Reconsidering Kevin Smith: Red State (The Movie)

Over the course of the last couple of years, some friends have mine have spent a whole lot of time and their own money making a movie called “Dead Weight.”

Maybe it’s because it rhymes with “Red State,” but I find that “Weight” and “State” are linked, in some small way, in my mind.

There are a few obvious things that tie them together. Both are horror movies, and both are low-budget, and shot digitally.

Of course, low budget is a relative term as I’ve heard “State” came in somewhere between 2.5 and 4 million dollars, and I’m fairly certain the cost of “Weight” didn’t even make it to five digits.

Both movies were/are being released independent of any studio, with the creators footing the bill and getting the movies into the world on their own dime.

And it’s here, of course, where they part ways again.

My friends have, if I remember it all correctly, a blog, and a Facebook page, and I think that’s it. They might have 100 followers on Facebook, or perhaps as many as 500.

Kevin Smith, on the other hand…

Well, that’s where it gets interesting. Kevin Smith took a DIY approach to “Red State,” right up until he didn’t. He got his venues set up, and he took the film on the road himself. But here, of course, is the rub.

Kevin Smith can charge thousands of people fifty bucks or more to see his movie… as long as it comes with a free Q and A afterwards.

My friends… can’t. It just isn’t going to happen. Even if they booked a local theater, and told every single one of their friends to show up? Their friends aren’t going to cough up fifty bucks to see their movie, or to see them talk about it afterwards.

And after they were done taking their movie on the road? I doubt my buddies would be able to sell their flick to, say, Lionsgate.

I might be wrong about this. In fact, I hope I am. But the fact is, Kevin Smith has a big, fat, fan base now.

And my friends… don’t.

But let’s step away from all that, and go back in time a bit.

A handful of years ago, Kevin Smith announced that his next film would be a horror movie. Obviously, as a guy who usually wrote cheap comedies that did okay in theaters and then cleaned up on video, this was going to be something of a departure.

And then, something interesting happened.

Miramax, the studio that coughed up the cash for the majority of Smith’s previous films, said they weren’t interested.

Smith seemed to move on. He talked about finding alternative financing, but, well, he made “Zack and Miri” and “Clerks II,” and then he started podcasting, and that started making him so money so, you know, I kind of figured “Red State” was not just dead, but super-dead. Along with the “Clerks” cartoon, the “Clerks” cartoon movie, and a smattering of other projects Kevin had worked on over the years, but which never came together.

But no. The money was raised, and Kevin made the movie, and then he decided to release it himself.

You know. Up until they got an actual studio involved, and put it out on DVD in actual stores.

I’ve debated trying to talk about the film without spoiling the ending, and I can, but only to a certain extent. Because what I really think I need to talk about is how the movie does NOT end.

So, be warned, I’m going to have to give some things away here.

For maybe the first half-hour of the film, Smith manages to create a decent horror movie vibe. We get to see the bad people from the bad church, and we meet our three heroes, and credit where credit is due, Kevin doesn’t build much of a plot around them. They’re going somewhere to get some man-on-woman action.

Why gives props for this? Because Kevin seems to understand that most of what Roger Ebert calls “Dead Teenager Movies” revolve around this, but build up a cardboard plot that most audience members don’t really care about.

Of course, it also leaves us with three heroes we don’t care much about, but okay. Moving right along.

The three boys get into a car accident, and the car they hit just happens to belong to the local law enforcement, which is why anyone goes looking for them in the first place. There are subplots there, and Kevin tries to prop them up, make some of the decisions matter, but, well, they just don’t.

And then we get to the surprise (that isn’t a surprise). The whole thing was a trap, and the three teenage boys are going to be killed (sacrificed?) at the evil church, by the evil people.

Smith does his best to drag this out, giving his evil preacher a nice, long, monologue, and letting the boys sweat it out. And I give Kevin credit. His comedies are frequently so loose that he still, after making so many flicks, doesn’t appear able to direct.

But in “Red State,” he seems to know what the genre should look like, and he gives it the correct look and feel.

So bravo for that.

What he does not do, however, is hold onto his horror movie vibe.

Because then the feds get involved, and the movie sort of becomes a siege movie. Or maybe a drama. I have no idea, because after a while whatever plot the movie had goes loose and floppy while Kevin tries to give us multiple storylines and perspectives, none of which add up to much, and all of which appear to be a time-killer until we get to the big finish.

We’ve got the two remaining kids, who try to escape the church, which is located on a compound. But since all we know about them is that they were hoping to get some sweet, sweet action it’s hard to get emotionally invested in them, even after one of them gives a monologue about how now that his friends are dead, he doesn’t really have anything to live for. (Um… really? Nothing at all?)

We get the teenage church member who just wants to get the kids out alive.

We got the head of the Feds, who is, basically, told to kill everyone on the compound, but he doesn’t want to do it.

And we have the evil preacher, who, now that his monologue is done, is kind of at a loss.

And the tension slowly leaks out of the movie.

There are deaths which, unfortunately, close of storylines in ways that felt too quick and easy for me. Yes, I suppose there’s an immediate shock to them, but knowing that most of the people who might suffer emotional damage won’t even have to face it weakened the flick for me.

But then… that ending.

Oh, it’s glorious. There’s a loud trumpet sound, and it crushes the eardrums of everyone. The evil preacher says this is it, it’s the End of Days, and for a minute or two, the movie looks like it’s going to go in a really surprising direction.

And at one point? It really was going to go that way. Long story short, it was really the end times, and our bad guy? It would appear he might have just been the “good” guy all along.

That’s bold, and on many levels, possibly the scariest possible conclusion.

Except, that part doesn’t happen in the finished film. Instead we get a “and then this happened” ending, and the flick comes to a close with the bad guys sort of being punished, kind of.

And the movie, which could have been, if not a great film, then certainly a cult classic in it's own right, instead became one third of a standard horror movie, one third of a drama... and more than likely, something of a footnote, more important for its marketing than its content.

Kevin has said that he’s going to make one more movie, and then get out of the directing game, but I have to say…

I wish Kevin would try making one more horror flick, and I wish he would take it all the way this time.

Reconsidering Kevin Smith: Red State

So this is interesting.

For those that don’t know, a few years back one Mr. Kevin Smith said that he was going to be writing and directing a horror movie.

He got as far as writing it, and then something strange happened: The Weinstein brothers didn’t want to make it.

The folks who put the money into every Kevin Smith movie not titled “Mallrats” read the script, and said, “Nah.”

Understand, this was not some big vanity project. When it got made, Smith put it together for 4 million dollars. Not nothing, but in the world of Hollywood, pretty close to nothing. If the Weinstein brothers had been involved, they might have tucked an extra 1 or 2 million in there, but not much more.

But they weren’t willing to take a chance like that.

What does that tell me? That something was wrong with the script. Possibly very wrong.

But no matter. Kevin put it aside for a while, raised some money, and made it himself. Then he promised to sell it at auction.

And he did sell it. To himself.

His plan now is to distribute the film, first in a roadshow version, where he goes around the country, shows the movie, and then does a Q and A after. He figures he can make back a little less than half the money that way.

Then, he’s going to get the film into theaters for Halloween, under his own steam.

After that, he’s going to finish his final movie as a writer/director, and spend the rest of his days producing and distributing with his brand new company.

Indeed. That’s what he says.

There’s a lot of information up there, so let’s unpack what Kevin thinks is going to happen, and then unpack what really will happen.

First, as far as Kevin Smith’s retirement goes… I’m willing to believe it. I like the guy, but he’s never been a great director. He’s improved over the years, to the point where I’ve looked at some of his shots and been impressed with them. But when it comes to action and suspense, he’s a weak visual stylist who mostly films his stuff like a stage play.

After 17 years of doing one thing and not being great at it, I can see where you’d step back from it. It makes sense.

Then comes the idea of producing. He’s been doing that already, really, helping his various friends write and direct movies, and then getting them into the hands of the people of the world. Though it’s worth mentioning, most or all of that has happened through DVD, and none of the movies with his name on them as producer have gone on to any great success.

(Except for Good Will Hunting – and I’d argue that Smith wasn’t the driving force behind that movie getting made.)

The fact is, Kevin Smith know some dudes and can probably find some money here and there to put together movies that he’d like to see. So we’ll trust that he can accomplish that for a while.

But let’s come back to that in a second, and talk about distribution. Yes. Let’s.

Smith plans to take Red State on a road tour. He’s going to hit a bunch of theaters, show people the movie, and then do a Q and A afterwards, along with one of the stars of the film. The tickets will run people about $50 or so.

As I said before, they’re under the impression that they’re going to pull in a little under half the budget on this tour.

They’re wrong.

Here’s why:

Number one, people don’t spend $50 to see a movie. For a rare DVD, they might consider it. But it would have to be something that gives them the power to watch the film over and over and over again, and this theater thing ain’t it.

Smith has his fans, yes. He even has a lot of them. But even his diehard fans could barely find it in themselves to drag themselves to the theater to see Cop Out.

No. People will pay $50 to go to a theater and talk to Kevin Smith. And it had better be a great talk. It better run a couple of hours. Or the seats in the showings down the road are going to be more and more empty.

Then, of course, it’s going to be time to get the flick into actual theaters, and that’s where things are going to go really, really wrong, I think.

Why?

Because Kevin isn’t going to tell anyone who doesn’t already love him that it’s there.

No TV ads. No print ads. He might do interviews, but he doesn’t even seem to want to do those. And he doesn’t want to screen for critics, either.

What does that mean? It means anyone who isn’t already a Kevin Smith geek isn’t going to head out to see the flick.

And that will murder the film during the first weekend.

People go to see movies because they know they’re there. That the film is good often doesn’t matter – if it sounds like something they’d like, they go.

Kevin Smith doesn’t seem to realize that the whole world isn’t on Twitter, or Facebook, or whatever other social media platforms will exist by the time next October comes around.

Which means that folk’ll see that a movie called “Red State” is in theaters… maybe. And then they’ll try to find out what it’s about… if they care. And when they don’t, the movie will fall on its face.

Then Kevin is going to have to figure out how to sell his flick online – with no reviews, no information, and no major company putting any money behind it.

Will the flick make back its cash? Oh, eventually. But it’ll take a couple of years. One if Kevin is very lucky.

Meanwhile, he’s supposed to be making another movie. A movie that I’m pretty sure is going to cost more than 4 million dollars.

At that point, he’ll wise up, and take a good, hard, look at how much work went into getting his film into the hands of the people.

And I think he’ll sell it, assuming he doesn’t do it for a studio. I think he’ll sell it as high as he can, and say that he’s doing it to fill the coffers for the indie-indie flicks that he’s going to get out on screens.

Then things will start crashing and burning.

He’ll get a couple of cheap flicks into small theaters, and watch them die on the vine because Kevin isn’t out there pulling for them. He’ll put them on DVD, and the movies will continue to do no business because no one outside of his Tweeple will even know the movie is out there.

And if he’s lucky, he’ll break even. But I doubt it.

If Kevin’s production techniques get him past five movies, I’ll be shocked. If he even opts to keep putting movies into theaters under his own steam, post-Red State, I’ll be shocked.

And if this distribution idea goes beyond five years, it’ll still be shuttered in ten.

I like Kevin. I think he’s a smart guy. But he’s about to learn a hard lesson.