Faith As Horror
Frailty
Cast: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matthew O'Leary
Director: Bill Paxton
Movie Help Web Popcorn Kernels:
A truly terrifying tale of a man possessed, this low-key horror relies more on suggestion than rivers of blood, and in that it succeeds. The film begins with a young man sitting in the office of an FBI investigator. The young man, Meeks (McConaughey) tells the agent that he knows the identity of a killer known as the "God's Hand": his own brother. After some more bantering, the young man tells his story in flashback.
Fenton and Adam are two normal boys, raised alone by their father (Paxton). One day their world is turned upside-down when he comes into their room and gently explains that they "have a new purpose" in life. They are to hunt down and destroy "demons", given to the father in a vision. At first, Fenton (O'Leary) the older boy tries to put the whole thing off as a dream. But it is no dream, as he is to find out.
The plot accelerates then into high speed, with more and more violence, and more and more terrible acts by the apparently normal father. Paxton plays the role to perfection, but it is the young O'Leary who steals the show. Not compromising to his father, he knows the older man is insane, and pleads to the very end to stop the madness. Unfortunately his brother Adam is dominated by their father. There are, of course, hints and strange coincidences in the movie that suggest that maybe, just maybe, the old man really IS guided. But they are subtle and could very well be simply luck and circumstance. I enjoyed this film, as a psychological thriller, of how an adult can twist and overpower children and, ultimately, leave them as insane as he in the end. Not for the faint of heart, it will make you think long after it's done.
