Kevin Smith’s revealed to Rotten Tomatoes that the title of his long-discussed horror movie is Red State, and that it will deal with a Fred Phelps type. If you’re not familiar with Phelps, he’s an Evangelical Christian who, along with members of his church, show up in public with signs saying things like “God Hates Fags,” at funerals for gay people (including Matthew Shepard) with signs saying "Your Son Is Burning In Hell" and at armed services member funerals with signs saying that 9/11 happened because "God Hates America."</a>
"That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on," Smith told Rotten Tomatoes, "The movie's called 'Red State' and it's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps, himself, but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure.
“[T]he notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way. It's weird because for a few months I've been saying 'horror movie' and technically it is, but it's also not a very traditional horror movie in the sense that people have been asking me, 'Is it a slasher movie? Is it like the Japanese horror flicks?' It'd be much easier to just show it to them when I'm done and be like, 'This is what I meant.' At which point I'm sure there'll be people saying, 'This ain't a horror movie!' But to me, it is."
In other news,
the trailer for Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN is up!
