| Product: |
Frailty (DVD) |
| Date: |
25/06/07 (97 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Creepy, gloomy atmospheric chiller
Disadvantages: The ending gets a bit convoluted
When Fenton Meik’s mother dies in childbirth, it is left to him and his father to look after the newborn child, Adam. The trio lives a simple and happy existence, with Fenton’s father making a living as a car mechanic and Fenton attending to Adam’s pastoral care. But their happiness is about to be shattered.
One night, Fenton’s father awakes in a dream-like state and receives a message from what he believes to be an angel sent by God. The angel advises the man that Armageddon is nigh and that the world is full of demons, posing as human beings. Whilst God himself has plans to deal with the demons, he also needs the aid of Fenton, Adam and their father in the battle to destroy the demons. The angel tells Fenton’s father that he will send him the weapons that he needs to carry out the task, and that he will also send him the names of the aforementioned demons. It will then be left to the three agents of God to destroy the demons.
Excited and frightened in equal doses, Fenton’s father rushes into the boys’ bedroom, where he wakes them up and tells them about his vision. Whilst Adam is immediately excited and convinced about the story, Fenton is more sceptical, and fears that his father has become deluded. When nothing more is said on the matter, Fenton initially dismisses the whole thing as a dream. But then his father returns home from work with the weapons that God has led him to discover – an axe, a pair of gloves and a steel bar. Worse still, in a few days’ time, Fenton’s father returns home from work with the first list of names of demons – a list that Fenton can only recognise as a list of inhabitants of the local town.
There is worse to come. A few days later, Fenton’s father is late home from work. The boys are finally woken in the dead of night by the noise of their father’s truck. Looking down into the yard below, Fenton is horrified to see that his father has returned home with what appears to be a body, tied up in a sack. He rushes downstairs to see what is happening and discovers that his father has claimed his first victim – a young, local nurse whose name appeared first in the list of demons identified by the angel of God. Brandishing what he believes to be the weapons of God, Fenton’s father has every intention of killing the woman, firm in the belief that she is truly a demon. As his father raises the axe above his head, Fenton believes that his father is completely mad. But it is only when the axe falls that the nightmare really begins……
Frailty is one of those unassuming little movies that seem to appear on the shelves of your local video rental store without any advertisement or hype. I rented it quite by chance, following the recommendation of the guy in the store – and found myself completely immersed in an extremely unsettling tale of murderous obsession. Frailty is most definitely quite unlike anything I have seen on film for some time.
The story is a combination of present day action coupled with narrated historical events. During the film’s title sequence, we see images and press cuttings explaining that a serial killer known as the God’s Hand Killer has claimed six victims. The opening scene of the film then switches to the offices of the FBI, where an adult Fenton Meik has turned up claiming that he knows the identity of the serial killer. The film then becomes a discussion between Fenton and the detective in charge of the case, with Fenton explaining the story of his deranged father. Don’t be fooled into thinking that with this information in hand you’ll be able to predict where the story is headed though – Frailty has a few twists and stings in its tale that I can almost guarantee will take you by the throat. As Fenton tells his terrible tale, the action switches between the present day and the events of Fenton’s childhood.
The story behind Frailty is unsettling in a number of ways. Primarily it is unsettling because the viewer is never really quite sure what is going to happen next. In much the same way that Fenton’s life turns from stability into turmoil, the viewer is gradually beset by a story that seems to defy belief. What on earth is a little boy who believes that his father is a serial killer supposed to do? Who will believe his story? How does he cope with the turmoil of loving his father whilst being terrified by him in equal doses? The film is rather disturbing in that it portrays a man who was previously shown as loving his family dearly suddenly subjecting them to the torment of watching him kill people. To make matters worse, the normal “conventions” of a killer seem to disappear. Fenton’s father is still gentle, loving and attentive, because he firmly believes that what he is doing is right. His faith that he is acting in God’s will is such that he sees absolutely nothing wrong in what he does. As such, we don’t really have a “bad guy” to fear or despise. Fenton is like us. He sees only innocent men and women, abducted and slaughtered in apparently cold blood – and he therefore hasn’t got a clue what he should do.
All these things aside, the key thing that makes Frailty unsettling is because you know that there is something else going on. The first rule of a psychological thriller is that if everything seems to easy, then it probably is – and that certainly applies here. The clues are there, but you tend not to take too much notice of details as the story holds your attention too tightly to think about anything else. With hindsight, there was logically only one direction in which the story could go, and I did have a bit of an inkling, but I shan’t lie and say that I had it worked out from the beginning. In summary, I think it is fair to say that nothing is quite what it seems – and I shall say no more…
Despite its murderous plot, Frailty is NOT a gory or instantly horrific film. We see very little of the murders, watching instead the horrified faces of Fenton and his brother. Frailty is a much subtler affair. We don’t need to see an axe being plunger into someone’s neck to know that they will be dead. The squeak of the axe head as it is wrenched from the bone and the noise of body parts being dropped into a shallow grave is infinitely more horrific than blood and gore could ever be. Needless to say, the plot is quite unpleasant though – the idea of abduction and murder could never be anything less. As such, the film carries a 15 certificate and rightfully so. The modern and historical settings are stark in contrast, and purposefully so. The scenes of Fenton’s childhood are set in his childhood town. As such, everything is bright, sunny and innocent. The present day scenes with the FBI officer are set at night, during a torrential rainstorm and there is a marked air of gloom and foreboding – with good reason.
The cast of Frailty is small, but excellent. Fenton is played by two actors – Matthew O’Leary is the childhood version, whilst Matthew McConaughey is the adult version. Both are extremely effective. McConaughey, more often seen in adolescent comedies and romantic films is generally a wasted talent as far as I’m concerned, and Frailty amply demonstrates why. In this film, he is disturbed, and quietly menacing, without being aggressive or erratic. His Texan drawl seems only to add to his strange character and even his narrating voice is strangely compelling. Bill Paxton (who also directs) is superb as the demented father – utterly convincing throughout. O’Leary is just as effective and betrays maturity beyond his years – he has since gone on to star in the Spy Kids films. Powers Boothe as the FBI cop wasn’t quite right, but did his best. Whilst the scenes set in Fenton’s childhood were atmospheric and substantial, Boothe seemed to make the modern-day scenes superficial.
Similarities to other movies? The way in which the director toys with the viewer is reminiscent of Se7en, although Frailty is nowhere near as graphic. Similarly, the twist at the end certainly couldn’t match Se7en’s “head in a box”, but the overall idea seemed similar to me. The tone of the film and the concept behind it continually reminded me of something that Stephen King would write – I had to check on the Internet Movie Database to confirm that it wasn’t. If you like psychological thrillers then I think you will enjoy Frailty very much – but you probably wouldn’t want to watch it on a dark, rain swept lonely evening.
Summary: Scary Movie Alert!
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