It convinces you how trivial these people actually believe their opinion is that they'll only post it for free.

KS: Totally. And that's the thing; at the end of the day are they really committed to their cause? And nobody is, in terms of negative. Think about the things that you love and what great lengths you'll go to in support of them and to voice your opinion about them and then you think about the things you don't like or absolutely loath; how often would you go out of your way to voice your opinion on them? If it's something like, you know, a war that you feel is unfair or a crime against children, probably you'd go out of your way for it. If it's something like a f*cking movie, why on earth would you waste your time? You've got to really hate a movie in order to hunt down a website where you're pretty sure the filmmaker's going to see it to tell them how much you hated it. I mean, you can just do that for free with your friends or just vote with your wallet and never go to anything that that filmmaker produces again.

Or protest a movie with a group of your friends outside a cinema.

KS: Yeah, and I mean, you've really got to hate a movie to protest it; to kind-of get out there and make up little placards and sh*t like that.

Thos cats are a breed of a different colour altogether. It's not like they're cineastes or feel like they have better tastes in movies than most people and they feel the need to cut you down because they don't like your movie and they don't feel you're as worthy as other filmmakers and what-not. These are cats who are just fundamentally opposed to your movie based on what your movie's saying vis-a-vis their faith or something like that. I would take internet flamers a thousand times any day of the week over a Christian fundamentalist who really feels like you've offended their sensibilities.

There was a documentary on TV here recently by this investigative journalist-cum-documentarian about a family in the middle of America...

KS: Is it the Reverend Phelps family? That dude is in this movie we produced, this documentary called Small Town Gay Bar, which was just playing here at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. My friend, Malcolm Ingram, made it. That dude, Reverend Phelps, is featured in his doc and when were at the Q&A at the screening the other night someone mentioned that Phelps was on that show fairly recently.

Phelps is a dude who'll sit down with anybody. People have asked, "How did you get that interview?" Phelps is such a press wh*re that if you showed up with a cardboard box with the word "camera" written on it he would sit down for an interview. But someone said that in that programme he actually wasn't into the interview and was kind-of like c*ck-blocking the dude to some degree?

He was.

KS: Which is totally uncharacteristic of that guy. He'll sit down with anybody. He and his family will go on CNN or Fox News or whatever, you know, and just be shredded by the interviewer for their points of view. The liberal media will shred them for their God Hates F*gs campaign but the conservative media will shred them for like going to soldiers' funerals and picketing. The dude's getting it from both sides and all ends, but they'll happily sit there and use the forum because they know they're reaching a wider audience to maintain their point of view even if they're being demonised and villainised - and rightfully so - by whoever's interviewing them. It was odd to hear that the dude was c*ck-blocking him.



I think what threw them off was that he asked something like, "How many children do you have?" Because I guess some of them have left the flock...

KS: One of them is gay too. Malcolm found out during the interview and he didn't include it in the doc because the dude got really tight at that moment. And, also, you can't substantiate it. You can't produce absolute proof. But I guess it turned out that one of his grandchildren was gay and so that dude has kind-of been ex-communicated from the flock. I guess that kind-of fundamentally goes against their f*cking God Hates F*gs stance!

You're talking about a guy who affects and offends people on a very personal level who he himself, when you go at him personally, that's when that dude shuts down. It's the irony that he'll go to a funeral of some soldier who died in Iraq and lobby against him and create more pain - pour salt in the wounds of a family who's already mourning the loss of their child - and hurt them on a very personal level, but when you bring up something that's personal to this dude he's just like, "This interview's over, I don't want to talk about it."

You would imagine he'd be able to see and find some empathetic vibe inasmuch as, "Oh sh*t, what I do hurts and offends people because I know when it happens to me I'm hurt and offended." His agenda transcends the personal, that dude is working on what he maintains is on behalf of God. He's taken what he considers to be the source material - words in the Bible - in strengthening his point of view.

He's a really fascinating individual and I'd heard about him for years and years even prior to Malcolm having him in his documentary because Howard Stern used to play clips from his website on his radio show. And, you know, I'd seen him in the news over the years because he is a larger-than-life figure inasmuch as he makes insanely f*cking inappropriate statements that catch your attention because you're like, "Who would say such a thing?"

That dude's always fascinated me and he's really informed that horror movie that I'm working on. Very much so...

Move on to Part Two as Kevin talks more about his horror movie, Red State, the movies that inspire it, his Minnesota-set comedy script, indie cinema in 2007 and, erm, Britney Spears... Click the link below.