Frailty Forum

Frailty

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As far as thrillers and horror movies go, not many have come to theaters that manage to creep me out. Mostly they all follow a similar formula, and add a few changes to make it their own. And in the end, you feel a little disappointed, like you've seen this before. Frailty manages to keep you interested all the way thru the picture without really resorting to clichés. Most of the film's story is told in flashbacks by Fenton (McCounaghey) when he goes to the Texas branch office of the FBI. Fenton asks to talk only with Wesley Doyle (Boothe), the agent in charge of the "God's Hand" serial killer case. Fenton tells the story of his childhood, and how he and his younger brother Adam, witnessed their Dad's (Paxton) descent into madness. One night in the summer of '79, the young boys are awakened by their Dad, he tells them an angel visited him, and told him that the end of the world is near. Also, the angel told him that it was now his duty to find and destroy demons that Satan has sent out to live on Earth. Dad tells his sons that it's now their destiny to carry out God's will, and throw the demons of the face of the planet. Younger and more naive, Adam believes his father completely, but the skeptical Fenton finds the fantastic story hard to swallow. For a while, time passes and nothing happens, but when Father begins to start getting names of the demons he is to destroy, Fenton begins to worry. His fears are made real, when Dad brings home his first victim, and "destroys" her right in front of the boys. More victims follow, as Fenton finds himself torn between the love of his family, and the sake of his own safety. It's hard to describe just how Fenton manages to stay at his Dad's side throughout all the killing, but Dad manages to scare Fenton enough to keep him from running off. I don't really want to spoil too much of the plot, but I will tell you that if you're concerned about violence and gore, then you have nothing to fret over. The horror in this film comes more from not knowing what is real, who is safe, and who will die next. One very disturbing moment comes when Dad gives Adam a brief lesson on how to properly bury a body. The ending is a twist not too new to Hollywood, but I admit that I didn't see it coming. All in all the film's setup, haunting score, creepy imaging, and frighteningly possible story is good enough to make this one worth seeing. Not much else to say, you just need to check it out yourself. I give it a 4.

>>By Led Gopher (Wednesday, 27 Aug 2003 06:46)

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