* AwardSnub: Even Kevin Smith, who's known to be incredibly humble about his own movies, was annoyed that Michael Parks wasn't nominated for a "Best Actor" Oscar, despite his personal efforts to make it happen (he had the film screened for a week at Creator/QuentinTarantino's personal theater just to make it eligible).
* CatharsisFactor: A pseudo-meta example. Seeing characters loosely based on the Westboro Baptist Church get gunned down and eventually [[spoiler:hauled off to jail]] is highly enjoyable for anyone who's ever had to put up with the real WBC's hate speech.
* CreepyAwesome: Michael Parks as Abin Cooper. Murderous, hateful, and [[AffablyEvil uncomfortably charming]], all serving to make him both deeply terrifying and fun as hell to watch.
* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: The very last line in the movie: [[spoiler: "Shut the [[PrecisionFStrike fuck]] up!"]]. Spoken by none other than [[spoiler: Creator/KevinSmith himself!]]
* JerkassWoobie: Cheyenne is part of her grandfather's cult, but she's less under his sway than most of the others and it's hard not to pity her in her desperation to save her sister and cousins, and after she [[spoiler: accidentally shoots her own mother]].
* OneSceneWonder: Creator/KevinPollak turns up as ATF Special Agent Brooks for all of about three minutes, [[spoiler:before being shot in the head by Cooper.]]
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: The entire ATF storyline, especially the [[spoiler: post-shootout finale where they laugh it off and imprison the surviving Coopers without trial.]]