The film starts with high school student Travis (Michael Angarano) being driven school by his mum. On the journey, they pass a funeral of a murdered homosexual teenager, which is being picketed by an ultra conservative religious group called the Five Points Church. The church is lead by Pastor Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) and his followers who are all related either by marriage or blood.
After class, Travis meets up with his closest friends, Jared (Kyle Gallner) and Billy Ray (Nicholas Braun). Jared informs the boys that they are going to have group sex with a woman Jared has been talking to on the internet, Sarah Cooper (Melissa Leo).
On their way to see Sarah, they clip their car with a local Sheriff (Stephen Root) who is participating in a sexual act in his car. The boys drive away and the Sheriff asks his deputy (Matt L. Jones) to find the vehicle and the people responsible for the accident.
The boys arrive at the caravan and Sarah offers them beer spiked with drugs which makes them pass out. When they awake, they find themselves bound with cling film and imprisoned by the church.
The story goes on to involve an altercation with an armed ATF (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - a law enforcement agency in the US) unit which is lead by Special Agent Keenan (John Goodman).
I had no idea what this film was about before I saw it; all I knew about it was that it was written and directed by Smith and that Goodman was in it. I knew that people had generally been positive about it, but I was under the impression people were comparing it to Clerks.
The first thing I should mention is that although it is billed as a horror, I would say that it was a little more on the side of 'torture-porn'. There are a number of grisly deaths, all involving guns so cue an awful lot of blood and other body matter. The camera doesn't linger on these scenes for any length of time, but just be aware, it's a bit gory. But there are no scares in this film at all.
In general, it's a really good film and certainly the best Kevin Smith film I have ever seen. The story is gripping, although it does go slightly OTT at some points. There is a little too much reliance on the shoot-out scenes and the ending is disappointing, particularly when I read about the original ending planned by Smith which sounded outrageously brilliant. The film is a little messy in terms of cinematography; my guess is that Smith wanted to try out as many different types of shot and decided to leave them all in.
I loved the subject matter of Church vs State and the fact that Smith was playing them against each other in this film by showing the evils and ills of both. I find the whole cult mentality really interesting and Smith was able to portray the claustrophobic nature, the blind faith and the repercussions of this lifestyle very powerfully.
The real star of the film is Parks as the charismatic pastor. He is full of anger and passion and is so believably evil. It is a fantastically sublime performance. Goodman was very good as the weary agent, unusually he played the character totally straight which complemented the performance by Parks brilliantly. The last scenes that they have together were exceptionally good.
Leo also delivered a cracking performance as we have come to expect of late. It looked as though she especially relished the shoot-out scenes.
The real star of the film is Parks as the charismatic pastor. He is full of anger and passion and is so believably evil. It is a fantastically sublime performance. Goodman was very good as the weary agent, unusually he played the character totally straight which complemented the performance by Parks brilliantly. The last scenes that they have together were exceptionally good.
Leo also delivered a cracking performance as we have come to expect of late. It looked as though she especially relished the shoot-out scenes.
Verdict: A really enjoyable film, with some fantastic performances from all involved. It was a tad preachy at times, but the story was interesting and entertaining. Hopefully this is the start of things to come from Mr Smith.
Kevin, you can leave the naughty step and collect your gold star...
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