History Film / RedState

* GenreShift: [[IncrediblyLamePun Good Lord]], this movie has it in spades. It goes from a raunchy comedy, to a Hostel-status thriller, to a hostage/siege-type movie with a bit of action/shoot-em-up thrown in.

Writer/director KevinSmith's first foray into {{horror}}. After the disappointment of his last big studio film ''CopOut'', Smith decided to finally shoot the script he had written years ago during the shooting of ''ZackAndMiriMakeAPorno'' for the smallest budget he's had since ''ChasingAmy''. Stars [[HeyItsThatGuy a few familiar faces]] and features a few more heavy weight issues than Smith's previous work.

* Easter Egg: Five Points Trinity, hunh? More like [[ViewAskewniverse Five Part Trilogy]].

* BlackAndBlackMorality: Sure, what the Five Points Trinity Church is doing is sure as hell wrong and immoral, but deciding to execute them every last one of them, including the children, just to save face is a really screwed up thing to do on the ATF's part.

* GainaxEnding: The original end would definitely be this (see WhatCouldHaveBeen below).

* TheFundamentalist: The congregation of the Five Points Trinity Church, played for horror.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Looks like [[MadMen Jimmy Barrett]] found a new calling after all.

* MoeGreeneSpecial: [[spoiler: Happens to the above mentioned DeadpanSnarker]].

* OnlyAFleshWound - [[spoiler: Keenan (John Goodman)]] has some shrapnel skull fragmets tear into his thigh, but it doesn't give him more than the faintest limp.]]

** The cult compound, violence, and the actions of the ATF are similar to David Koresch and the Branch Dividian Compound tragedy from the early 90's.

* OnlyAFleshWound - [[spoiler: Keenan (John Goodman)]] gets shot in the leg; doesn't seem to slow him down any.
** Actually it was a shard of [[spoiler:Kevin Pollak]]'s skull.
** And he did sort of limp and hop around when moving afterward.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Looks like [[{{Roseanne}} Dan faked his death to escape his blue collar family]], changed his name and went on to become an ATF agent. Meanwhile, [[SkyHigh Will Stronghold and Zach Braun]] lost their superpowers and started going to normal school. And how did [[JennifersBody Colin Gray manage to survive his encounter with the possessed Jennifer?]]
** When did [[OfficeSpace Milton Waddams]] become a small-town sheriff?
** Apparently [[BreakingBad Badger]] finally got clean and found himself a new start as a Sheriff's deputy

* IdiotBall -
** What about when the deputy hears the shots fired from inside the church? Rather than hop in the car and close his door, he stands there behind the door and ends up getting shot for it.

* IdiotBall - At one point one of the abducted kids is hidden, armed with an assault rifle, looking on the whole congregation as they pray. Not only is he in danger, but his friend is still their prisoner. He opts to [[spoiler: run straight through them and to safety]]. Why not [[spoiler: put the gun on Abin Cooper and take him hostage? His brainwashed flock surely wouldn't dare risk their guru's life...]]
** Another good example is when [[spoiler: Billy Ray stumbles upon the gun armory.]] WHY DIDN'T HE CROUCH OR LIE DOWN?
*** Possibly because [[spoiler:Billy Ray's]] was nervous as hell, and wasn't acting normally as one should. It is very difficult to rationally think everything through when one is hopped up on fight-or-flight adrenaline.

* CreatorCameo: Pretty hard to catch on the first viewing, but Smith is [[spoiler: the voice of the off camera prisoner who tells the rambling Abin Cooper to "Shut the Fuck Up" as he speaks in his cell.]]

* PetTheDog - Abin Cooper is loving and playful with his toddler-aged grandchildren. In all honesty, Abin Cooper doesn't seem like a bad guy at all - if you can get past his whole religious zealot/cult leader status.
* PoliceAreUseless

* SilentBob - But not who you might think, [[CreatorThumbprint given the director]]. See The Quiet One below.

* TheQuietOne - Caleb.
* [[spoiler: VillainProtagonist]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen - KevinSmith wrote the part of Abin Cooper with GeorgeCarlin in mind; unfortunately George suffered ActorExistenceFailure before such could come to pass.

* FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler: DeusExMachina of everyone thinking the rapture happened has the fridge brilliance when you realize it was a literal one. It was "god from the machine".]]

* DidNotDoTheResearch - Considering the film was inspired by Fred Phelps and that Fred Phelps is actually a democrat, the title "Blue State" might have made more sense. This may have been deliberate (and/or even justified), however, since the word red evokes blood, which would make it more fitting for a horror title.
** Depicting the church members as [[MyCountryRightOrWrong frothing at the mouth patriots]] is also very wrong, given that Phelps and his crew make no bones about the fact that they despise the US (along with, well, basically everyone else on the planet Earth).
** Or Smith perceives right-wing extremist Bible-thumpers as [[TruthInTelevision a bigger threat to America.]]

* [[spoiler:DeathByCameo]]: [[spoiler:Arguably Kevin Pollak's and [[{{Buffy}} Marc Blucas]]' characters. They're around for a few moments before brutally dispatched.]]
* DecoyProtagonist-[[spoiler: We barely find out anything about Billy Ray, Travis and Jarod except that they would do have sex [[WhatAnIdiot even with unknown women]]. The real protagonist turns out to be Joseph Keenan or [[VillainProtagonist Abin Cooper]].]].

* BlackAndBlackMorality: Sure, what the Five Points Trinity Church is doing is sure as hell wrong and immoral, but deciding to execute them every last one of them, INCLUDING THE INNOCENT CHILDREN, just to save face is a really screwed up thing to do on the ATF's part.

* GenreShift: [[IncrediblyLamePun Good Lord]], this movie has it in spades. It goes from a raunchy comedy, to a Hostel-status thriller, to a hostage/siege-type movie with a bit of action/shoot-em-up thrown in. The movie can't really make-up it's mind about what kind of genre it wants to be.

** Depicting the church members as [[MyCountryRightOrWrong frothing at the mouth]] [[Eagleland Eaglelanders]] is also very wrong, given that Phelps and his crew make no bones about the fact that they despise the US (along with, well, basically everyone else).

** Depicting the church members as [[MyCountryRightOrWrong frothing at the mouth]] [[Eagleland super-patriots]] is also very wrong, given that Phelps and his crew make no bones about the fact that they despise the US (along with, well, basically everyone else).

** This is more of a YourMileageMayVary situation to me. A tactic like that is extremely risky, considering how many people there were, how spread out they were and the fact that they were armed. Not to mention we don't know if others were armed with hidden weapons. It was a situation that could very easily backfire.
*** Given how CrazyPrepared they were, I would see that happening.

* {{Blackmail}} - Abin Cooper tells the closeted gay sheriff not to send any backup or he'll send certain [[IfYouKnowWhatIMean unwholesome]] pictures to his wife. He ends up [[TakeAThirdOption taking a third option]] by calling in the ATF.