Review of Red State (2011) by Kyle G — 23 May 2012

Though it starts out with some typically easy Kevin Smith vulgarity, Red State becomes a seriously gruesome, seriously dark satire of vindictive Christian neocon zealotry. It has the beats of teen goofball exploitation, suburban horror, and then grungy suspense, but at no point -- even after reading reviews, learning of the 'Smith offers his work to distributors, then buys it himself' production imbroglio, etc. -- could I easily report what kind of film this was.

Three teens, on the pretext of random sex, get caught in an area neo-fascist/neo-Christian cult's web, where they're to be held up as fornicators and punished. What follows is somewhat the cult's story, somewhat the teens' escape attempts, and somewhat an official ATF raid on the compound.

There are some absurdly unbelievable moments: during a firefight, some members of the Christian splinter group take a moment as they're holed up to have a little Biblical pow-wow, and some ATF officers likewise have a little chat about strategy, their zone of influence, etc. It's a little hard to take... that kind of nicely served up exposition. But for a script as ambitious and unexpected as this one, those weaknesses are much easier to take.