red state review

months back, i remember hearing about kevin smith making a new film, and it was definitely floating under the radar.  it was called red state. it wasn't getting a ton of press, although it seemed to have buzz from the film festivals. i saw smith on talk shows, and he was pretty vague about what the movie exactly was.  he was asked about the political connection to the title, and he sorta played it down, and played up how this movie was sort of a horror film.  outside of those initial press junkets, i didn't hear much about the actual movie.

flash forward a few months, and the movie has had some limited release, and i'm pretty interested to see it.  today, netflix announced that red state was now streaming and so i popped it in our instant queue.  we decided to watch it tonight.

now, i'm not going to tell you much about the movie, because it seems that smith has worked to keep it sort of a secret, and i'll respect that and not put out a lot of detail in this review.  if you want to talk specifics in the comments here, i'm game.

here's what i will say: this movie is not compelling at all.  i didn't find it that well made.  i barely even found it interesting.  i kept waiting and waiting for the movie to take me somewhere different, and it never did.  maybe i'm expecting too much of kevin smith.  for the life of me, i can't figure out why this movie is being billed as a horror film.  it's not eery, it's not frightening, the only horror is that the scenario of the film could be real.  and heather pointed out how much you ham-fistedly coming through a few characters at the end of the film.  real novice level writing there.

watch this film if you want.  just don't invite me over.