Red State
[Warning: This review contains spoilers. A lot of spoilers. If you want to watch this movie and not know the basics of the plot, theme and ending, then don't read it.]Red State is something different.
At least it is for Kevin Smith, the funny man who's known for his shock comedy films that balance sex/gross out humor with punchy, witty dialogue that speaks for a generation. Kevin Smith's generation, and mine as well.
Red State isn't a comedy. It isn't strictly speaking horror either, though it is at times incredibly terrifying. Playing with the idea of taking fanatical Christians, like Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist church up a level, and law enforcement agencies that churches with compounds always clash against, what Red State does is balance the horror of fanatics with the horror of the state (government) and it almost succeeds. Well it gives a good go of it at least.
The films opens with Travis (played by Michael Angarano) being driven to school by his mother past a local funeral home. The funeral, for a gay teen that had recently been found dead in an ally, is being protested by the Five Points Church, an extremist Christian Church who is anti-gay. At school Travis meets up with his friends Jarod (Kyle Gallner) and Billy-Ray (Nicholas Braun). Jarod tells Travis and Billy-Ray about a 38 year old woman he's been talking with online and how she wants to meet the three of them for sex that night.
After securing the car for the evening the three boys drive out to meet the woman who's going to rock their world, so to speak. On the way there they side swipe a parked car, after discovering an occupant who looks unharmed they get into their vehicle and flee to meet their internet date. Getting to a small trailer the woman invites them in and encourages them to drink beer: "I don't take no man to bed unless he's had at least two beers." She coaxes the boys in the bedroom to undress and as they do the beer, which was drugged, does its work. This is all pretty standard stuff for horror movies. It's played up a little different, but not much. Where the film takes a turn is in the next scene. Jarod finds himself locked in a cage with a cloth over it, he can hear, and barely make out a barely moving body next to (and bound to) a cross. Kevin Smith could have played up the wackiness of the cult, falling for over the top gimmicks that show up in movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and House of 1000 Corpses. But he doesn't. Smith wants this to be real. Feel real. Instead he let's the leader of the church, Mordechai (James Parks) deliver a sermon. This is deadly serious stuff, and the calm timbre and cadence of James Parks speech belies a sinister motive that only becomes apparent when he uncovers the man tied -with plastic wrap- to the cross and the other male members of the flock wrap him with plastic the rest of the way, shoot him in the head, and then drop him through a trap door in the floor where Billy-Ray and Travis are tied up. Jame Parks handles this scene beyond beautifully. He feels like a real preacher, delivering a real sermon. He's not pomp and circumstance, nor straight bible thumping fire and brimstone, there's a certain evil there that doesn't make you feel uncomfortable because of how absurd it is, but because of how real it is. There's nothing absurd about Mordechai or his flock. Smith never does anything to make them odd-ball or goofy, and instead just lets the scene play itself out. After dropping the dead body into the pit the flock then proceed to retrieve Jarod from his cage and wrap him up to the cross as well.
This is where things take a turn: The car that the boys hit earlier belonged to the local sheriff (Stephen Root) who has been meeting men apparently for oral sex for some time. Not wanting to be caught he goes back to the station and ask the deputy (Matt Jones) to go find the culprit, giving him a description of the car that hit him while making up a story about what he was doing. The deputy finds himself at the family/church's compound just in time to interrupt the next murder. Mordechai goes and speaks with him, potentially diffusing the situation, but while he does the Billy-Ray escapes, leading the men of the compound on a chase through the basements that lead to his death, a member's death and, because he heard the shots, the deputies death. Before dying however the deputy has a chance to call it in to the sheriff. The Sheriff is ready to pursue it further when Mordechai takes control, telling the sheriff he knows his secrets and that if he doesn't leave him and the church alone, he'll reveal it. The sheriff gives in and is about to commit suicide when he notices a wanted poster by the ATF.
This cuts to Agent Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) who is an ATF agent investigating the church and the family. After what appears to be a lengthy phone call with a higher ranking agent who's not directly involved with the case, Agent Keenan is given the go ahead to serve a warrant and search for weapons.
At the compound Travis, after hiding behind the dead body of Billy-Ray, grabs a gun and sneaks his way to the chapel. After getting up the courage, he runs through the chapel with the family members mourning the loss of their member (and preparing to kill Jarod) and is trapped briefly in the house with several of the men chasing him, he finally escapes through a pair of french doors before he's promptly shot in the chest by the Sheriff.
One thing you learn quickly watching this movie, life is cheap.
The ATF agents and the family get into a showdown. Agent Keenan is given the order to take them down with extreme prejudice though he protests that there are children in the house and says he will only do it if he has some sort of text or email that he can use to cover up his own ass. One of the younger members Cheyenne (played by Kerry Bishe) escapes the house to help get the children out. When it's apparent that the agents plan to kill everybody she then releases Jarod in order to convince him to help her get the kids out. After a confrontation with her mother she sends the rest of the kids to the attic, and her and Jarod leave the house to approach the agents... where they are promptly shot. It's about this time that the horns begin to sound and the movie slowly winds it's way to it's conclusion.
Agent Keenan is briefed where he reveals what happened to the rest of the congregation and why he disobeyed orders to murder them all. The agents doing the debriefing reveal they never intend to formerly charge Mordechai or the other remaining family members and that they can hold them indefinitely because they've been labelled as terrorist.
This movie plays fast and loose with several common horror movie tropes. It never fully becomes the outsider horror that you expect it to, and it doesn't really play itself in any absurd way like many films of this ilk tend to do. This is both a credit and a detriment to the movie. Because it doesn't stay focused on the horror genre it loses a bit of it's impact. Though the scenes that are decidedly in that genre are great, switching focus to the agents, and killing all the characters that you initially identify with at the beginning of the film cheapens the movie in some ways. That isn't to say that there aren't great performances. Most of the performances are more than believable. Goodman as Agent Keenan delivers a great performance as does Stephen Root as the sheriff The tour de force however is James Parks as Mordechai. The ten minute sermon scene alone I think is worth the price of admission, or at least a watch or two. The film succeeds in showing us how close to the edge these kind of fanatics are, but it fails in juxtaposing that with the government that opposes them falls flat. However it does show that Kevin Smith isn't one note. He has talent and though he's deviated from his ViewAskew Universe a little in the past I hope to see more of these kinds of projects from Mr. Smith.
I give it 3 out of 5 beards.
Labels: Movie Reviews
posted by F.G. Shaw @ 3:31 AM
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