Trivia: "Red State" is director Kevin Smith's first film that wasn't a comedy. He considers the film horror and has said it's a passion project of his that he's been wanting to make for some time.
Trivia: The original draft of the script ended with the actual biblical apocalypse happening. All of church members and police officers heads would begin exploding, save for John Goodman, who would take cover and then see the church leader played by Michael Parks being run through the heart with a sword by an enormous angel. The angel would then turn to Goodman, put it's finger to its lips and whisper "Shhhh..." before the four horsemen of the apocalypse would begin to descend from the sky as the film cut to black. Smith has said that the ending was dropped due to budgetary restrictions and because he wasn't confident he would be able to deliver on such an ambitious sequence.
Trivia: The film's fanatical christian cult (the Five Point Trinity) is inspired by the real-life Westboro Baptist Church, who infamously picket funerals for dead soldiers and stand at street-corners holding offensive signs that blame homosexuality for many of the world's problems. Director Kevin Smith wanted to make a film asking what would happen if a cult like that became militant and violent. The movie also briefly name-checks the real-life church. During a screening of the film, several former members of the Westboro Baptist Church made a surprise visit and told director Smith that the scenes depicting life inside of the Five Point Trinity church were startlingly true to life.
