Red State

Back in 1994, when i was just 16 years old, i watched Kevin Smith´s debut film Clerks. Made of a budget under 30.000 dollars, it turned out to be a hit at the box office. It had some funny moments, and gave Kevin Smith a ticket straight to Hollywood. Since then Kevin Smith has continued making motion pictures, mostly comedies, and actually most of his movies has had Ben Affleck in the cast. With his latest motion picture Red State, he is ready to try something new. A religious thriller about a religious sect. Is this a new start for Kevin Smith, or should he continue making comedies?

3 best friends, Travis ( Michael Angarano ), Jared ( Kyle Gallner ), and Billy Ray ( Nicholas Braun ), decide to go on a road trip. They have found a woman online who is willing to have sex with them all at the same time. As they arrive to the womans trailer, everything seems alright. They are offered beer to relax before the fun starts, but something is wrong. They all fall asleep, as it turns out they have been drugged. As Travis wakes up, locked in a cage, he is inside a church held by Pastor Abin Cooper ( Michael Parks ), who leads the religious sect named Five Points Trinity Church. His friends are also hold hostage, as Pastor Abin call these boys sinners as well as homosexuals. Travis realise they will die if he doesn´t do something soon.

Suprise....suprise...Red State is actually a quite fun ride of religious psycho´s armed with machine guns. And its also disturbing in a way, because we all know there are plenty of religious sects who are all willing to die in the name of Jesus. Red State may not bring anything special in this subject, but it works well on paper, with a good cast, Especially Michael Parks as the Pastor, he really lives into his character. If there is one problem with this movie, it would be that it´s a bit too short. We could have learned more about the sect members, and why they became so obsessed with this church. Still, this is a pretty good piece of work. I have always been against religious sects, and after watching this one, i know my view on this subject won´t be more positive.

Rating: DDD