Frailty
"Sometimes truth defies reason."
Fenton is just your average young teenage boy living in a small town in Texas in 1979. He’s interested in girls, watches The Dukes of Hazzard, sneaks into R-rated movies at the local theater, and struggles to help his windowed father (Bill Paxton) raise his younger brother Adam. They’re as happy and complacent as three peas in a pod until one night dad wakes the two boys, claiming that he has been tasked by God to destroy demons here on earth.
Frailty seamlessly blends a little bit of horror, a touch of thriller, some Southern Gothic, and religious fanaticism all into one movie practically creating its own genre. Told through Fenton’s (Matthew McConaughey) flashbacks as he confesses to the FBI Special Agent (Powers Boothe) that his brother, Adam is the notorious “God’s Hand” serial killer, who’s just claimed his fifth victim.
Expertly directed by Bill Paxton; he helms the story with the tender care of a loving father. He explores delusional psychoses, religious extremism, and the weakness of morality and character, but never lingers too long on any one. Instead, Paxton deliberately tells every side of the story equally, never choosing one over the other, so the viewer has a difficult time making up their mind about who is right and who must be wrong. The end result becomes a guessing game as the terror and suspense keeps twisting the story until the final revelation in the film’s conclusion.
A hidden gem that I discovered back in 2001, Frailty still resonates with me on a very personal and spiritual level. I understand that it’s only a work of fiction, but I can’t even imagine what I would have done if I had been in either Fenton’s shoes or his father’s. Walking by faith is one thing, but carrying out what you “perceive” to be the will of God – slaying “demons” that are disguised as humans – is on an entirely different level that I can’t even begin to comprehension. A brilliant concept from beginning to end, Frailty will probably spawn more questions in conversation after the credits roll than it initially answered in the first place.
Film Geek Footnotes:
Fenton is just your average young teenage boy living in a small town in Texas in 1979. He’s interested in girls, watches The Dukes of Hazzard, sneaks into R-rated movies at the local theater, and struggles to help his windowed father (Bill Paxton) raise his younger brother Adam. They’re as happy and complacent as three peas in a pod until one night dad wakes the two boys, claiming that he has been tasked by God to destroy demons here on earth.
Expertly directed by Bill Paxton; he helms the story with the tender care of a loving father. He explores delusional psychoses, religious extremism, and the weakness of morality and character, but never lingers too long on any one. Instead, Paxton deliberately tells every side of the story equally, never choosing one over the other, so the viewer has a difficult time making up their mind about who is right and who must be wrong. The end result becomes a guessing game as the terror and suspense keeps twisting the story until the final revelation in the film’s conclusion.
A hidden gem that I discovered back in 2001, Frailty still resonates with me on a very personal and spiritual level. I understand that it’s only a work of fiction, but I can’t even imagine what I would have done if I had been in either Fenton’s shoes or his father’s. Walking by faith is one thing, but carrying out what you “perceive” to be the will of God – slaying “demons” that are disguised as humans – is on an entirely different level that I can’t even begin to comprehension. A brilliant concept from beginning to end, Frailty will probably spawn more questions in conversation after the credits roll than it initially answered in the first place.
Film Geek Footnotes:
- The demon-destroying axe is inscribed with the letters OTIS. The significance of this writing is never given. Fans have speculated that Otis Meiks is the true name of Bill Paxton's character "Dad." Others believe OTIS to be an acronym for Only The Innocent Survive.
- The film is set in Texas and has three Texas-born actors as top-billed stars: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, and Powers Boothe.
- The scenes of the lengthy car ride of Agent Doyle and his witness, were shot on a sound stage. Director of photography Bill Butler (JAWS, The Conversation) had crew members slighting shaking the car and moving lights and props to create the illusion of moving through the night.
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