Horror Movie Matters: #10: Frailty 2001 Dir. Bill Paxton

#10: Frailty 2001 Dir. Bill Paxton

Frailty is one of those films that has a quiet way of sneaking up on you and lingers in your mind long after the credits roll. The film begins with Fenton Meiks, played by Mathew McConaughey, walking into the FBI office and claiming that his brother is the serial killer responsible for "God's Hand" murders. After this confession, Meiks unfurls a tale about his childhood wering he and his brother were raised by a single dad (Bill Paxton). The childhood was fairly normal until their father wakes them one night and tells them he's been given a vision and that God has sent him on a mission to destroy demons that look like people. Demons that only he could see. The bulk of the film is made up of this story told through the childhood remembrances of Meiks, as he and his brother helped their father hunt "demons". Frailty is a slow burn of a film, that conjures up rapturous imagery and pairs it with kidnap and murder and blends classic Americana with wisps of the Southern gothic. This film is expertly performed and Paxton is a craftsman in the director's chair. However, the true brilliance of Frailty lies in it's use of narrator and ambiguity. In watching the story unfold, we are lead through a series of twisted discoveries, and we are left with a decision to make: Can this man really see demons, or is he simply a murderer? This is the question that will haunt you long after the film is over.