Fun, gross, and makes you feel just a tad bit guilty for enjoying it so much.
What They Say:
Lace up for the “Flesh Feast”! Built on the site of a Puritan-era curse, Camp Oneida is better known today for vicious hockey matches and even more intense pie fights! But when the Devil Doll returns to seduce and kill once more, the Oneida hockey girls make with the high-sticking!
Creators:
Story and Letters: Alex de Campi
Art and Color: Gary Erskine
The Review:
In 1725 a bunch of pervy Puritans, with the help of a rather willing blonde victim, begin a ritual to summon the demon lord Azaroth. They are stopped by a group of warriors from a nearby Native American tribe and their wicked plans lay in rest and ruin under the earth. 289 years later that same plot of earth becomes the playing field for an all-girls field hockey camp. The story really begins with the introduction of the camp’s newest member, Renae, who feels more than a little homesick. She’s taken under the wing of the de facto leader, Tina, and embarks on what might well be a fun and memorable experience.
That is until they go out on the town to find some fun.
At the same time as Ranae is acclimating herself to her new home for the next month, the ghost of the young woman who was to be the vessel for Azaroth appears on the highway and seduces a passing trucker (she uses the age-old trick of flashing her breasts). She ends up killing him and filling him up with what I believe to be demonic semen, making him her slave, and she then travels to the local truck stop to repeat the process. The story comes to a head when the girls from the field hockey camp meet up with a group of local boys at the nearby Wal-Mart. The teens are surrounding by the zombie truckers, all saying that they want “The Virgins” (Tina, it should be noted, learns that anal doesn’t count when it comes to the needs of virgin-hunting demons). The story ends with Tina and the rest getting ready to rumble (presumably field hockey style) with the demons.
Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll is a nice change of pace after the heavy and very disturbing previous story arc. While Bride of Blood was well written and drawn, I’m not a fan of rape-revenge stories, so it hit me harder in some ways than the other stories in this anthology. I always enjoyed the supernatural horror Grindhouse movies better, so Devil Doll is a bit more in my comfort zone.
This is not to say that it does not have its disturbing moments. One of the aspects I love the most about de Campi’s writing is that she is fearless and she will go places that I would second-guess if I were writing the story. Good writing is disturbing writing and it needs writers who are either not afraid to go there, or are simply strong enough to quell those certain nagging voices that hold back other. In this case some of the more disturbing moments are the sacrifice’s sexual excitement at the thought of being possessed by Azaroth, and the manner in which she kills her victims when she resurfaces later. While it’s never said that her stinger injects her male victims with semen, it’s not a huge leap to infer that and seeing them walking around with white, viscous goo running from their mouths, noses, and eyes does make one feel a bit nauseous.
Those are, of course, part and parcel for this genre, and as I have mentioned in my previous six reviews, de Campi and her crew know their Grindhouse very well. While that is all well and good, what makes this series worth reading is the overall level of craft in this book. This is smart writing and smart artistry, and one aspect I enjoy about this anthology that is just now coming to light is how different each story is in more than just its subject matter. Bee Vixens from Mars was a classic science fiction/horror story; Prison Ship Antares was a jailbreak story in a science fiction setting; Bride of Blood was a rape-revenge story in a medieval European setting; and Devil Doll is a zombie/demon horror story with perhaps a bit of rebellious youth thrown into the mix for good measure. Bride of Blood was interesting in that it jettisoned the playful tone of the two stories that preceded it, which is honestly for the best given that I don’t think that one can really tell a playful story about rape. Devil Doll’s tone, on the other hand, feels more in keeping with Bee Vixens, and it makes for a nice contrast.
Take, for example, the encounter between the Native American warriors and the Puritan cultists. The first time we see the warriors on panel they look confident and more than a little disgusted with what they’re seeing. Their dialogue is not in English—I can’t say whether it is an authentic and accurate Native dialect or not—but their disgust and contempt for the cultists comes through beautifully thanks to Erskine’s art, and the cherry on that particular piece of pie is one of the warriors flipping the cultists the bird as he and his friends make their escape.
I also enjoyed the interactions between the girls in the camp. Tina in particular is smart and funny and confident, even if she is just “faking it” as she tells Renae. I totally buy that this group of girls can take on a bunch of zombies and their demon queen with nothing but field hockey sticks, some brass knuckles, and sheer attitude.
In Summary:
Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll ends the same way as the other Grindhouse issues: with a fake movie poster. I think it pretty well sums up why this is such a fun issue and why this is such a great anthology overall. The flavor text on the poster reads, “It came from Hell, They came from hockey camp” and “It just messed with the wrong virgins.” It’s that kind of tongue-in-cheek attitude coupled with strong writing and art that makes this such an enjoyable and even thought-provoking comic. As always, I’ll be back next month for the latest issue and I hope you will too. Highly recommended.
Grade: A+
