Kevin Smith is a genius. That is an established fact. The 37-year old actor, writer, producer has brought us such favorites as Clerks, the lesbianic Chasing Amy, and even appeared on our favorite teen soap, Degrassi. Now the bearded geek's bringing what may be the most exciting project yet: the horrific Red State.

Smith recently sat down with Rotten Tomatoes to discuss the project and one of its equally horrific inspirations: Fred Phelps.

That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on. The movie's called Red State and it's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps himself but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure.

While some horror movies employ sadistic slashers to provide the thrills, Smith's taking a more nuanced - not to mention intelligent - approach:

...The notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way... I'm sure there'll be people saying, 'This ain't a horror movie!' But to me, it is.

(Also, we agree with this post: Phelps looks exactly like Kane from Poltergeist. Creepy.)