Red State – Welcome Back Kevin Smith.

Red State’s potent first act has all the hallmarks of contemporary horror cinema. Horny teenagers go looking for sex in the next town, only to be lured into the clutches of a group of murderous evildoers. In this case, it is a congregation of extremist Christian lunatics, intent on exterminating what they perceive to be the pestilence of homosexuality. Frothing at the mouth with blind, ignorant hatred, they devour every poisonous word uttered by the outstanding Michael Parks. Looking like a demonic incarnation of Richard Branson, he impressively veers away from the cartoonish and delivers a very plausible turn as the film’s principle antagonist, Abin Cooper.

As the tension builds and it appears we may be moving towards the realms of torture porn, Smith loses patience with his initial setup and changes gear. Not content to muse on one unfortunate undercurrent within American culture, state corruption is thrown into the fray. John Goodman’s weary government agent (Joe Keenan) thus finds himself in charge of a badly botched siege operation in a clear nod to the disastrous real-life events which took place at the hands of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Waco, Texas.

It is as though Smith couldn’t decide what genre he wanted Red State to be and his decision to shatter the suspense that has so far been effectively racked up by doing an about turn and descending into a full blown shoot-out is not one that pays off. Smith should be commended for striding out of his comfort zone, but his skills as a director do not lie in crafting action sequences. He lacks both the pacing and the feel to make the film’s shift in direction seem truly worthwhile and as a result, he fails to bring together some undoubtedly solid material into a cohesive and entirely satisfying whole.

That being said, whilst at times infuriatingly uneven, Red State does represent Smith’s most adventurous film to date. In what may well be his directorial swansong, he has succeeded in delivering, at least in part, on the promise of his early work.