Review of Frailty (2012) by Henrik S — 20 Mar 2011

Maybe my expectations were a bit off but I did not enjoy that film very much. The premise is solid gold and the first 45 minutes (despite a horrible narrative structure and dull direction) are rather interesting. The idea of telling the story through the boy's eye and experiencing the dad's psychosis and obsession first hand is interesting.

However, once the cat is out of the bag, the film looses its momentum big time and keeps stalling for the whole mid-section because the film turns out to be solely relying on the twist to make it interesting. I expected all sorts of things (god actually appearing on screen, or the detective being a demon) but the twist was so lame and confusing, that I moaned in agony and almost stopped watching it. The film would have made a decent Twilight Zone episode but for a whole film, there is just not enough to it.

I did like the OST which was really good and the underlying current of unsettling and foreboding terror, so credit goes out to the editors, cinematographers and composer.

The film never really knows where it belongs, it jumps back and forth from thriller, Americana, horror, supernatural, character study but does not tie it all up and leaves many loose ends behind.

I blame Paxton's inexperience for this, as I am pretty sure that the source material (and the premise) could have a much better film with someone else at the helm.

HX.