Review of RED STATE

RED STATE

JARED, TRAVIS, and BILLY RAY are three horny teenagers in the town of FIVE POINTS. Jared tells the others that SARAH COOPER has invited him over the internet to have sex with her. However, she wants three men at once. Jared talks the other two into going to her trailer where Sarah tells them she wants beers in them before they're in her (her phrase). They drink, start to undress, and pass out. "Roofies," Jared mumbles as he loses consciousness.

He awakens locked in a cage and sees ALBIN COOPER, the pastor of the Five Points church, delivering a diatribe against homosexuality to the congregation. After the ten minute sermon, the children are taken to another room, and a young man who has been tied with plastic wrap to a cross is murdered with a bullet to the head. Then they tie Jared to the cross. "I'm not gay," he insists, but Albin says being willing to participate in a sexual foursome makes him even worse. However, before they shoot him, the Albin sees the sheriff's deputy drive up…

RED STATE is billed as a horror movie, but, unlike most in the genre, the horror is in people, not supernatural forces. Albin Cooper and his murderous flock are bad enough, though they might have the small excuse of being psychotic. Later come murderers who are sane and who, after all is said and done, give and obey orders to kill because it will personally benefit them in one way or another.

This film is more depressing than scary. The various characters are either evil, insane, or well intentioned but morally weak. There are villains, but no protagonists. Also, once the teens pass out, there is no humor whatsoever. The symbolism is blatant. Albin Cooper represents Fred Phelps, head of the Westboro Baptist Church, though the filmmaker is careful to distinguish them, because the WBC doesn't use guns. The people who follow orders to kill are just as obvious, though I would rather the filmmaker had made an explicit reference to the Nazis. The youngest generations might not make the connection themselves.

Michael Parks, who plays Albin Cooper, gives a wonderful rendition first of a charismatic pastor who just happens to be spouting lunacy and later of an obvious psychotic. 

The ten minute hate-speech Albin gives at the beginning is much too long. Otherwise, this is a well crafted movie, and plot twists at the end increase the interest. As a workout movie, it's worth while.  I give it ++++ - it will get your pulse up to a run.