Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter Christian fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
For all its boisterous profanity and splattery violence, the film is more of a weary sigh than a sputtering volley of indignation.
– A.O. Scott,
New York Times,
22 Sep 2011
rotten:
Wants so badly to push viewers' buttons, but struggles to reach them more often than not.
– William Goss,
Film.com,
23 Sep 2011
fresh:
If nothing else, it's nice to see this director refusing to play by the rules of the multiplex.
– Tom Huddleston,
Time Out,
27 Sep 2011
fresh:
It's a charming if conspicuously unfinished film, a half-riotous, half-idiotic send-up of the teen horror genre with a vaguely hip political twist.
– Andrew O'Hehir,
Salon.com,
20 Oct 2011
rotten:
Calculated to outrage and executed to underwhelm, Kevin Smith's Red State is like a dull blade slashing wildly, predictably and ineffectually at its target.