Red State (2011, R)

Kevin Smith as a writer/director tends to be a guy that you either love or hate, but this film is pretty different from any of his films I've seen in the past.  I know I had a blast watching Mallrats and Dogma, got some enjoyment out of the Clerks movies, could take a pass on Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (though I find the people who like Will Ferrell movies tend to enjoy this one: it's the same sort of silly and it's fun to anticipate the silliness on a second viewing), and I absolutely hated Gigli (with the exception of the one scene with Al Pacino).  However from any non-film appearances (such as An Evening With Kevin Smith) I find him to be a coarse, insulting and unpleasant person (as opposed to his movies which are coarse also but the insults are witty and enjoyable).  Red State is a horror movie, Smith's first forray into that genre as far as I know, but it changes gears to more of an action(/drama?) in the second half.  With a clever epiloge chapter in which I could almost hear Smith's voice speaking both sides of a conversation.  I really liked the epilogue and think he raised some interesting points that I don't want to be too specific about for fear of spoiling parts of the story.

The story involves what appears at first to be a group of fundamentalist Christians who make their oppinions very well known in the media and around town, but it turns out they're a religious cult that kills people they believe are wicked (which is pretty much everyone, but they tend to focus on homosexuals and other "deviants").  I really disliked these characters, as I was supposed to (and much like with God Bless America) I had to remind myself that this is not what all religious people are like, only the hyperbolic fringe.  My least favorite part of the film was a long sermon of hate by the preacher, and I get the impression this scene was largely to pad the time and get the movie to the 90 minutes that seeminly all horror movies are.  There were a lot of familiar faces in this movie but not a lot of huge names.  The preacher/grandfather of this family cult is played by Michael Parks (Kill Bill, Grindhouse [both Planet Terror and Death Proof segments]) who played his unlikeable part well.  Also in the film are Marc Blucas (Buffy The Vampire Slayer series), Anna Gunn and Matt Jones (Breaking Bad series), Stephen Root (King Of The Hill series, Office Space), Kyle Gallner (The Haunting In Connecticut, Nightmare On Elm Street [which is set on the Elm St of my hometown: cool, huh?] 2010 remake), Patrick Fischler (Lost and Mad Men series), Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), and by far the most famous actor from the film: John Goodman (Coyote Ugly, Roseanne series).  Play Where's Waldo and see if you can spot them all.

My favorite parts of the movie were when the storytelling style/genre changed (and did so in a pretty effective/organic way) and the clever ending.  Near the resolution of the second part something happend (not gonna say what) that really piqued my interest and had me curious which direction the filmmakers were going to go.  I do like that unlike many horror movies these days, this one avoided the found-footage or ghost story tropes.  If you like horror stories that go in a creative direction like this, I also reccommend The Washingtonians and Pro-Life which were featured in the Masters of Horror series; I haven't seen others of the 13 films, but I plan to assuming they are similarly good.  If you don't like horror movies or if seeing violent religious fanatics ruins your movie experience, then this movie is not for you.  For me, I'd give it about 4 out of 5 stars.  Good, but not enough for me to love the heck out of it.