Red State

2011

I had never seen this movie or knew much about it, except that it was directed by Kevin Smith. So there is warning number one. Do NOT trust IMDb.com tags. Or movie posters. Or trailers. They are used by movie studios to get more people to see their films.

Now as most people who saw the trailer, I thought this was going to be a horror film with some action elements. Instead, it was more of a police procedural with some creepy exaggerated characters.

The movie starts out “horror-ish” enough. Dumb teenagers looking at boobies, decide to go drinking in the middle of nowhere to get boobies, then end up becoming the victims. But then, we get lectured by a crazy fundamentalist preacher who reminds me of a young Kris Kristofferson. I hope that’s the look he was going for. There is also lots of singing vaguely familiar but barely audible church hymns. So I guess there is another “scary movie” element there. Like voices of little children surrounding you with old lullabies.

However, then John Goodman enters the picture as the ATF agent who is going to save everyone he can. That’s where the “horror film” went out the window and I just stayed to the end of the movie to hear John Goodman’s monologues. Damn, that man is good at the one-sided conversation. If there was a hall of fame for monologues, it would be called “The John Goodman Museum of Words.”

The film ends with dead bodies, way too many kills shots to eye sockets, and me remembering from what movie I know Melissa Leo. I swear, that woman could live in my apartment room, and I wouldn’t know her from Adam if I saw her on the street. But she is darn good actress and made the movie pretty good with her convincingly Christian ways.

It’s not terrible, but it’s not a Halloween film. It’s just a John Goodman film. And that should be good enough for anyone.