Kevin Smith’s last movie, Cop Out, was a departure because, for the first time, he wasn’t directing a screenplay that he himself had written. Red State — a horror movie in which three teenagers on a quest to get laid via an online advertisement wind up in some as-of-yet vaguely defined deep shit with some presumably right-wing crazies — takes a few more sizable steps away from the traditional Smith oeuvre. The first trailer is a short teaser with no dialogue or music, but lots of ominous voice-over about Jesus, plus an impressive string of jump cuts between people getting dragged against their will, people getting shot at, people being gagged while crying, people smiling creepily with blood on them, people crying normally with blood on them, and John Goodman. Smith is planning on selling the movie directly after it screens at Sundance, possibly on the spot with a professional auctioneer or online with eBay. Let’s hope someone buys it, because now we really want to know what the hell is going on here.
