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.

Gilbert Reviews True Detective's Last Episode

                                                                   

There are shows that are so well written that you have to keep reminding yourself that it’s only a television show and nothing more. True Detective, HBO’s crime drama series written by Nic Pizzolatto, Directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson is that kind of a show. I was pulled in line, hook and sinker after watching the first episode. Most of the credit goes to the actors who were so convincing in their perspective roles.

                                                               

 

We followed Detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) through 17 years of chasing down clues to find the scariest serial killer ever, Errol Childress (Glenn Fleshler). Sometimes, when we go looking for bad people, we call them monsters because of their despicable acts of violence. We say that they behaved in ways that are less than human. What is more frightening to me, is the fact that there are real monsters out there and we don’t always recognize them because they are so good at pretending to be human; like Hitler, Manson…and a list of others.

                                                                  

 

We felt helpless as we watched the events leading up to Rust Cohle’s physical and mental collapse, and Marty Hart’s sabotaging his marriage. They were imperfect people in an imperfect world, trying to do the right thing, and when they finally found Errol Childress, we foolishly thought the horror over. It wasn’t and it nearly cost Rust and Marty their lives.

                                                                

Conclusion

Everybody was talking about the book “The King in Yellow” and trying to guess if it was Rust or Marty who was this monster, but it was only a ruse to throw us off track and a clever one at that. In the end, Rust and Marty knew that even though there is a lot of darkness in the world, they were able to take down a demon and send him back to hell. Rust said it perfectly “Once, there was only dark. You ask me, the light’s winning.”

     

Live in the light, Rust and Marty.                   

True Detective and Why I'm Hooked

                                                                           

There are television series that you can take or leave and then there is True Detective. This is a HBO series that has captured my attention and loyalty. I watch and study the two main stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey who play Detectives Martin Hart and Rust Cohle as though hypnotized. The stories are well written and the two actors have gone way beyond their normal limit of acting strengths and range, to make the characters that they play so much more alive and believable.

                                                                

 

True Detective is crime thriller at its best. Last night’s episode called After You’ve Gone reunites the two detectives after a falling out many years ago. Rust Cohle has enough evidence to convince Hart to join in a secret investigation of a powerful family who might be responsible for the deaths of many women and children.

                                                                    

 

The main suspect is Reverend Billy Lee Tuttle, a powerful man with powerful secrets. Is he behind the molestation and death of children? Who is the Spaghetti Man? Is he the serial killer or is there a group of serial killers working under the cover of religion? And, who is the Yellow King?

                                                                        

 

See what I mean. The story gets under your skin and you can’t shake it. You find yourself cheering on the two detectives who are very human, full of faults, and have made this case more important than life itself. I’m hooked and like a dealer trying to sell the next high, I keep telling my friends to watch this show. Watch the show and let me know if, like me, you are held captive by this show.