Red State. Smarter than your average horror flick.

Some of the best horror movies ever made usually have more to them than mindless violence, gore and death. Red State is one such movie. This violent escapade that is half Texas Chainsaw Massacre, half The Devils Rejects, takes the 'dark side of rural America' horror sub genre and elevates it by several notches; being more intelligently focused on its social and political message than on its bloody body count. 

Throughout history there have only been a few horror movies that have dared to go for a level of intelligence not normally seen in the genre. The 70s had Dawn of the Dead, the 80s had Poltergeist, while most recently we have had 28 Days Later and The Mist. Although Red State may not be as symbolic in its delivery as some of these other movies, it is intelligent with its message and story that is based purely in the realm of reality. Here there are no zombies or vengeful spirits, only cold hearted killers driven by religious belief.

Written and directed by comedian Kevin Smith, this movie does not take a swipe at religion like his earlier feature, the untactful and tasteless Dogma, but instead it focuses squarely on the fundamentalism and extremism that people may develop as a result of their religious zeal, and how this can lead them to do the most horrific and misguided things in the name of 'morality'. 

Taking a page or two out of Hostel, Red State follows the adventures of three teenage boys who plan for an evening of sexual debauchery with one older woman, during one night, at the same time. However the three suddenly find themselves in the middle of a twisted nightmare when a religious cult targets them for their sins, making them the next victims of a ritual sacrifice. The situation ironically goes from bad to worse when the cult's plans swiftly spiral out of control, as a county sheriff with a dark secret of his own, accidently stumbles upon their activities and calls in the FBI to help rescue the teenagers.

Red State is brutally violent and disturbing; but one should remember it is a horror movie, and so its purpose is to horrify. However and unfortunately, like most horror movies, all of its characters lack development and depth. Thus when the body count swiftly rises amongst the good guys, the audience can find little empathy for them. Other issues that prevent this movie from getting a higher score includes some seriously offensive and unnecessarily crude language, as well as the screenplay's overall unfocused nature: Red State has no principle protagonist, thus the story constantly shifts perspective from one group of characters or individual to another, which ultimately only further distances the viewer from all of them, making just about every person in this movie less likable or relateable.

On the upside, the audience is constantly reminded that this movie was written and directed by a comedian, so its rare moments of humor cleverly bounces from witty dialogue to some very black comedy, therefore producing some genuinely funny 'laugh out loud' scenes. Although the left-field twist ending and resulting coda somewhat derails Red State's pacing, this should not detract from the overall enjoyment of the movie.7/10

Bad Language: Very Strong.
Sex and Nudity: Brief nudity, but very strong verbal sexual references throughout the first 30 minutes.
Violence: Very Strong.