Frailty «««½
R, 100m. 2001
Cast & Credits: Bill Paxton (Dad Meiks), Matthew McConaughey (Adam Meiks) Powers Boothe (FBI Agent Wesley Doyle), Matt O'Leary (Young Fenton), Jeremy Sumpter (Young Adam), Luke Askew (Sheriff Smalls), Levi Kreis (Fenton Meiks), Derk Cheetwood (Agent Griffin Hull). Screenplay by Brent Hanley. Directed by Bill Paxton.
Frailty is the kind of horror/murder/mystery thriller high school kids would flock to see at a late Friday night screening. Chances are when it comes out on digital video disc and video later this year, it’s going to be on a kid’s must rent list for sleepover parties alongside such other horror flicks as Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Friday the 13th (1980) and Scream (1996).
High school kids love the thought of being scared. I saw Frailty during the day where it was hard to gage people’s reactions. See it on a Friday night in a packed theater and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the audience member’s reactions consist of either laughs or screams especially during one unexpected sequence that may well rival that of the shower sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
For older moviegoers like myself, I don’t see any entertainment in being scared. People see movies to get away from the life’s grim realities. Why should I be reminded of it again on the big screen? That’s not to say Frailty isn’t worth seeing. The film belongs on that short list of other brilliantly told, frighteningly clever horror/mystery thrillers as The Exorcist (1973), Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Seven (1995).
Watching Frailty is the kind of movie going experience you want to go through just once but never again. The film’s premise is disturbing to say the least and was directed by Texas native Bill Paxton (Titanic - 1997) who also doubles as the star.
The story is told in flashbacks by Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) who in the beginning tells FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that his family was behind the “God’s Hand” serial murders that took place in an East Texas town years ago.
The film takes us back to 1979 to when Meiks was in grade school living with his younger brother, Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and their father, a car mechanic and widower (Paxton). Paxton awakens the two kids in the middle of the night to tell the boys of the mission they have been assigned to take, given to them by God. Dear old dad tells the older Meiks (Matt O’Leary) they are responsible for wiping out all the demons on earth. What happens next is this family of three graduates into becoming a trio of serial killers who use an ax to murder their victims and bury them underneath their shed in the backyard.
What makes the film so chilling is how normal this family seems. Not once does the Paxton character let on that he is anything like Norman Bates from Psycho. The three go about their business having their nightly dinners and talk about their day at work and school as though what dad is teaching them is a part of life. These really are or could be like the people you would find living next door.
It isn’t until the Paxton character is forced to kill a local sheriff (Luke Askew) that he shows just how psychotic he might be saying he was forced to kill someone who was in fact, a human being and not a demon. Is he really insane? Did those visions really come from God? Or were they from the devil?
The beauty of Frailty is the way it skillfully throws a number of clever twists and turns at you during the last 45 minutes or so. One minute, I said to myself, “Huh, wait a second how can this make sense?” The next moment, I said, “Oh wait, I get it now” and was able to piece everything together.
I like movies like this that throw a number of surprises at you. Anyone can make a film and write a script about a serial killer. You need look no further than the Friday the 13th series for that inspiration. Those were one-note, one-plot movies with no shred of intelligence. Their purpose was to gross people out every time some unlucky victim got the ax, machete, or some other life-threatening object, literally.
Frailty doesn’t fall into that category. There is more, much more to the story than what I was led to believe or see on screen, or from the trailer for that matter.
When the film is over, I will not be surprised if viewers’ reactions to the impressive plot twists are a combination of both laughs and astonishment. I felt the same way walking out and it wasn’t because I saw some poor soul get the ax sometime during the film.
©4/24/02
R, 100m. 2001
Cast & Credits: Bill Paxton (Dad Meiks), Matthew McConaughey (Adam Meiks) Powers Boothe (FBI Agent Wesley Doyle), Matt O'Leary (Young Fenton), Jeremy Sumpter (Young Adam), Luke Askew (Sheriff Smalls), Levi Kreis (Fenton Meiks), Derk Cheetwood (Agent Griffin Hull). Screenplay by Brent Hanley. Directed by Bill Paxton.
High school kids love the thought of being scared. I saw Frailty during the day where it was hard to gage people’s reactions. See it on a Friday night in a packed theater and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the audience member’s reactions consist of either laughs or screams especially during one unexpected sequence that may well rival that of the shower sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
For older moviegoers like myself, I don’t see any entertainment in being scared. People see movies to get away from the life’s grim realities. Why should I be reminded of it again on the big screen? That’s not to say Frailty isn’t worth seeing. The film belongs on that short list of other brilliantly told, frighteningly clever horror/mystery thrillers as The Exorcist (1973), Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Seven (1995).
Watching Frailty is the kind of movie going experience you want to go through just once but never again. The film’s premise is disturbing to say the least and was directed by Texas native Bill Paxton (Titanic - 1997) who also doubles as the star.
The story is told in flashbacks by Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) who in the beginning tells FBI Agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) that his family was behind the “God’s Hand” serial murders that took place in an East Texas town years ago.
The film takes us back to 1979 to when Meiks was in grade school living with his younger brother, Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and their father, a car mechanic and widower (Paxton). Paxton awakens the two kids in the middle of the night to tell the boys of the mission they have been assigned to take, given to them by God. Dear old dad tells the older Meiks (Matt O’Leary) they are responsible for wiping out all the demons on earth. What happens next is this family of three graduates into becoming a trio of serial killers who use an ax to murder their victims and bury them underneath their shed in the backyard.
What makes the film so chilling is how normal this family seems. Not once does the Paxton character let on that he is anything like Norman Bates from Psycho. The three go about their business having their nightly dinners and talk about their day at work and school as though what dad is teaching them is a part of life. These really are or could be like the people you would find living next door.
It isn’t until the Paxton character is forced to kill a local sheriff (Luke Askew) that he shows just how psychotic he might be saying he was forced to kill someone who was in fact, a human being and not a demon. Is he really insane? Did those visions really come from God? Or were they from the devil?
The beauty of Frailty is the way it skillfully throws a number of clever twists and turns at you during the last 45 minutes or so. One minute, I said to myself, “Huh, wait a second how can this make sense?” The next moment, I said, “Oh wait, I get it now” and was able to piece everything together.
I like movies like this that throw a number of surprises at you. Anyone can make a film and write a script about a serial killer. You need look no further than the Friday the 13th series for that inspiration. Those were one-note, one-plot movies with no shred of intelligence. Their purpose was to gross people out every time some unlucky victim got the ax, machete, or some other life-threatening object, literally.
Frailty doesn’t fall into that category. There is more, much more to the story than what I was led to believe or see on screen, or from the trailer for that matter.
When the film is over, I will not be surprised if viewers’ reactions to the impressive plot twists are a combination of both laughs and astonishment. I felt the same way walking out and it wasn’t because I saw some poor soul get the ax sometime during the film.
©4/24/02
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