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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.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
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
Reviews for Frailty
The intricate plotting . . . reveals everything and yet, using the audiences preconceived notions, makes each fact a surprise and each fiction a shock.
So grim, dim, and formulaic, that there is no room for any kind of visceral connection or genuine suspense.
This looks - and chills - like the start of a very promising new career for Paxton.
Some good ideas went into the meat grinder, but what came out was largely uninteresting absurdist mush.
'Frailty" starts out like a typical Bible killer story, but it turns out to be significantly different (and better) than most films with this theme.
A hot-acid concoction of thrills, spills, trepidation, and one of the most novel stories of recent times.
Actor Bill Paxton's directorial debut is a stark horror film full of surprises -- and genuine scares.
This is a horror picture for individuals who only like their frills to stay firmly on the surface
With an admirably dark first script by Brent Hanley, Paxton, making his directorial feature debut, does strong, measured work.
A garish, delightfully bizarre horror film with the daring to address Western institutional-fascism.
...reminiscent ... in its literal-mindedness, of Michael Tolkin's pitiless The Rapture and, in its theme, of Chuck Palahniuk's novel Survivor.
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