Red State Movie Review

Movie Review

In Middle America, three horny teenagers travel to Cooper’s Dell after responding to an older woman’s online invitation for sex.  However, their schoolboy fantasy turns sinister as Christian extremists led by the twisted preacher Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) holds them captive in his compound known as the Five Points Church.  As the Pastor and his congregation embark on a reign of terror forcing the boys to witness executions before being prepared for their own death, they have to contend with the arrival of Federal Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) and his team who are armed, dangerous and ready to bring these mother****ers down.

This is a huge departure for Kevin Smith, who is used to doing comedies like ‘Clerks’ and ‘Chasing Amy’, for this is the horror flick that he’s been trying to get off the ground for years.  Finally he is financing and distributing it himself state side to get around the bureaucratic side of the system, hopefully it’ll pay off when it is released in a few weeks over there. But does his first outing in the different genre work, well the answer is kind of, the story is an interesting one but it does fall apart as the movie progresses and the ending screams of someone not knowing how to finish.  The other interesting thing for me was how unbiased the film is, it has a go at religion and authority in equal measure with both of them coming off as the bad guy in different respects, which is a sign of a filmmaker growing with his age.

Visually the film has a great handheld style about it with the action beats being very adrenaline rushed and tense while his trademark humour only pops up a few times which shows great restraint.  What brings the film down in a lot of ways is the uneven pacing along with the underdeveloped characters, while it attempts to bring you something scary and shocking, it doesn’t quite get there in the end.

Most of the characters aren’t fleshed out beyond face value with a few exceptions being Michael Parks, who is a revelation as the preacher and how he doesn’t get more work is beyond me.  John Goodman is grand as the Federal agent if a little one note and his about face towards the end of the flick is a little jarring.  Lastly, there’s Oscar winner Melissa Leo, who is just fire and brimstone on legs throughout the film and probably the scariest thing here.

This is an interesting one as most Kevin Smith fans probably won’t like it but it is a decent film from a director trying to broaden his horizons which is always a good thing, worth a rent on DVD.

‘Red State’ is out in cinemas now.