Review of Red State (2011) by Tibor B — 20 Feb 2012

Kevin Smith delivers a fairly straight-forward modern horror film, seemingly inspired by some of his contemporaries efforts in the torture film sub genre. It begins fairly generically, with three horny high school kids attracted to a local trailer park after an anonymous woman online promises them sex.

Meanwhile a local extreme fundamentalist sect is supected of brutally killing local homosexuals. The woman is a set-up of course and the boys are kidnapped and tortured by the sect, while Goodman is an ATF agent investigating illegal firearms sparking a siege and gun battle.

Smith hides a few political comments amongst the blood and bullets, but nothing really stands out to match the generic violence. The cast is all very strong, and the films look belies it's small budget.

A potentially transcendent deus ex machina teasingly suggests a complete genre change into Lars Von trier territory, but it's disappointingly explained away rationally in the final internal investigation scene.

It's worth honourably noting that Smith distributed the movie completely independantly, adopting a roadshow type screening strategy and online word of mouth advertising.