Red State

Reviewed from the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

Cast:



Michael Parks as Pastor Abin Cooper



Melissa Leo as Sarah Cooper



John Goodman



Kyle Gallner



Michael Angarano



Nicholas Braun as Billy Ray



Ralph Garman as Caleb



Kerry Bishé as Cheyenne



Stephen Root



Kevin Pollak



Marc Blucas



Kevin Alejandro as Tactical Agent Harry



James Parks as Mordechai Cooper



Betty Aberlin as Abigail



Deborah Aquila as Teacher



Gary Sievers as Luke / Believer



John Lacy as Bruce



Shawn Driscoll as Isiah



Molly Livingston as Fiona May

Directed by Kevin Smith

Review:

To say there are few movies that have as much buzz going into Sundance as Kevin Smith’s first foray into horror with Red State would be an understatement because there are NO movies that have been discussed and debated as much without anyone having seen it. There’s also all the controversy surrounding the unconventional way the outspoken filmmaker has chosen to market and sell the movie that has created a “prove it” attitude in the mind of movie writers, something that accounted for the dozens of them standing in line early one morning to get tickets. All these elements added up to a premiere with a huge demand for tickets as well as becoming one of the festival’s biggest events. But did the actual movie live up to all that hype and expectations? Read on.

On the surface, the plot is about three horny teens in a remote area of the country who answer an online ad from a woman soliciting sex. Once they arrive, they’re drugged and they wake up in a church lined up as sacrificial lambs for evangelical preacher Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), the leader of the Five Points Church who wants to rid the world of homosexuals. One would think that this sort of premise would be prime fodder for the type of gory horror Eli Roth has done so well (depending on who you ask) but as soon as we arrive at the church and are subjected to a ridiculously long sermon by Park’s character as a preamble to killing a homosexual they’ve saran-wrapped to a cross, the wind is sucked out of the movie’s sails pretty damn quick.

It’s cool that Smith decided to get away from normal horror conventions, which would have had each of the three kids tortured and killed in gruesome ways as one of them tries to survive and escape, but it’s pretty clear the three kids in jeopardy aren’t particularly important to the story. None of them are given too much personality even by horror movie standards so no tears will be shed when they’re offed so quickly without a second glance back.

Halfway through the movie, John Goodman shows up as an ATF agent called to the Five Points Church to investigate shots fired and a Waco-like scenario is created as the film turns into a shootout with every man and woman in the church grabbing a weapon from their impressive armory and fighting to defend their turf. The problem is that when one goes into a “horror” movie, they expect something that’s scary or suspenseful and while the thought of people out there in the world who think just like Cooper and his flock is pretty terrifying, the subject matter could have been handled in a way that didn’t try to sell the movie as if it was “horror.” The movie doesn’t even look that great, possibly because Smith had less money than most of his other films, but also because he tries to use overused camera techniques like strapping cameras to his actors while they’re trying to escape which just distracts from sense of reality.

If nothing else, “Red State” is a fine showcase for the talents of Michael Parks to give a over-the-top performance as the preacher who decides to be more proactive in doing “God’s work,” but Cooper is a character who starts to grate on the nerves about halfway through that long sermon. Other than Parks, the film does have a number of strong dramatic moments, most of them involving Goodman, Melissa Leo as the preacher’s wife or Kerry Bishé as the preacher’s daughter who just wants to spare the kids in the church when the gunfire begins. They do help add to the tension, but at a certain point, you start caring for the survival of the homophobic members of the church and surely, that couldn’t have been Smith’s intentions.

Smith ends the shootout in a bizarre way before cutting to an epilogue with Goodman explaining to his superiors what happened and learning the truth about how little our government cares for religious zealots, a long expository conversation which is where we finally get to see some of Kevin’s clever writing, but it just feels too late by the point.

And that’s the kicker. For better or worse, “Red State” just doesn’t have enough of the elements we expect from a Kevin Smith movie, and instead, it feels like one of Smith’s Twitter rants fleshed out into film with equal portions of bile sprayed at both church and state. The results aren’t great, they’re also not terrible, but you’d be good to know what you’re getting when you go in. You have to give Smith credit for doing something completely different and unexpected, but those who like his previous work might be disappointed in how little of the warmer side of his personality is present, and horror fans will feel especially ripped off with how little the film resembles anything that may be deemed conventional horror.