Review of Red State (2011) by Bobbythebrown — 05 Nov 2011

This film worked on zero levels. As a horror film, it was dismal. Christian fundamentalist caricatures with guns are not scary, and neither are shootouts with the ATF. As a satire, it was overblown. Subtlety is not something I necessarily expect out of Kevin Smith, but the religious, social, and political commentary here was less of a subtext and more of a bludgeon.

Finally, the writing was terrible. Exposition was lazily shoved into clunky dialogue, the dubiously motivated one-dimensional characters had plenty of groan-inducing lines, and plot holes abound, including several occasions of blatant deus ex machina (which are not excused, even in a film with religious themes).

This was terrible on all levels.