Do you have faith in debut director Bill Paxton's helming skills? You just might after witnessing this gothic serial-killer flick.
Frailty (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:133
Fresh:98
Rotten:35
Average Rating:6.9/10
Consensus: Creepy and disturbing, Frailty is well-crafted, low-key horror.
Theatrical Release:Apr 12, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $13,076,378
Synopsis:
FRAILTY is a multi-layered, tightly woven thriller starring Matthew McConaughey and Bill Paxton. Paxton will also be making his directorial debut, surrounded by a talented crew led by Bill Butler...
FRAILTY is a multi-layered, tightly woven thriller starring Matthew McConaughey and Bill Paxton. Paxton will also be making his directorial debut, surrounded by a talented crew led by Bill Butler as the D.P. (Anaconda, Grease, Jaws). Set in present day Texas, FRAILTY centers on the FBI's search for a serial killer who calls himself "God's Hands.”
McConaughey plays Fenton Meeks, a young man who approaches the lead investigator, one night, claiming he knows the identity of the killer. The FBI agent is curious, but unimpressed until Fenton reveals that the killer is his younger brother Adam. In the style of the Usual Suspects, Fenton recounts in a series of flashbacks, how he and his brother grew up in a very loving family, raised by their widowed father (Paxton).
All that changed, the day his father awoke, believing he had been visited by an angel and given a mission to destroy "demons" – seemingly normal looking people, who walked this earth as pure evil. Fenton’s father, and then his brother Adam, swore to carry out this ‘divine’ mission. Fenton refused to participate in the killings and tried to persuade his brother to do the same, but it was obvious to him that they had ‘snapped.’ Out of loyalty however, he refused to go to the police, until now. Believing Fenton’s startling tale of the slaughter of innocents, the FBI agent follows Fenton to the family’s rose garden only to be surprised that neither evil nor innocence are what they seem. -- © 2001 Lions Gate Entertainment
Starring: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matthew O'Leary
Starring: Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Matthew O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Luke Askew, Derk Cheetwood, Alan Davidson, Levi Kreis
Director: Bill Paxton
Director: Bill Paxton
Screenwriter: Brent Hanley
Producer: David Krishner, David Blocker, Corey Sienega
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Frailty
A superb Southern Gothic slice of horror that is easily the sickest movie to arrive in theaters in a very long time. And I mean that in the nicest way possible.
You won't look at religious fanatics -- or backyard sheds -- the same way again.
A completely spooky piece of business that gets under your skin and, some plot blips aside, stays there for the duration.
Whether or not you fall fully under the sinister spell of Frailty, the unsettling and accomplished directing debut of actor Bill Paxton, you will have to concede its bravery.
Like so many other allegedly scary movies, it gets so tangled up in The Twist that it chokes the energy right out of the very audience it seeks to frighten.
I've always thought that a warning label should be placed on the Good Book.
Although Frailty may not be a complete success, it offers ample evidence that Paxton could have a career in the director's chair.
A nearly perfect genre piece...ingenious, lovingly crafted and genuinely creepy.
If Frailty isn't quite the devastation it could've been ... it remains the most pungent American-Pentecostal mini-nightmare since 1996's true-crime doc Paradise Lost.
At the end...my eyes were so sore from rolling at the film's predictability and narrative loopholes I could barely see straight.
A slick, creepy little film that should do well for the careers of Paxton (as a director and an actor), debut screenwriter Brent Hanley and, most of all, youngster O'Leary.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 77% 77% | The Hangover |
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 24% 24% | G-Force |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
| 63% 63% | Extract |
| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
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