Just a day after being announced as a non-competition premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, we have a new look at Kevin Smith’s upcoming horror flick, RED STATE.

Thanks to ShockTilYouDrop, we now have our first look at Michael Parks, who stars in the film and plays a character that was conceptually based off of Westboro Baptist Church head, Fred Phelps.  The film also stars Kevin Pollack, John Goodman (who we also get our first look at in the film), Kyle Gallner and the lead of Smith’s next film, HIT SOMEBODY, Nicholas Braun.

According to the filmmaker, the film is going to be an exploitation style film; “in the ‘70s, they made exploitation flicks about devil worship.  We flip it on RED STATE – so it’s an exploitation flick about angel worship.”

Now, while I was admittedly not a fan of Smith’s last film, COP OUT, this seems to be something completely different than what we’ve seen from the indie icon prior.  The film looks fantastic, and the idea of Smith helming an exploitation film makes me more than interested.  Parks looks great in particular here, who plays a crazed preacher that our leads end up coming into contact with.  Overall, this just really looks like a return to form for Smith.  And for that, we can all be thankful for.