On June 28, 2011, Smith announced a one-week run in Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema (making the film eligible for Academy Award consideration).

[10][11] Teenagers Travis, Jarod, and Billy Ray drive to meet a woman named Sarah in response to an invitation for group sex.

His followers ritually murder a captive gay man and drop him into a crawl space where Travis and Billy Ray are bound together.

Wynan calls Agent Joseph Keenan of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who begins setting up outside the church.

Travis breaks free, arms himself and plans to shoot the congregation, but witnesses Jarod being held captive in the church.

The church congregation members lower their weapons and run outside rejoicing, claiming that the Rapture has occurred and taunting the ATF.

During various interactive Q&As for the film, Smith has stated that the original ending continued with the Rapture happening and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse descending on the scene.

[12] Kevin Smith announced at the Wizard World Chicago 2006 convention that his next project would be a straight horror film.

[18] Another reason cited for the delay was that Smith held a superstition about dying after making his tenth movie, and that he did not want to leave an "unpleasant, nasty" film as his last.

[23] On July 24, 2010, it was also reported that actor Michael Parks had signed on to the film in a starring role,[24] and on September 5, 2010, Smith confirmed that Matt L. Jones was also cast.

[25] On the September 20 edition of his and Ralph Garman's podcast Hollywood Babble-on, Smith announced that John Goodman had joined the cast.

On November 8, Smith announced on Twitter that the movie was viewed by Sundance, to determine if it was eligible for entry in the 2011 festival.

[28] On December 1, Smith announced on his Plus One podcast that Red State would be screened at the 27th Sundance Film Festival in the non-competition section.

[29] In the "Commercial" episode of Comic Book Men, Smith cited Bryan Johnson's film Vulgar as being an inspiration for Red State.

During the post-production process, Smith announced on social media that he was accepting song submissions for the soundtrack of the film.

"[37] Kim Masters, editor-at-large for The Hollywood Reporter, interviewed associates close to Smith about his alleged career "implosion" at the Sundance debut of his film and the events leading up to it: Smith was one of the first in the business to have a website and sell merchandise – pieces of film from his movies and action figures – to fans.

"[41] Smith described his motivations, strategy, and thought process behind the marketing method at his Sundance appearance[39] and on various podcast shows, Q&As,[42] and tweets.

[43] He described the strategy as carefully planned with his business partners, including Jonathan Gordon, who had recently had an interesting experience as a short-lived executive at Universal.

But I can't think of a more interesting business news story that you're ever gonna hear about this fucking year, man.

[56] Edward Douglas of Shock Till You Drop panned the movie saying that, "it feels like one of Smith's Twitter rants fleshed out into film with equal portions of bile sprayed at both church and state.

"[57] Katey Rich of Cinema Blend reporting in her review, "Messy, overwritten, visually stylish, but kind of a bore.

Melissa Leo overacts, Michael Parks is impressive as Fred Phelps figure but the character's meaning and purpose in the narrative (or lack thereof) is fuzzy.

"[58][59] Jordan Hoffman in his review for UGO also panned the film, saying, "Kevin Smith, a wonderful public speaker and genuinely fun guy, has yet to master the basics of movie making.

"[36] Raffi Asdourian of The Film Stage wrote that, "While there are glimpses of Smith's wry humor scattered throughout, Red State can't help but feel like a B action movie that started off with ambitious ideas but collapses under its own preachy weight ... it's clear that the smart alec writer still has some things to learn about making a great film.

"[61] Matt Goldberg of Collider.com wrote that, "Red State is a radical departure for Smith and yet he lacks the confidence to properly execute the action-horror-thriller he's devised.

Horror is the genre of a director—pacing, feel, shots, editing—and Smith's skills are not up to the task ..."[63] Amongst the positive reactions to the film, Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter called the movie, "A potent cinematic hand grenade tossed to bigots everywhere.

"[65] Germain Lussier of /Film also praised the film, saying, "This is a maturing, confident Smith who proves, after Cop Out, he still has a unique voice.

With Red State, that voice isn't saying anything incredibly groundbreaking, and at times it gets a tad preachy, but the director has expanded out of his comfort zone and given audiences a genuine piece of art.

[70] In October 2011, Red State won the Best Motion Picture award at the 2011 Sitges Film Festival, while Michael Parks was named Best Actor.

[71] Parks' character, Abin Cooper, received a nomination for Villain Of The Year from the Virgin Media Movie Awards.