Kevin Smith's Red State

Howdy,
So, I have always been a devote Kevin Smith disciple. Always preaching the good word that is Kevin Smith. Now he is entering into a genre that I have always loved, Horror. And, in typical Smith fashion, he is doing it his own way. Red State will be premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this year. And already, similar to Dogma, Smith is already making friends in the religious community. The film, which centers around christian fundamentalism, has already attracted some it's first picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. This is the group responsible for the "God hates Fags" website.

“To me there’s all kinds of horror, and killing someone’s not the absolute worst thing you could do to another human being. The death in a horror movie has always been the money shot in a very exploitative manner. Stabbing somebody and splashing blood all over them is the equivalent to some dude exploding over some broad’s face,” Smith told Rotten Tomatoes.

Smith goes on into more detail about the film.


“The movie’s called ‘Red State’ and it’s very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It’s certainly not Phelps himself but it’s very much inspired by a Phelps figure,” revealed Smith. “And to me, too, the notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there’s even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that’s the other thing that I’m trying to examine in a big, big way. It’s weird because for a few months I’ve been saying ‘horror movie’ and technically it is, but it’s also not a very traditional horror movie in the sense that people have been asking me, ‘Is it a slasher movie? Is it like the Japanese horror flicks?’ It’d be much easier to just show it to them when I’m done and be like, ‘This is what I meant.’ At which point I’m sure there’ll be people saying, ‘This ain’t a horror movie!’ But to me, it is.” From Slashfilm

 Minor plot spoiler from News Askew:
The film follows a trio of high school boys whose online invitation to a gangbang leads them to a murderous pack of religious crazies. Michael Angarano, John Goodman, Melissa Leo and Michael Parks highlight the ensemble cast. Smith compares it to “Race With the Devil” and “Rosemary’s Baby,” insisting (despite its title) that it’s not political and, though it contains some “gallows humor,” not a comedy.

Everything that Smith has came with, especially Jersey Girl, I've enjoyed. He has the thinkers point of view on subject matter. Coming from a Catholic background as well, Dogma really spoke to me on a more spiritual level. Looking past the dick and fart jokes, he has a real good idea on religion that I can relate to. Red State is undoubtedly his more political project to date, aside from his film with Prince on the Purple Rain Ranch, I think that this will be a thinking man's horror movie and be in it's on sub-genre of it's on.


 -J