not sure if Ed is a fan of Clive’s work but this is one hell of a homage that speaks clearly of Barker’s imprint and influence on the genre and I mean that with utmost respect and sincerity to Piskor’s offering to the gore gods.