10 Movies Probably Made Out Of Spite
7. Red State
The last decade-or-so of Kevin Smith's career sure has been something, that's for sure, and the major departure point for the Clerks filmmaker came with 2011's Red State.
The low-budget horror film was a total creative 180 for a director who'd staked his name on irreverent comedies, but Red State truly felt like the work of a director trying to thumb his nose at his detractors.
It's little secret that Smith had a tough time shooting the more mainstream comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which ultimately disappointed at the box office, and in an attempt to deliver a sure-fire hit, he next tackled the 2010 Bruce Willis buddy cop disaster Cop Out.
After catching enormous flak for Cop Out, which remains the only film he's ever directed without also writing, Smith was in search of a reset, and so decided to make Red State for just $4 million, which was by far his lowest budget since 1997's Chasing Amy.
It wasn't just the film's aggressively unexpected tone which felt spiteful - yet in a good way, mostly - but the fact that Smith originally planned to auction off the film's rights at its 2011 Sundance premiere, only to reveal that he would actually be self-distributing it.
The move was widely criticised by Hollywood commentators who felt that Smith was attempting a childish gotcha against both his critics and Hollywood as a whole.
And this is all before he went on to make Tusk and Yoga Hosers...