Frailty

                                                         

I was able to take a few hours away from my writing today. I don’t usually like taking breaks my stories to do something as boring as life, but I’m afraid if I don’t take these breaks, I might disappear into the matrix. I made a cup of tea, flopped on the sofa and watched a show that I’d seen a few years back. I’m glad that I did.

                                                         

Frailty is an American thriller that was in theatres in 2002. That’s not where I saw this gem, but home on cable. The film directed and starring Bill Paxton, also featured Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matt O’Leary, Jeremy Sumpter and Levi Kries.

Plot

There is a serial killer, known at the God’s Hand killer, on the loose and a FBI Agent on his trail. Agent Wesley Doyle (Booth) gets a visit from a man who claims to be Fenton Meiks (McConaughey). He claims that he knows who is doing the killings. From that moment on, the viewer is taken on a journey of righteous horror.

                                                                

In a series of flashbacks, the man who calls himself Fenton tells Doyle about his father and the messages he received from an angel. Dad (Bill Paxton) wakes up one day to tell his motherless boys that he’s been assigned the job of being God’s Hand; assassin; demon slayer.  Dad tells his young sons that God will show him who to kill. The people, who are marked for death according to dad, are not human. They are demons. While young Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) believes in dad’s message, his older brother, young Fenton (Matt O’Leary) does not. Dad takes the boys on his demon killing trips and, the effect on both children makes one of them a serial killer. Which one of the boys is the God’s Hand killer is the whole plot, and what a plot it is.

Conclusion

There are plots within plots and the viewer is dragged along with little Fenton  and Adam to witness their father’s mission of doing God’s work. Bill Paxton did an outstanding job as director and actor. This is horror at its best. Not because of the killings, but because we have already seen on the news, many examples of maniacal religious fanatics doing God’s work. It makes one question the whole good vs. evil thing.

                                                             

I have to say that this particular film made me a big fan of Matthew McConaughey. In Frailty. Watch the film. It is a good horror story with one hell of a twist.