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." Katey Rich of Cinema Blend reporting in her review, "Messy, overwritten, visually stylish, but kind of a bore. More like Kevin Smith than it looks because nobody ever stops talking. And it's not a horror movie by any usual definition. More like teen horror movie morphs into Waco disaster. 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." 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." According to Drew Mcweeny of "Motion Captured", "Kevin Smith's "Red State" fails onscreen and off at its world premiere ... A shoddy film and a bait-and-switch event fail to satisfy on any level." 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 it's own preachy weight ... it's clear that the smart alec writer still has some things to learn about making a great film." 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."