Red State, more thriller than horror, is a film inspired by those
nonsense sprouting, humanity hating people of the Westboro Baptist Church as
well the as current terrorism policy. Three teenage boys peruse the internet
looking for local women to have sex with but discover that their chosen woman
isn’t all that she said she was online. The boys find themselves locked inside
a church with hate preacher Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) talking about the end
of days. He puts humanity’s demise down to homosexuality and has the bought the
boys to his church to help free the world of sexual deviancy. Unfortunately for
Cooper, a routine police patrol drives past his compound and discovers a car
wanted in connection with a road traffic accident. When the police officer
hears shots from inside the church he calls for backup and soon an ATF team
lead by Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) is on the scene.
I’m generally in favour of any
movie which highlights the evil of organised religion. Whether through subtle
satire or full blown exploratory investigation, if religion is getting a
kicking then I’m on board. What Red State
does though is make both sides the bad guys. The despicable, murdering in the
name of Jesus loons obviously get a hard time from the film makers but so do
the Government Agents bought in to take them down.