Review of Frailty (2002) by Andrew W — 27 Nov 2009

Very effective chiller directed by and starring Bill Paxton (excellent in this movie and behind the camera) as a widowed father and mechanic who works to provide a good home life for his two children (Matt O'Leary and Jeremy Sumpter, two young kids who give some really effective performances in this) until one day, he comes to his children with a story of talking to God and being sent on a mission to find special weapons and start killing demons posing as humans.

Naturally, the youngest child gets swept up in the story, while the older son is hesitant and very uncertain about what his father is doing. Things forever change for the whole family when dad becomes very serious about this mission and does in fact start killing people, er, "demons" .

The story is told through the surviving son's past recollection by grown-up Matthew McConaughey (who actually wasn't too bad to watch in this film) to FBI agent Powers Boothe (also good in this).

Good performances from the entire cast, excellent direction from first-timer Paxton with a great, effective, and twisty story by Brent Hanley (who also wrote the equally spooky "Family" episode on Masters of Horror).

Anything involving Religious nuts going off the deep end with their dumb beliefs always manages to spook me out. The clever use of an axe named Otis as the key weapon towards slaying demons is a nice touch to an already chilling movie.

Overall, a very gripping film that I think is also very underrated.