13 Nights of Shocktober: Frailty (2001)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 5: Bill Paxton Memorial Night

“The Angel called us God’s Hands”

Frailty (2001)

Actor Bill Paxton made his directorial debut in 2001 with the religious horror thriller Frailty. Paxton was no stranger to the horror and thriller genres having had roles in Aliens, Brain Dead, Near Dark, Predator 2, an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan. Behind the camera he demonstrates an incredible amount of skill at crafting a moody thriller of real substance. Frailty has more than enough to enjoy as a horror/thriller, but there are also more than a few religious and theological ideas to ruminate over.

The opening title sequence is of old newspaper clippings of brutal axe murders set to a creepy violin score. The headlines call the unidentified murderer the God’s Hand Killer. The story is told in flashbacks as Fenton Meeks (Matthew McConaughey) tells FBI agent Doyle (Powers Boothe) that his brother is the God’s Hand Killer and is carrying on the “work” begun by their father. The flashbacks take us to the summer of 1979 when their father (Bill Paxton) receives a vision from an angel telling him that he is to kill demons that have taken on human form. He enlists his sons, Fenton and Adam, in carrying out this mission.

The main tool the angel gives Paxton to “destroy” the demons is an axe. Paxton tells his sons that the angel will give him the names people that are secretly demons and God will protect them from being caught. When he touches the “demons,” he says, their sins will be revealed. The older son thinks their dad has gone crazy; the younger son wholeheartedly believes and claims to see the demons too. The film keeps its distance from stating whether Paxton’s visions are real or delusional until it is most effective for the story.

The key to Frailty's emotional conflict is Bill Paxton’s performance. His character is a loving father even as he has the boys help him with the axe murders. He explains his visions to his boys in calm, gentle tones and never raises his voice in anger at them. There is no change in his personality after the visions begin; he doesn’t become disheveled, he never rants.

Though this is a film about a father that becomes an axe murderer, there is very little blood and no gore. Instead of typical horror violence, Paxton uses the circumstance the characters are in to create unease in the audience. Thanks to the great lived in production design and costumes, this film feels like it takes place in the real world making it all the more unnerving. The cellar where Paxton kills the people on his list and the abandoned community rose garden where he and the boys bury the bodies are just a few visual elements that give Frailty its dark, moody atmosphere.

The original screenplay by Brent Hanley is smart but not too clever for its own good. The plot twists and turns and while you may figure out one twist another will catch you off guard. Bill Paxton, as an actor and as a director, knows exactly what marks he needs to hit and lands each and every one. Frailty feels like a campfire story or urban legend. It tries to explain seemingly inexplicable local occurrences, give you thrills and scares, but also leaves you with thoughts that linger long after the story has ended.