Podcast

MOV087: “Even The Nazis Think This Guy Is Nuckin’ Futs.”

It’s a horror-filled week in January in this reel of COL Movies, where the boys kinda head back in time to see the uniquely released Kevin Smith film, “Red State”. In theaters, they head out to see if the Catholic church will have a spasm about the exorcism movie, “The Devil Inside”. In trailer-world, they check out Daniel Radcliffe’s post-Harry Potter haunted house remake of 1989’s “The Woman In Black”. In movie news, we talk more news about Kevin Smith, the potential sequel to Avatar, as well as the crappy plot to Resident Evil 5. It’s the 87th reel of COL Movies…”Even the Nazis Think This Guy Is Nuckin’ Futs!”

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News:

The Past: Red State (2011)
Rotten Tomatoes: 58% Rotten, 58% Audience

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Director: Kevin Smith

Starring: Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman

Trivia:

  • The first draft of the script was dated 9/5/07.
  • Kevin Smith wrote the script around the same time he was writing Zack and Miri Make a Porno and presented them both to the Weinstein brothers. They immediately gave the green light to Zack and Miri Make a Porno, but declined on Red State fearing its story was too bleak to attract an audience. Had they green lit, Red State would’ve been shot back to back with Zack and Miri.
  • Kevin Smith wrote the role of Abin Cooper for Michael Parks after seeing his performance in From Dusk Till Dawn. Smith has said that if Parks had not agreed to be in the film, he would have dropped the project entirely.
  • Kevin Smith’s lowest budget film since Chasing Amy.
  • A first for writer/director Kevin Smith, he has stated this film is a strict non-comedy saying, “It’s a nasty-ass $4mil horror flick with few (if any) redeeming characters.”
  • This is the first feature Kevin Smith and his cinematographer David Klein shot using the all-digital Red camera.
  • Shot over a period of 25 days, using the all-digital Red camera system, director and editor Kevin Smith could edit the footage the day he shot it. Because of this between shooting scenes Smith would be editing almost non-stop. As a result, a mere 2 days after the last shot was done, Smith was able to show a fine-cut of the film to the entire cast and crew at the wrap party.
  • Kevin Smith had originally wanted to shoot the film on location in a real Red State around middle America. However, due to budget constraints he ended up shooting it all just outside Los Angeles.
  • The budget for the special effects department was $5000.
  • Samuel L. Jackson was considered for the role that eventually went to John Goodman.
  • The Westboro Baptist Church planned to protest Red State at its premier at the Sundance Film Festival. Kevin Smith in turn planned a counter protest which he and his fans took part in. At the premiere the counter-protesters heavily outweighed the handful of Westboro protesters who showed up. This occurred 12 years after Smith’s first film to tackle religious controversy, Dogma, drew protests from certain sects of the Catholic Church, one of which Smith jokingly took part in himself.
  • Little did Kevin Smith know Michael Parks was actually a country singer early in his career who sang with the likes of Johnny Cash. Many of the country-gospel songs sung in the film were suggested by Parks during filming. Later after the film was completed Parks re-recorded the songs onto an album.
  • There is no score for this film. The entire soundtrack consists of songs sung within the film itself.
  • At the premier of the film at the Sundance film festival, Kevin Smith said he would “pick the distributor ‘auction style'” immediately following the screening. After the screening he then pulled producer John Gordon on stage to conduct the auction. Smith then bid $20 for distribution rights and Gordon immediately sold it to him. Smith revealed it was his plan all along to self-distribute the film himself.
  • Canon 7D’s were used as B-cameras.
  • Released on tour in March 2011, Kevin Smith invited the WBC and specifically Megan Phelps-Roper over Twitter to attend the Kansas City screening and Q&A. Megan and around 15 other members of WBC attended the screening and some brought their young children along. Smith warned the family that the film’s content was for a mature audience and not suitable for children, but was promptly told off by the church members. Less than 20 minutes into the screening, the entire WBC audience attending the event walked out, outraged by the film’s content. Megan called the film “filth” and “a vulgar piece of tacky melodrama.”
  • After a screening of the film in Kansas City, Kevin Smith interviewed two life long Westboro Baptist Church members (Shirley Phelps niece and son) who had defected a few years prior. They both enjoyed the film and even complimented Smith on how realistic certain aspects of religious fanaticism are depicted.
  • The whole film was shot in sequence.
  • Casting director Deborah Aquila was moved to tears whilst listening to Kyle Gallner’s performance during the cage scene.
  • During filming Kyle Gallner suffered a panic attack whilst being tied to a cross, which the crew were unaware of at first, thinking he was still acting.
  • Kevin Smith stated on his podcast Hollywood Babble-On 55 that the name Abin Cooper comes from the Green Lantern character Abin Sur and a character from indie film The Reflecting Skin.
  • Kevin Smith has an quick off-camera cameo at the end of the film, as a prison inmate, yelling the last line in the film.
  • During filming Nicholas Braun suffered a concussion; when the CO2 squib fired, he fell back and the pressure from the squib knocked a box off a shelf and onto his head. According to Kevin Smith, when he showed up at the emergency room escorting Braun, the actor was still wearing a prosthetic gunshot wound on his forehead, sending the E.R. staff into a frenzy.
  • In the sequence outside the compound when Agent Keenan (John Goodman) yells at Sheriff Wynan (Stephen Root) to go back into his car, Root’s subsequent stumble and fall was unscripted. Root admitted that he was genuinely startled by Goodman’s performance, and was happy to have Smith keep the footage in the film.
  • Due to the limited budget, a number of the smaller characters were played by family members and friends of cast and crew. One of the youngest believers was played by Ivy Klein, daughter of the film’s cinematographer David Klein. Ivy was carefully prepped for the scene in which Cheyenne (‘Kerry Bishe’) tells the three young girls to go hide in the attic. However when it came time to shoot the scene, Ivy actually got scared and started screaming, which was not in the script. Smith got her parents’ approval to use the footage in the movie. Smith felt terrible for scaring Ivy, and offered her father some money to take Ivy to a toy store. Her father replied, “Add it to the pile”, as other cast/crew members had felt the same. According to Smith, the next time that Ivy saw Kerry was two days later at the Craft Services area. Ivy got a scared look on her face and said, “You’re not going to act again are you?”
  • Smith originally planned to have the first “prisoner” executed with a goat’s head on top of his own. The special effects director told him that he might be thinking of a ram’s head, because a goat is actually very small. Smith found out shortly thereafter that the ram’s head would cost $5,000 – his entire budget – and scrapped the entire idea. He came up with the plastic wrap and top-down shot because he thought it would contain the most “blood” and therefore not require much cleanup between takes.
  • Smith has said that there are ten “Easter Eggs” (hidden jokes or surprises) in the film. He plans to only discuss each one as they are discovered by fans. The first is that Sheriff Wynan “enters and exits the film with a shot to the face.”

Talking Points:

  • Horror?
  • Does it come across as a Kevin Smith movie?

What We’ve Learned:

  • Love thy neighbor
  • People just do the strangest things when they believe they’re entitled. But they do even stranger things when they just plain believe.
  • Crosses can be bought in dollars or common sense.
  • Be careful meeting someone in a trailer at night.
  • Teenagers can be really stupid.
  • The Feds fabricate things? That’s shocking!
  • Craigslist is Craigslist for people who want to get fucked.
  • When parents block porn sites, they make socially awkward kids

Trailer:

Recommendations:
Jeff: The acting was great, the shooting was great, the directing was great, the editing was great, the sound was great. With that being said, this movie was very . . . whelming.
Ray: Ultimately a disappointment for me.. Strong start, awful finish. I had high hopes for this one, that ultimately didn’t pan out. I guess it’s worth a rent, but don’t expect it to do anything unexpected.
Steve: Thoroughly enjoyed! Not exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I definitely thought the acting was amazing and the characters were extremely memorable. Lots of good ol’ shoot’em up action, too!

The Present: The Devil Inside
Rotten Tomatoes: 6% Rotten, 25% Audience

Director: William Brent Bell

Starring: Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth

Trivia:

  • The film was shot in 2010 in several different locations, including Bucharest (Romania), Rome (Italy) and Vatican City.
  • It is in the genre of “found footage” and so is a movie of a fictional story that tries to give the impression that it actually occurred
  • Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Steven Schneider brought the movie to Paramount Pictures, and their low-budget branch, Paramount Insurge acquired the film for the first release from that low-budget branch, hoping it would be its next Paranormal Activity.

Talking Points:

  • I want to apologize…I didn’t know it was found footage (Steve)
  • Found footage…has it officially jumped the shark yet?
  • The Ending.

What We Learned:

  • Science can’t explain everything…
  • When it’s a real possession .. you will know.
  • Different accents are like speaking in tongues.
  • The Church isn’t in the business of healing people.
  • Better restraints? yeah that might be a GOOD idea.
  • Stressed out? Drown an infant.
  • Possessed people need to be in the trunk.

Trailer:

Recommendations :
Jeff: Meh, had a couple of nice startling surprises. David was quite nice to look at. A little disappointed he blew his brains out. You know, I’m starting to get annoyed with these movies that have a tragic ending. I was hoping at least Ben would have survived and defeated the Devil.
Ray: I am officially over found footage films.. the Vatican doesn’t endorse film’s about exorcism.. with this one I can see why.
Steve: I am sorry about this one. While I liked the look of it and the scares, even I wasn’t impressed with it. Predictable, found footage, multiple possessions, and a crappy ending. All in a less than a hour and a half movie. I give.

The Future: The Woman In Black

Release: February 3, 2012

Director: James Watkins

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Janet McTeer, Ciarán Hinds

Summary:

A young lawyer travels to a remote village where he discovers the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals.

Trivia:

  • Mark Gatiss was asked to write the screenplay.
  • Adrian Rawlins –who played Daniel Radcliffe’s father in the Harry Potter series– played the same character in the 1989 version as Radcliffe plays in this film.

Talking Points:

  • onnnneeee twoooooo freddieees comming fooor.. oh wait wrong movie!

Trailers:

Excitement:
Jeff: It’s another haunting movie. Would be nice to see Daniel Radcliffe in something non-Harry Potter, but I don’t think this is it.
Ray: Trailer has me somewhat interested..only because I feel there might be an actual story to engage you. I could care less about Daniel, but I’m sure he will be a draw for some.
Steve: The story doesn’t seem new, but the environment set by the trailer really draws me in. I’ll see it!

Coming Attractions

The Past

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The Present

The Future

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