Kevin Smith was pissed off. It was January 2011, and the indie darling who made his name with Clerks was standing on a stage at the Sundance Film Festival, supposedly about to auction off his new horror-thriller to the highest bidder. The room was packed with studio suits, Harvey Weinstein (Smith’s long-time mentor), and critics waiting to see which major distributor would shell out millions for Kevin Smith Red State.
Then Smith did something that basically changed the trajectory of his career and made half of Hollywood want to throw a brick at him.
He didn't sell the movie. Instead, his producer, Jon Gordon, "auctioned" the film to Smith himself for exactly twenty bucks. A crisp $20 bill. Smith grabbed the mic and spent the next twenty-odd minutes railing against the studio system, calling traditional marketing "obscene" and declaring that "Indie Film 2.0" had arrived. He wasn't going to let some "jackass" sell his movie. He was going to schlep it to the people himself.
The $20 Bet That Shook Park City
Honestly, people forget how much of a scandal this was. If you were a buyer who flew to Utah, sat through a premiere, and waited for an auction only to be told the whole thing was a prank, you’d be salty too. Smith’s argument was pretty simple, though. He’d made Kevin Smith Red State for about $4 million. He knew that if a studio bought it for $6 million, they’d turn around and spend $20 million on billboards and TV spots.
In Smith's eyes, that math was broken. He didn't want to be in debt to a marketing machine that required a $50 million opening weekend just to break even. So, he launched SModcast Pictures and took the film on a "roadshow" tour.
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He hit cities like Kansas City, New Orleans, and Austin. He’d show the movie, then do a Q&A that usually lasted longer than the film itself. Fans were paying $60 to $100 a ticket. It was a "punk rock" approach to film distribution. By the time the movie actually hit its "official" release date on October 19, 2011—the 17th anniversary of Clerks—he’d already recouped a massive chunk of the budget through these live events.
What is Kevin Smith Red State Actually About?
If you only know Smith for Jay and Silent Bob, this movie is a total gear shift. It’s not a comedy. It’s a mean, gritty, claustrophobic horror-thriller that feels more like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre met a Waco siege documentary.
The plot follows three high school kids who think they’re heading to a trailer for a group sex encounter they arranged online. Bad move. They get drugged and wake up in the Five Mile Church, a fundamentalist extremist compound led by Abin Cooper.
Michael Parks, who plays Cooper, is terrifying. He delivers these long, winding sermons that are so charismatic you almost forget he’s talking about murdering people. The film was heavily inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church—the "God Hates Fags" picketers—but Smith takes it to the logical, violent extreme. In the movie, the church isn't just shouting on street corners; they are heavily armed and ready for a holy war.
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Things go from "creepy cult horror" to "full-blown war movie" when the ATF, led by a weary John Goodman, shows up to serve a warrant. It turns into a bloody shootout where nobody is really the "good guy."
The Critical Fallout and the "Trumpet" Ending
Critics were... conflicted. Some loved the ballsy tonal shifts. Others hated that the movie basically abandons its main characters halfway through to become a tactical military drama.
One of the weirdest bits of trivia involves the ending. Originally, Smith wanted a full-on apocalyptic finale where the "Trumpets of God" actually sound and people’s heads start exploding. It would have been a supernatural twist. But, as he often admits, they simply ran out of money.
Instead, he went with a much more cynical, grounded ending where the "trumpets" are actually just a prank played by some neighbors with a loud sound system. It reframes the whole movie from a supernatural horror to a story about how easily humans can be tricked into slaughtering each other over nothing.
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Why It Still Matters Today
Looking back from 2026, Kevin Smith Red State feels like a prophetic moment for the film industry. Smith was using his Twitter following (about 2 million at the time) and his podcast listeners to bypass the gatekeepers. He was doing "direct-to-consumer" before that was a corporate buzzword.
He proved that if you have a niche, loyal audience, you don't need a $20 million Super Bowl ad. You just need a tour bus and a microphone. While the movie didn't make $100 million at the box office—it grossed around $1.1 million domestically in a very limited run—the "roadshow" model kept the lights on and allowed Smith to stay truly independent.
Kevin Smith Red State remains his most "un-Kevin Smith" movie. It’s cynical, violent, and deeply suspicious of both religious extremism and government overreach. It’s a film where the hero is basically "not getting shot," and in the end, even that is a toss-up.
How to Revisit the Red State Legacy
If you're a filmmaker or just a fan of the "Indie 2.0" era, there are a few things you should check out to get the full picture of what happened in 2011:
- Watch the Sundance Speech: You can find the full 20-minute rant on YouTube. It’s a masterclass in burning bridges while building a new one.
- Listen to the SModcast Archives: Smith documented the entire production and tour on his podcasts. It’s a raw look at the financials that most directors hide.
- Compare it to Tusk: Red State opened the door for Smith’s "True North" trilogy. Without the self-distribution success of the 2011 tour, we likely never get the weirdness of the walrus movie.
- Look at the ATF Subplot: Pay attention to John Goodman’s performance. It’s a subtle critique of the "just following orders" mentality that still feels incredibly relevant in modern political discourse.
Smith eventually went back to the View Askewniverse with Jay and Silent Bob Reboot and Clerks III, but Kevin Smith Red State stands alone as the moment he tried to break the wheel. Whether he succeeded or just dented it is still a topic for debate at film festivals today.