Red State Review

Red State isn't what you expect it to be. And maybe that's because it's a film unfairly laden with baggage. After all, it's a Kevin Smith film, a director who has a devoted following. But this is a long way from Jersey Girl or even his early work.

Without dealing too much in spoilers, Red State centres on the Five Points Trinity Church - think of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church packing automatic weapons, and you'll be somewhere close to the maniacal Cooper clan. But instead of just perverting the word of God and slapping it on brightly-coloured homemade signs, The Coopers violently enforce it, kidnapping 'sinners' (homosexuals, deviants, fornicators) and speedily despatching them to the appropriate circles of hell.

It's a hard film to surmise, as it lacks a central protagonist. While the film opens with a trio of horny teenage boys out looking for kicks, about a third of the way through attention shifts to John Goodman's Federal Agent Keenan, who is sent to investigate a disturbance at the Cooper compound.

Up until this point, the pacing and atmosphere resemble most closely that of a horror movie, with a thickening sense of unease and vulnerability. This is closely followed by an excruciatingly drawn-out execution scene, which suggests that Red State is about to devolve into just another insipid Torture Porn movie, unnaturally fixating on the suffering of its protagonist. But thankfully, just when you think it's about to go in that direction, it turns into a siege movie with the introduction of Agent Keenan.

From here on, it's almost like watching an entirely different movie, with the non-stop discharging off bullets, as a masked crew of Special Agents go up against the besieged and demented Cooper clan.

At times, scenes go on way too long, and the dialogue is indulgently drawn out - instead of driving the narrative forward, some scenes are thinly-disguised Smith diatribes on everything from the horror of Christian fundamentalism to the hypocrisy of the US Patriot Act.

The cast is on the whole impressive. In particular, Michael Parks as Pastor Abin delivers a standout turn, with his baleful grin and disturbing blend of folksy charm and foul bigotry.

Even though it's a long way from something like Mallrats, the script is still laced here and there with Smith's trademark caustic wit. No more so than the epilogue, which strangely interrupts the film's climax - it won't be to everyone's liking. But it certainly alleviates the preceding tension with some genuine laughs.

Red State is hard to pin down. The scares aren't scary enough for a horror movie, and the action isn't explosive enough to qualify it as a great siege movie. It's a film of unwelded sections. Fans of Smith will still find enough of his distinctive voice breaking out now and again, but others may find this to be the film's undoing.

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