Red State is Not a Horror Movie, But it is Pretty Horrible
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Red State follows a religious cult family as they lure those they think destined for Hell to an altar meant to hasten the journey.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
September 6, 2011
Movie Trailer
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Release: September 1, 2011 (VOD), October 18, 2011 (U.S. DVD)
Written and Directed by: Kevin Smith
Starring:
Michael Angarano as Travis
Deborah Aquila as Mrs. Vasquez
Nicholas Braun as Billy-Ray
Ronnie Connell as Randy
Kaylee DeFer as Dana
John Goodman as Joseph Keenan
Travis (Michael Angarano), Billy-Ray (Nicholas Braun) and Randy (Ronnie Connell) are three high-schoolers with typical teenaged libidos, and that is bound to get them into trouble. The trouble this time is an Internet swinger site where one of them found a trailer-park woman who is hot to trot with the three teens at one time. Who wouldn’t?
When the three arrive at the trailer the woman there is a bit older than advertised, but willing… and that’s all that’s necessary for these three horndogs. A couple of beers and they will be good to go… except the beers are drugged and when the boys awake they are prisoners of a religious cult determined to give sinners on earth a fast track to Hell.
Red State is not technically a horror movie, but there are certainly horrible things happening. Film maker Kevin Smith, known for films such as Clerks and Dogma, did an amazing job of making a social statement about religious extremism and conservative homeland security policies without being all Michael Moore one-sided about it. The fact is everybody in Red State is terrible in their own way, whether or not they have glimmers of humanity. The concept of hateful religious sects picketing the funerals of gay men is reprehensible, as is the concept of a government which will abuse power to railroad through anything that doesn’t fit with the societal norm, and each of these situations are tackled without apology or bias in this film.
From a gore perspective, Red State is more “shoot ‘em up” than Jason Voorhees slasher, although there is a depiction of an execution in the name of God that is pretty damn horrific. This isn’t the kind of gory horror that elicits a yell out loud and a hearty “Yee Haw!”, but much more uncomfortable and unnerving. Many “torture-porn” horror movies try their darndest to make the audience squirm in their seats, but this film achieves it as a simple part of the story.
The acting performances in Red State are phenomenal in their believability. Real, raw human interaction is depicted in this film both through truly horrifying situations and the handling of moral dilemmas as the battle between following orders and doing what is a right rage on both sides of the equation.
Red State has a definite slant toward recognizing and sympathizing with the plight of gay men struggling for happiness and survival in rural America, but thankfully avoids becoming a sappy statement of the wrongness of the faithful. In this film all parties, other than the villains themselves, admonish the violence and extremism, even the dogma behind it. What had the potential to be a trite statement about Liberal this or Conservative that is instead a horrible and extreme situation where everyone is a victim.
All of this sounds like Red State is a beginning to end social commentary about extremism in Religion, Government control State-ism and gay rights – but although this film certainly calls these elements into play the suspense and thrills are brought about without getting particularly preachy while still making the desired points. The John Goodman character is one possible exception to that actually, especially in the end as he launches into a monologue of stories from his life where he had to make choices. We could have done about that part, but it was fun seeing Goodman after all of his dramatic weight loss and wondering how long it will take his skin to snap back to normal body proportions. Ouch!
In the end we learn many things
from Red State, including the damage caused by crazed and
cultish religious fanaticism, the consequences of clandestine living
via the Internet and absolute government power corrupting absolutely –
even if the villains abused by the government are indeed villains
beyond anyone’s imagining. We also have some horror scenes made so by
the reality that these things are happening right now, all over this
nation. Light entertainment? Hardly. Good edge-of-your-seat
uncomfortable thriller? Absolutely.
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