Monday Movie on the Mind: Frailty

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Movies With Abe: Monday Movie on the Mind. I’ll be kicking off each week with a clip or trailer from a film that happens to be on my mind, designed as a retrospective look at some well-known, forgotten, or underappreciated classic from movie history, be it antique or current. Chime in with your thoughts about the film or any other movies that you might be thinking of this week!

Frailty
Directed by Bill Paxton
Released April 12, 2002



If you’re looking for a movie that’s really going to stick with you and haunt you for a good amount of time, check out Bill Paxton’s memorable directing debut. He stars as a father whose adult son recalls and recounts his upbringing, where the evangelical patriarch spoke about the presence of demons in their midst and asserted that he had been divinely charged to slay them. It’s the kind of film with just enough human contact and accessibility to make its shocking plot – where the father actually brings home random people and murders them in front of his two sons – even more frightening. Paxton is rather terrifying, mostly in the calmness with which he explains and accepts that which he believes he must do. This film also has the distinction of containing one of the few half-decent performances from Mathew McConaughey (see “Lone Star” for another) as Paxton’s adult son. “Frailty” is creepy, effectively moody, and very hard to forget. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, and it’s one of those films that isn’t as physically visually violent but which saves and executes the greatest horror in its thematic content. You’ll get a good sense of all that from watching the trailer.