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Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #5-8
Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight Double Feature Vol. 2
Literature: overrated. Morality: expendable. Midnight is right for some over-the-top sex and violence, and this "Grindhouse" double feature is packing the aisles with blood 'n' guts and T 'n' A! Gasp as insatiable alien insects overtake a Southern town with only a one-eyed deputy to stop them in "Bee Vixens from Mars"! Shudder as the sexy lady convicts of Block E revolt against an insane warden in "Prison Ship Antares"! Tremble in anticipation at the gallery of shocking "coming attractions"!
Get filthy with this unique experience from Alex de Campi's "Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight"!
Collects issues #5-#8 of the miniseries in a filthy flipbook.
Get filthy with this unique experience from Alex de Campi's "Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight"!
Collects issues #5-#8 of the miniseries in a filthy flipbook.
112 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 2014
About the author
Alex de Campi
260 books240 followersAlex de Campi is a New York-based writer with an extensive backlist of critically-acclaimed graphic novels including Eisner-nominated heist noir Bad Girls (Simon & Schuster) and Twisted Romance (Image Comics). Her most recent book was her debut prose novel The Scottish Boy (Unbound). She lives with her daughter, their cat, and a Deafblind pit bull named Tango.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 21, 2016
Like the first volume, Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight, Volume 2 features one real stinker, in this case the utterly pointless (as far as I can tell) demon-attacks-girl-camp persiflage "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll," plus one contribution that is at least mildly interesting, here the more carefully and daringly conceived, less tongue-in-cheek, much darker and actually grindhouse-esque rape-revenge shocker "Bride of Blood." It's worth a look if you care for the exploitation genre, but not really enough to recommend the whole book.
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March 6, 2026My fave story in this, the second volume of Alex de Campi's graphic novel series "Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight Double Feature", is titled "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll", which has my vote for best title.
I learned several things reading this: 1) Female hockey players are predominantly horny lesbians. 2) A small group of Satanists came in on the Mayflower and inhabited upstate New York. 3) Native Americans knew how to use gunpowder long before English settlers arrived in this country. 4) Truck drivers are easily distracted by naked female boobs.
Some of these are common sense.
De Campi is naughty.
I learned several things reading this: 1) Female hockey players are predominantly horny lesbians. 2) A small group of Satanists came in on the Mayflower and inhabited upstate New York. 3) Native Americans knew how to use gunpowder long before English settlers arrived in this country. 4) Truck drivers are easily distracted by naked female boobs.
Some of these are common sense.
De Campi is naughty.
October 21, 2017
This is a really fun series. This volume continues the grindhouse goodness. The first story features a bride whose wedding night turns into a nightmare of rape and murder and the groom flees like a coward. She survives and exacts her bloody revenge. This one is set in medieval times and reads like a cross between Red Sonja and I Spit On Your Grave with some Joan of Arc thrown in. The second story is a group of female teenaged field hockey players who discover a gateway to Hell near their New York town. This one really had a great topless pie fight that was a true grindhouse type scene.
Great series that delivers what is promised. If anything I think it's a little tame considering the subject matter.
Great series that delivers what is promised. If anything I think it's a little tame considering the subject matter.
December 19, 2018
77th book read in 2018.
Number 136 out of 737 on my all time book list.
Campy, gory and oh so good.
Number 136 out of 737 on my all time book list.
Campy, gory and oh so good.
January 8, 2019
I saw this at the comics shop and mistakenly took it for comic book novelizations of old '70s movies. The titles in this volume are "Bride of Blood" (there is a Blood-Spattered Bride, which is a Spanish version of J Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla) and "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll" (there is a '70s movie called Flesh Feast, which is most famous for being Veronica Lake's last movie, and a '60s movie Devil Doll, which is about a ventriloquist). Neither book has anything to do with any of those movies. As a title, "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll" is a stretch.
That's fine. The idea, clearly, is that you're getting exploitation-type entertainment. But unlike the grindhouse movies of the era, you're not constrained by budgets or even much in the way of censors. (Though, wisely, I think, there's nothing raunchier than bare breasts here.) You can, as an artist, make a story along essentially cheesy/lurid lines but realize it in a way old film directors couldn't.
It's maybe kind of funny, then, that "Bride of Blood" doesn't really do much as far as that goes. There aren't a lot of "special effects" in this story about a girl who is pledged to marry a guy from a different house in a political move to unite the two lands, only to have her family slaughtered by marauders at the wedding. It's not bad.
The initial twist is both obvious and unsupported. That is to say, of course character X set everything in motion, and of course at no point does the writing or art tip us off to that, so that when the reveal comes we're simultaneously thinking "I knew it" but also going back to look for non-existent clues. I can't figure out if this is an homage to the cheesiness of these movies, or genuine cheesiness. Heh.
I was on the edge of four stars for this, but I knocked it down for "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll". This is grindhouse more like Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror. Young girls at a field-hockey camp (?) are beset by a demon in search of virgins. Which they are, or maybe aren't. Here we get a "special effect" in the form of said demon of the sort that would've been impossible 50 years ago.
The modern-ness of it put me off a bit, but what really kind of lost it for me was the art. Basically what exploitation movies did was get pretty girls half-naked and splashed with blood. During the interminable, boring dialog (if they were Spanish or Italian) or poorly lit sequences of forests and basements (American), there were one or more pretty girls to look at.
I'm not exaggerating here. Exploitation movies were 70 minutes of filler and 0-5 minutes of something that would generate some buzz.
FFotDD suffers from being too ambitious: You could say it wants to be Dawn of the Dead but there are only four characters in DotD. This is a 112 page comic which goes into a full-on zombie-survival mode, complete with looting for supplies, and it feels flimsy. This would be fine, in the exploitation tradition, if the girls were better to look at.
They're not great. They're often really masculine looking. This renders the girls-camp pie fight really uninteresting as well as some of the combat scenes. Also, just as a matter of taste, it's too modern for me. I would've enjoyed it more had they captured the feel of the era.
I like the concept. I might get more in the series at some point. It does feel, at some level, though, rather than making the most out of the medium in a way the old movies couldn't, de Campi is just pitching screenplays. (And FFotDD is in "pre-production" per IMDB. Heh.)
That's fine. The idea, clearly, is that you're getting exploitation-type entertainment. But unlike the grindhouse movies of the era, you're not constrained by budgets or even much in the way of censors. (Though, wisely, I think, there's nothing raunchier than bare breasts here.) You can, as an artist, make a story along essentially cheesy/lurid lines but realize it in a way old film directors couldn't.
It's maybe kind of funny, then, that "Bride of Blood" doesn't really do much as far as that goes. There aren't a lot of "special effects" in this story about a girl who is pledged to marry a guy from a different house in a political move to unite the two lands, only to have her family slaughtered by marauders at the wedding. It's not bad.
The initial twist is both obvious and unsupported. That is to say, of course character X set everything in motion, and of course at no point does the writing or art tip us off to that, so that when the reveal comes we're simultaneously thinking "I knew it" but also going back to look for non-existent clues. I can't figure out if this is an homage to the cheesiness of these movies, or genuine cheesiness. Heh.
I was on the edge of four stars for this, but I knocked it down for "Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll". This is grindhouse more like Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror. Young girls at a field-hockey camp (?) are beset by a demon in search of virgins. Which they are, or maybe aren't. Here we get a "special effect" in the form of said demon of the sort that would've been impossible 50 years ago.
The modern-ness of it put me off a bit, but what really kind of lost it for me was the art. Basically what exploitation movies did was get pretty girls half-naked and splashed with blood. During the interminable, boring dialog (if they were Spanish or Italian) or poorly lit sequences of forests and basements (American), there were one or more pretty girls to look at.
I'm not exaggerating here. Exploitation movies were 70 minutes of filler and 0-5 minutes of something that would generate some buzz.
FFotDD suffers from being too ambitious: You could say it wants to be Dawn of the Dead but there are only four characters in DotD. This is a 112 page comic which goes into a full-on zombie-survival mode, complete with looting for supplies, and it feels flimsy. This would be fine, in the exploitation tradition, if the girls were better to look at.
They're not great. They're often really masculine looking. This renders the girls-camp pie fight really uninteresting as well as some of the combat scenes. Also, just as a matter of taste, it's too modern for me. I would've enjoyed it more had they captured the feel of the era.
I like the concept. I might get more in the series at some point. It does feel, at some level, though, rather than making the most out of the medium in a way the old movies couldn't, de Campi is just pitching screenplays. (And FFotDD is in "pre-production" per IMDB. Heh.)
April 13, 2016
Beautiful artwork once again, though I was a tad confused for the first half of the book ... until our Bridely Knight showed up. First the dogs went mad--ate some guy's face off. Can't say I blame her for freaking out. Justice is totally served here in this issue. That whole Reavers thing was STAGED by this arse. What an asshole.
I am slightly disappointed in this issue ... where was the sleaze? I mean, our Bride was in a showy number, but ... I dunno. There was more gore than skin, and there wasn't a lot of gore at that in this issue. Some wonderful art and paneling, but nothing that really reached out at me as in previous issues. Not that I am saying this issue was bad by any means. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat as the others have.
I am so sad that the next 2 issues are the last in this mini-series. I really, really hope this gets picked up again. I would LOVE to read this ongoing.
Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
Merged review:
This issue, right away, returns to the style of the first two tales, and it is not unwelcome. Northeastern United States, split in time, the evil starts in Puritan times. It comes into power once again during a summer "now," and starts ravaging a nearby hockey camp.
The girls ... from page one the girls, oh man. It was sad when the devil doll ate the truck driver. He wanted to be loyal to his wife. She forced him. Totally a murder-rape. I guess that kinda sets a balance ... meh (not against the story, just the idea). I feel like there was a little less effort put into breaking the stereotypes in this issue, but we were repaid with great story. I can't wait to see the gory-ous conclusion. Though I will be sad it is the last issue--but there may be another "season"--hurrah!
The artwork, again, was a thing of beauty and skill. All the right kind of gore ... all the right nuances. Lots of boobies. Yeah, I really hope there is more to come. Speaking of cum ... in this issue ... yick. *snicker*
Read more commentary here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
Merged review:
In this midnight hour, I cried MORE MORE MORE! I need more. I want more. That was ... that was ... oh, how close we came to the line between terror and terrible! I think something like this might be what Kirkman was aiming for in "The Walking Dead" when Michonne's whole rape thing goes down. de Campi, in my humble opinion, is head and shoulders above in his execution.
This story is more fantasy where the other two were more sci-fi. The artwork was stunning. The first few pages were some of the most gorgeous panels I have seen since I started this foray through the comic world. I really hope this series is picked up for another go. Twelve issues is not going to be enough. And I don't know how I am going to have the patience to wait for the next issue.
The mention/feature of reavers in this comic makes me think of "Serenity." I can't wait for the next issue of that either. Their use here was very timely. For a second, I thought something was actually going to go right in these stories. Alas, they don't call it "The Bride of Blood" for nothing!
Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
I am slightly disappointed in this issue ... where was the sleaze? I mean, our Bride was in a showy number, but ... I dunno. There was more gore than skin, and there wasn't a lot of gore at that in this issue. Some wonderful art and paneling, but nothing that really reached out at me as in previous issues. Not that I am saying this issue was bad by any means. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat as the others have.
I am so sad that the next 2 issues are the last in this mini-series. I really, really hope this gets picked up again. I would LOVE to read this ongoing.
Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
Merged review:
This issue, right away, returns to the style of the first two tales, and it is not unwelcome. Northeastern United States, split in time, the evil starts in Puritan times. It comes into power once again during a summer "now," and starts ravaging a nearby hockey camp.
The girls ... from page one the girls, oh man. It was sad when the devil doll ate the truck driver. He wanted to be loyal to his wife. She forced him. Totally a murder-rape. I guess that kinda sets a balance ... meh (not against the story, just the idea). I feel like there was a little less effort put into breaking the stereotypes in this issue, but we were repaid with great story. I can't wait to see the gory-ous conclusion. Though I will be sad it is the last issue--but there may be another "season"--hurrah!
The artwork, again, was a thing of beauty and skill. All the right kind of gore ... all the right nuances. Lots of boobies. Yeah, I really hope there is more to come. Speaking of cum ... in this issue ... yick. *snicker*
Read more commentary here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
Merged review:
In this midnight hour, I cried MORE MORE MORE! I need more. I want more. That was ... that was ... oh, how close we came to the line between terror and terrible! I think something like this might be what Kirkman was aiming for in "The Walking Dead" when Michonne's whole rape thing goes down. de Campi, in my humble opinion, is head and shoulders above in his execution.
This story is more fantasy where the other two were more sci-fi. The artwork was stunning. The first few pages were some of the most gorgeous panels I have seen since I started this foray through the comic world. I really hope this series is picked up for another go. Twelve issues is not going to be enough. And I don't know how I am going to have the patience to wait for the next issue.
The mention/feature of reavers in this comic makes me think of "Serenity." I can't wait for the next issue of that either. Their use here was very timely. For a second, I thought something was actually going to go right in these stories. Alas, they don't call it "The Bride of Blood" for nothing!
Read more commentary and add your own here: http://www.rjspindle.com/content/grin...
February 22, 2018
Two very different takes but together a quite enjoyable double-feature that feels true to the grind house genre. Importantly, it felt like the creative teams were having fun with this, rather than just trying make a quick buck with the genre.
February 21, 2018
A pair of stories meant to evoke old grindhouse films, neither is particularly good or bad, but it's a nice format and an interesting experiment all the same.
May 16, 2018
Two entertaining horror comics in one, both very bloody.
June 28, 2020
The second portion of the Grindhouse comics, well written and with great artwork. The first is a great revenge story and the second features a group of field hockey players taking on a demon.
July 21, 2024
Grindhouses were shitty rundown theatres in less than desirable neighborhoods that showed double feature B-films to a largely adolescent male audience. While I was too young to partake in them, when we were younger my brother and I loved the garbage cultural wasteland of bad movies and loud music which were the byproducts of these grindhouse films. My older brother had this criteria during the 1980s for determining whether a movie was good or not: Graphic violence, excessive profanity, and fleeting nudity. These are the things that all adolescent males want to see before adulthood comes along and sucks the life right out of you.
This book is presented in a flipbook format, meaning that you read the first two issues and then flip it over to read the other side. This is the “double feature” aspect. There were still double features well into the '80s, so I experienced them as a kid. I remember my Mom taking me to see Megaforce and Psycho 2 at one when I was 9 years old. Psycho 2 made me lose sleep for days. Thanks Mom!
The first half of the book is Bride Of Blood, a medieval Horror story. Lots of blood and guts here. I tried to read this stuff with an adolescent mindset, as this type of stuff doesn't work as well if you read it as a forty-something year old adult. A virgin bride is violated, ergo...bride of blood. Yeah. This stuff is so cheesy but it works in the framework provided. The artwork is too modern and polished to fit in with the era that Grindhouse tries to emulate, though. Flat colors and smaller panels would work better. The rest of this book is presented as an artifact yet the features look modern and polished, a contrast that falls flat on it's face.
The flipside of the book is Flesh Feast Of The Devil Doll, this one evoking more of a turn-of-the-1980s slasher flick vibe. It has a gossamer thin plot and all of the trappings of post-Friday The 13th knock-offs, which is meant as a compliment. The summer camp. Desecrated burial ground. Horny teens. Virginity. So on and so forth. Nothing that you haven't seen before if you have seen a dozen or more movies from that era. It's fun and entertaining. The twist is that they inject the 21st century into it, with fracking opening up a “gate to Hell”, so to speak. Now that is rich!
This was an enjoyable enough light read that I recommend for Horror fans. You could certainly do worse.
This book is presented in a flipbook format, meaning that you read the first two issues and then flip it over to read the other side. This is the “double feature” aspect. There were still double features well into the '80s, so I experienced them as a kid. I remember my Mom taking me to see Megaforce and Psycho 2 at one when I was 9 years old. Psycho 2 made me lose sleep for days. Thanks Mom!
The first half of the book is Bride Of Blood, a medieval Horror story. Lots of blood and guts here. I tried to read this stuff with an adolescent mindset, as this type of stuff doesn't work as well if you read it as a forty-something year old adult. A virgin bride is violated, ergo...bride of blood. Yeah. This stuff is so cheesy but it works in the framework provided. The artwork is too modern and polished to fit in with the era that Grindhouse tries to emulate, though. Flat colors and smaller panels would work better. The rest of this book is presented as an artifact yet the features look modern and polished, a contrast that falls flat on it's face.
The flipside of the book is Flesh Feast Of The Devil Doll, this one evoking more of a turn-of-the-1980s slasher flick vibe. It has a gossamer thin plot and all of the trappings of post-Friday The 13th knock-offs, which is meant as a compliment. The summer camp. Desecrated burial ground. Horny teens. Virginity. So on and so forth. Nothing that you haven't seen before if you have seen a dozen or more movies from that era. It's fun and entertaining. The twist is that they inject the 21st century into it, with fracking opening up a “gate to Hell”, so to speak. Now that is rich!
This was an enjoyable enough light read that I recommend for Horror fans. You could certainly do worse.
August 8, 2015
Alex de Campi is a disturbed crazy person and I'm so glad she's a writer and not some lone drifter, muttering somewhere in the dark. If the title "Grindhouse" intrigues you at all, you're going to like this horrifically violent series and especially this volume's stories. I could have used a little more in "Bride of Blood," but there's something poetically violent in how little backstory we get. The "Devil Doll" story was pretty much perfect though. De Campi has quickly become one of my favorite writers in comics, and when she works with such talented artists, she's untouchable.
July 28, 2016
The same "one-gem, one turd" pattern as the first volume repeats itself here, but with a bit more diversity in its offerings. The first story "Bride of Blood" has a misty European elegance reminiscent of Jean Rollin And Jess Franco, and is quite chilling and effective. The second story feels like ultra-low budget shot-on-video muck, in which the only saving grace is a cool monster design that an actual movie like this couldn't pull off due to budget restrictions. As always I loved the additional posters scattered throughout.
October 6, 2015
via NYPL - I've enjoyed de Campi's work elsewhere and wanted to give this a shot despite never being a grindhouse cinema fan, per se. And honestly, this just left me bored. The art was solid, but the twists seem lazy, which maybe is half the point, so let's chalk it up to me not being the audience for this one and move on.
June 5, 2015
Campy, forgettable fun with nice art and some great covers/movie posters.
July 4, 2016
If you love Quentin Tarantino??? You will love this...
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