Kevin Smith's Most Controversial Film Resulted In 'Bona Fide' Death Threats

It's tough to think of writer and director Kevin Smith being all that controversial these days (outside of the mildly varied reactions to his 2022 sequel "Clerks III"), but back in the 1990s, he was making movies that shocked quite a bit of middle America. Films like "Clerks" and "Mallrats" were shamed for their vulgarity, while the queer-positive "Chasing Amy" made some conservatives see red. However, nothing upset folks quite like Smith's 1999 comedy "Dogma." 

"Dogma" centers on Bartelby (Ben Affleck) and Loki (Matt Damon), a pair of renegade angels who have been banned from Heaven and banished to Wisconsin. They then find a loophole in Catholic dogma that will allow them to be fully cleansed of their sins and enter the pearly gates, but doing so will negate all of existence. Thus, the last descendent of Jesus Christ's family, Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), is tasked with stopping the impending apocalypse, and she's helped along the way by the prophets Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith), the angel The Metatron (Alan Rickman), the muse Serendipity (Selma Hayek), and the 13th apostle, Rufus (Chris Rock). It's a little sacrilegious, but Smith made it when he was still a Catholic and it's actually pretty reverent in a lot of ways despite its overall irreverence.

Overall, "Dogma" is a nuanced, hilarious movie about faith and losing faith that holds a special place in my heart as a fellow fallen Catholic, although some people were so upset about its existence that they sent credible death threats to Smith. Looking back on his career for Entertainment Weekly in 2024, Smith reminisced a bit about how "Dogma" was the movie that "almost got him killed," though it doesn't sound like he would have done anything differently. 

While recounting his filmography to EW, Smith revealed that he received " 400,000 pieces of hate mail and three bonafide death threats" related to "Dogma," including one that was rather specific about how the letter's author intended on killing Smith. "The movie had a rubber poop monster in it," Smith noted. "Can you imagine getting that irate over a movie with a rubber poop monster?"

"Dogma" not only got Smith a ton of hate mail, but it was also protested by the Catholic League, with protesters showing up to picket festival screenings and even theatrical showings of the film. Smith, never one to let a joke slide by, actually joined the protests himself and was interviewed on the local news, who thought he truly was just another protester. It wouldn't be the last time he courted controversy with a church, either, as the infamous Westboro Baptist Church protested and then attended the premiere of his film "Red State," so clearly he didn't care too much about riling up the turbo-faithful.

It's honestly a shame that some of these folks couldn't give "Dogma" a chance, as it's actually a meditation on faith that has a lot of good things to say about having curiosity about the existential, so long as you don't take it all too literally. It's Smith's smartest flick and features one of Rickman's best performances, so c'mon, what is there to be upset about, really?