God Hates ... 'Red State'? Kevin Smith's New Film Gets Bloody 'Baptist'

By Eryn Sun, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 27, 2011

A mob of picketers stood outside a parking lot in Park City protesting the premiere of Kevin Smith's latest controversial horror film regarding fundamentalist America.

"Red State" hit the Sundance screens last Sunday – and not without a warm three word welcoming from members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, of whom the movie was largely based upon.

"God Hates America, Fags Doom Nations, God Hates Your Idols, God Hates Your Feelings," were just a few of the friendly messages relayed to the New Jersey native director who in turn staged his own mock protest.

Holding signs of his own like "God Hates Critics, God Hates Press Screenings, God Hates Fat (So Does Southwest Airlines)," Smith was joined alongside his "Clerks" co-star Jason Mewes and some of his loyal fans.

Only six actual members from the independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas, were present at the protest. The rest of the 60-plus crowd constituted counter protesters, one of whom told the L.A. Times, "We think they (Westboro) are spewing nonsense. So we're spewing nonsense right back at them," with unrelated posters that read "I love Bacon, I Am A Happy Jew, God Hates Signs, Free Hugs."

Inspired after watching an interview with Westboro Pastor Fred Phelps, Smith announced his plans to direct his first horror film in 2006, adopting the name "Red State" in April 2007.

"That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on," Smith told Rotten Tomatoes UK. "It's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps himself but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure."

Famous for his comedic cult classics "Clerks" and "Mallrats," the filmmaker is taking aim at a new kind of genre in "Red State" which follows a group of teenage boys who answer an ad on an adult website and find themselves unwittingly in the middle of a bloody religious rampage led by a vengeful pastor, played by Michael Parks.

"It's not a traditional horror movie in the sense that people have been asking me," said Smith. "It'd be much easier to just show it to them when I'm done and be like, 'This is what I mean.' At which point I'm sure there'll be people saying, 'This ain't a horror movie!' But to me, it is … there's all kinds of horror, and killing someone's not the absolute worst thing you could do to another human being."

"The notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there," Smith continues, "in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way."

Before the Sundance premiere, Smith prepped the audience, stating, "I promise you, ladies and gentlemen, for the next 95 minutes, all levity is going to leave the room. You're going to enter a world of hate and hopelessness."

This movie, "Red State," is not a comedy like "Clerks," he stressed. "This is hands-down a horror movie, like Jersey Girl. So be forewarned."

With all joking aside, the film enters into the eerie world of religious fanaticism and is leaving critics and audiences with mixed feelings.

Drew McWeeny of Hitfix, criticized, "If I genuinely wanted to attend a service of the Westboro Baptist Church, I'm fairly sure I could have put together my own transportation and done so … I don't need to sit through this hyperbolic hatred to know it exists."

Another critic, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter, managed to give some praise, suggesting that fans will appreciate "Smith's irrepressible irreverence, freewheeling subversion and tweaking of movie genre expectations."

When actor Kyle Gallner was asked how "Red State" compared to "Nightmare on Elm Street" in an interview with shockya.com, he explained, "The horror comes from seeing how people can truly treat other people and be evil to other people; Kevin used this specific outlet to prove that point."

"It's a story full of moral, and more the point, immoral, relativism," stated Smith, according to slashfilm.com.

Set to hit the road March 3, the renegade Smith is choosing to opt out of the conventional means of advertising and promotion and will independently distribute the film with his own production company SModcst, and advertise solely through Twitter and word of mouth. The movie is set to hit the big screens starting October 19 – the 17th anniversary of the release of "Clerks."

With all the hate that may be headed his way regarding his distribution methods and the film itself, Smith is producing some good works through this unconventional film, or what he has called his "labor of love."

Fans were prompted to raise $1,000, and did so in less than half an hour for The Wayne Foundation – an organization dedicated to stopping human trafficking, domestic trafficking, and child prostitution – in exchange for the first release of a character poster of the film featuring Kerry Bishe playing "The Virgin."

Though the means of his ventures are a bit askew, Smith seeks to stretch all of our orthodox muscles to get us rethinking about what faith, and ultimately what love really looks like.

Or doesn't look like, in this case.