Frailty
Horror movies in the 21st century have become a monstrosity in and of themselves in terms of quality. Found footage atrocities that pathetically ape Blair Witch, CGI shitfests, and moronic remakes, ripoffs, and badly done homages to the horror masterpieces of the past, even as these new age filmmakers readily forget that what made these older films the classics that they are was the fact that they had great original STORIES that at the time had never before been told, and had been done so well the first time that trying to emulate said classic ultimately comes off as being pointless and futile. This release from 2001 was the opposite. It ultilized an original, thought provoking premise, managed to combine elements of both slasher and religious horror movies, and featured Bill Paxton not only directing a major movie for the first time, but managing to direct himself to easily the best and finest performance of his own career, and even more impressively directing two child actors to pulling off stunningly well done turns. The story is told mostly in flashback, as a strange young man played by Matthew McConaughey walks into the FBI headquarters to speak to the agent in charge of investigating a series of serial murders known as the Godâs Hand Killings and played by Powers Boothe. McConaughey tells him straight out that he knows who the killer is, and a doubtful Boothe invites him to say how and why he knows that. It turns out to be supposedly McConaugheyâs brother, and to explain how that is we go back to their childhood, with them growing up as young boys under the watchful eye of their widowed mechanic father played by Paxton. Everything is simple and serene in their world, until one night Paxton fervently comes into his two sonsâ bedroom to give them some urgent news: The whole world is coming to an end shortly, and that he has just been visited by an angel sent by God while he slept, and that the angel told him that The Devil has unleashed his demons upon the Earth and as part of the impending war between good and evil, they are to go out and destroy demons in human form using a list of names that the angel has apparently given to Paxton. Trouble is, to the average viewer, it would appear that Paxton is now a fully fledged serial killer himself now, as he tracks down, kidnaps, and uses an axe to kill these âdemonsâ in human form, seemingly random ordinary people being made to suffer a gruesome and frightening death. And even though both of his young sons are complicit in helping him achieve this goal, a noticeable divide forms between the younger son, who says he shares the same visions and gleefully goes along with the killings, and the older son who doesnât quite feel the same amount of confidence in the holy nature of their work and sees it as their father brutally murdering random innocent people. And thus is where the brilliant screenplay by Brent Hanley also succeeds in dividing the most objective viewers. Taking into account the fictional idea that God would assign simple, unimportant people to basically kill evildoers who have gone undetected in our society (and also seemingly protecting them from being detected themselves should they follow the rules), the question of whether a person should be killed simply because their murderer had a vision that said that âGod wanted it soâ calls into question whether God as we know Him would condone such actions as seen in the real life case of late term abortion doctor George Tiller being shot down in his own church simply because his killer had claimed that he had just that sort of vision. Certainly itâs made clear that Paxton is NOT enjoying doing this kind of work, as he excellently portrays the tormented nature of his character who nonetheless is doing what he does out of nearly sheer and total faith, well aware that he himself would appear to be a monster to that of the untrained eye, doubled by his older sonâs refusal to believe that any of this is for real and that his Dad is in need of some intense psychiatric help. As played by Matt OâLeary, this might go down as perhaps the best performance by a child actor in playing what is basically a tortured soul himself, knowing the difference between right and wrong but agonizingly still helping his father commit these killings out of loyalty to him and his younger brother while not knowing what he can do or where he can go to stop this from happening, almost as if he is trapped in a living nightmare involving his loved ones from which there is no escape. Pretty heady stuff for a 13 year old actor, and OâLeary does a masterful job of pulling it off, acting as a voice of reason and a stand in perspective for the viewer even as we wonder about his true motivations and whether or not Paxton is actually legitimately crazy. As the younger son, Jeremy Sumpter is also very, very good, enthusiastically going along with his fatherâs actions while not losing any sleep over the morality of it. Some people have even put forth the theory that while Paxtonâs visions were indeed real, the actual source of them was NOT God but in truth The Devil himself, tricking the simple mechanic into either killing innocent people or just delivering the wicked into his own arms for disposal into Hell while making Paxton himself into a literal murderer who will now have to atone for his own very real sins. These moral and theological questions aside, the film succeeds magnificently in establishing a very real and effective tone of creepiness and dread in almost every major scene, with the ideas of living with a father who may just be completely insane (and a little brother eating it all up) to being a man like Paxton having to be forced to carry out horrific acts of violence in order to prove his unshakable faith without question, even if deciding to question certain edicts from The Almighty could result in his own demise, brings the level of fright to such a point unseen in religious themed horror cinema since The Exorcist itself. Moreso impressive is the relative lack of gore involved here, keeping all bloodshed usually right out of camera view, but allowing the acting and the nature of the story to keep the most hardened horror movie nut riveted. And all this while McConaughey is relating the story to Boothe through narration, first in his office and then while driving to a crime scene where he claims his brother has several bodies buried. And thatâs when we get to the best part: A major twist (or multiple twists really) that completely changes the entire perspective of the story we have just seen in such a way that it makes something like The Usual Suspects or M. Night Shyamalanâs works pale in comparison, in many ways because these twists are absolutely airtight in tying in with the movie we have just seen. But the most amazing thing is upon watching the film on repeat viewings knowing the twists because not only does it increase the enjoyment, it actually manages to make the movie SCARIER knowing such things going in this time. All in all, an impressive feat, a very auspicious directorial debut for Paxton, and the remote yet real possibility that the horror genre can still be saved just by looking at the milleniumâs first undisputed original classicâŚ
10/10