Gratuitous Scary Movie Post - Frailty
Since it's Sunday, a day set aside by many for spiritual matters, I thought it fitting for today's October-themed post to be related to a particular sub-genre of horror - holy horror. The grandpappy of them all, of course, is William Friedkin's The Exorcist, which, if you're wondering, is pretty much scientifically proven or something to be the Most Scary Movie Ever. I've already done a pretty extensive post about that film, though, the first time I did one of these horror series.
Today, I thought I'd give props to a little film directed by Bill Paxton, who you probably know better as an actor, but who has some pretty impressive filmmaking chops as well.
Frailty
Most of the film's plot is told in flashbacks. The movie starts, however, in present day, with a man named Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) going to the Dallas FBI office one night to tell an Agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) that he knows who the "God's Hand" killer is. Doyle is skeptical at first, but allows Fenton to tell his story.
Fenton and his brother Adam lived with their father who had recently been widowed. The family dynamic is a fairly sweet one; the father is stern but loving, and you can tell that he's working hard to keep his family together after his wife's death. One night, he goes into his sons' room and tells them that he's had a vision. God has told him that there are demons walking around us all the time and that their family has been chosen to destroy them. Fenton, the older brother, doesn't believe this and his mind is kind of blown that something so horrible could take hold of his father, but Adam believes completely. Dad tells the boys that God is going to provide them with a list of names of the demons they're supposed to destroy, as well as special tools to do the job - a lead pipe to knock the demons unconscious, an axe to kill them with, and protective gloves that will prevent skin-to-skin contact (because when Dad lays his hand on a demon he has visions of their crimes) until it is time for them to be destroyed.
Killing at the behest of a higher power is an effective trope when done well, and perhaps it was never done better than Norman Bates, killing for "Mother" in Psycho. There is a hint of that here, but with a few more twists. There are some really cool layers to this film. In a sense, it's a psychological story much like Psycho, and we watch both the madness of the believers and the consequences of being a doubter (in an especially chilling sequence, the skeptical Fenton is locked in an underground pit and starved until he sees God). But the movie also leaves open the possibility that Dad's visions were real. Maybe it's all a coincidence, maybe not. Both scenarios are utterly plausible in the context of the story. Either way, it's dang frightening and makes for a really great film.
Today, I thought I'd give props to a little film directed by Bill Paxton, who you probably know better as an actor, but who has some pretty impressive filmmaking chops as well.
Frailty
Most of the film's plot is told in flashbacks. The movie starts, however, in present day, with a man named Fenton Meiks (Matthew McConaughey) going to the Dallas FBI office one night to tell an Agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) that he knows who the "God's Hand" killer is. Doyle is skeptical at first, but allows Fenton to tell his story.
Fenton and his brother Adam lived with their father who had recently been widowed. The family dynamic is a fairly sweet one; the father is stern but loving, and you can tell that he's working hard to keep his family together after his wife's death. One night, he goes into his sons' room and tells them that he's had a vision. God has told him that there are demons walking around us all the time and that their family has been chosen to destroy them. Fenton, the older brother, doesn't believe this and his mind is kind of blown that something so horrible could take hold of his father, but Adam believes completely. Dad tells the boys that God is going to provide them with a list of names of the demons they're supposed to destroy, as well as special tools to do the job - a lead pipe to knock the demons unconscious, an axe to kill them with, and protective gloves that will prevent skin-to-skin contact (because when Dad lays his hand on a demon he has visions of their crimes) until it is time for them to be destroyed.
Killing at the behest of a higher power is an effective trope when done well, and perhaps it was never done better than Norman Bates, killing for "Mother" in Psycho. There is a hint of that here, but with a few more twists. There are some really cool layers to this film. In a sense, it's a psychological story much like Psycho, and we watch both the madness of the believers and the consequences of being a doubter (in an especially chilling sequence, the skeptical Fenton is locked in an underground pit and starved until he sees God). But the movie also leaves open the possibility that Dad's visions were real. Maybe it's all a coincidence, maybe not. Both scenarios are utterly plausible in the context of the story. Either way, it's dang frightening and makes for a really great film.