Written and directed by Kevin Smith and a noted departure from the slacker/stoner comedies he made his name with (though not a film devoid of his trademark dialogue and humor), Red State begins when a trio of boys living out in the Bible Belt area of the southwest United States - Billy-ray (Nicholas Braun), Randy (Ronnie Connell) and Travis (Michael Angarano) - decide to head out to a small town nearby to meet up with an older woman they've met on the internet who claims she wants to have sex with all three of them at the same time. On the way there their car sideswipes a car parked at the side of the road and while it first seems the car was empty, they soon realize it wasn't and make a fast exit. What they don't realize is that in that car was the town's sheriff, Wynan (Stephen Root, who will always be near and dear to some of our hearts for his performance as Milton in Office Space), who has been having covert sex with his gay lover before heading into work.

Milton sends his deputy, Pete (Matt Jones), out to investigate who hit his car, without telling him the details of course, while the boys meet up with their intended mate, Sarah (Melissa Leo). She offers them a few beers before they get down to business, but after a few swigs, they pass out - they've been roofied. When they wake up they're being held captive by Sarah and her family, the core members of the Five Points Church, lead by the fairly maniacal Abin Cooper (Michael Parks), who espouses along with his congregation that 'God hates fags' and 'God hates the military.' They've essentially trapped these three boys, sinners that they are, and intend to send them to Hell for their transgressions. These guys aren't going to go out willingly, however. On the other side of town, an ATF officer named Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) gets a phone call that sends him out of bed and into duty and once shots are fired, he and his assistant, Brooks (Kevin Pollack), are told by their higher ups to consider the Five Points congregation members to be terrorists and to use deadly force.

This is a film that absolutely will polarize viewers depending on your own personal political and theological views. Very obviously inspired by lunatic pastor Fred Phelps and the likeminded unholy scumbags that make up the all too real Westboro Baptist Church (Phelps is name-checked at one point in the movie) and the events that transpired in Waco, Texas when ATF agents took down David Koresh and the Branch Davidian complex, Red State as politically charged as it is intense and engrossing. A controversial concept is all well and good, but there's got to be a decent story behind it and strong performances to match if the movie is to mean anything. Thankfully, Smith's film delivers on those aspects as well. The script is lean, in fact maybe a little too lean as some more character development in regards not only to Goodman's character but to Parks' as well, would have gone a long way but this movie sets things up quickly and efficiently and then hits the ground running. There are a few great twists alongside side some moments of surprisingly intense violence but underneath the shaky cam action scenes and bursts of machine gun fire there's a movie that makes us think about certain aspects of the American political landscape. Without wanting to turn this review into a political soapbox, this is a film that raises a few questions worth thinking about though, despite a preachiness, ultimately lets us make up our own minds about the events that take place in the film, who made the right decision, and really brought down violence upon themselves.

As mentioned, the acting is very strong here. The actors who play the three teenage boys who get this whole horrible ball rolling are pretty convincing even if Nicholas Braun is basically playing a hick stereotype, and the various supporting members who make up the congregation of Five Points are all frighteningly convincing in their roles as anyone who has ever been around blindly obedient brain washed fanatics will attest to. The real stars of the show, however, are Parks and Goodman. Parks makes for a great antagonist here, delivering his fire and brimstone sermons with complete conviction and really taking the part and running with it without ever overdoing it, something that would have been very easy to do here and which would have hurt the film immensely. Goodman's ATF agent is also very well played, the seasoned and very underrated actor really bringing to life the conflicting emotions he feels in regards to listening to his superior officers over his moral compass.

A little more initial exposition might have gone a long way and the film is more a thriller than the horror movie that it's been called and subsequently marketed as (though it is definitely not short on horrific elements) but what makes the movie scary is that this is absolutely within the realm of possibility.

Video:

Red State looks good in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen on this DVD from Lionsgate. It stands to reasons that the Blu-ray release will trump it for detail but this is a solid standard definition presentation offering up good color reproduction and a nice, clean, stable image. There are some very minor compression artifacts in a couple of the darker scenes but you probably won't notice them unless you look for such things, but outside of that the image is quite good.