Frailty (2002)

A resoundingly old-fashioned and well crafted study of evil infecting an American family, Frailty moves from strength to strength on its deceptive narrative course.

Genuinely creepy Southern Gothic thriller that once again proves that in horror movies, sometimes less is actually more.

So immodestly unripe; yet so horrendously tempting you’ll find it hard to resist.

It's a small, unassuming movie grasping at whole-hog homo psychopathicus, with its feet planted squarely in Texan grave dirt and its head lost in the ether of Christian derangement.

Against all odds in heaven and hell, it creeped me out just fine.

Andrea Yates believed she was possessed by Satan and could save her children by drowning them. Frailty is as chilling.

Paxton's Dad may be the most terrifying father to appear in a horror film since Jack Nicholson went crazily homicidal in "The Shining."

It's good old-fashioned rural gothic that would make Flannery O'Connor proud, with tricky switcheroos that keep shaking up our assumptions about what's going on.

Well-crafted, disturbing Texas gothic thriller, a completely spooky piece of business that gets under your skin and, some plot blips aside, stays there for the duration.

The film becomes cumulatively stranger as it goes along, and it has a lulu of a kicker.

It's utter garbage. Nothing happened the entire movie except some goofy CGI of an angel coming down that made me double check the movie date. 2002 with special effects worse than 1988. My guess is this was a cash grab movie, because there was no budget needed and almost no actors. They just attached McConno onto it because they knew it would get lots of women, gay men, and rednecks to watch. After a certain point I hit pause and saw there was 20 minutes left. I wasn't going to allow this movie to have me see its terrible ending. Even if it was the best ending of all time, the boring movie before it was a 0/10.

I liked the atmosphere, but the notable lack of variation that Bill Paxton prints to the narrative of his film, makes it become boring after a while, because it's just unable to move forward. Clearly the plot has enough traction, but it walks along the same plot line, which never gets more dramatic or crucial for that matter. For that same reason, the construction of the climax doesn't make it resounding or powerful

They should have put 'comedy' instead of 'Horror' by the genre of this film. Some of the fundamental scenes were poorly directed, so that they did not cause horror, but laugh. Also I missed the Sci-Fi part. Frailty is definitely thriller with potential, that offers interesting new idea.

I have so many mixed feelings for this movie. I think it was good, but i don't think i would watch it again.

Frailty is a slow, interesting and very well made thriller. If you're expecting a full on horror movie with a lot of blood and gore, you will undoubtedly be disappointed. The acting was very good from pretty much all of the cast, the movie, while being a slow burner still managed to be interesting and entertaining and the twist ending was quite surprising. Definitely a different kind of movie and definitely worth checking out.

FRAILTY is a deeply unsettling film that gets progressively stranger and darker as the minutes tick by. Somewhat reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the film deals extensively with themes of good vs. evil, faith vs. madness, and whether or not a person can do horrible things for good reasons. Bill Paxton excels not only in his directorial debut, but as the somehow-not-the-villain-despite-being-a-serial-killer father, and Matthew McConaughey is creepy as hell as one of Paxton's grown sons. Intense, chilling, and with a doozy of a twist, this is the kind of thriller that doesn't get made that often. A thoroughly enjoyable trip down a nightmarish rabbit hole.

An incredibly atmospheric and unsettling film, Frailty features stellar performances from Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey, as well as some great direction from first-time director Paxton. Pretty well-written, Frailty keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout its runtime and keeps you guessing as you never know what is coming next. With films that take some twists and turns that are pretty unexpected, the success of the story rests on whether these are expected or not. In this case, they most certainly were not to me, though I would love to watch this one again and try to pick up on those clues. Not horror in the typical sense, this one has a way to get into your mind and mess with it a little bit, but to me, this one is not horror. Sure, after watching it, you kind of feel as though you watched a horror film, but this one struck me as more of a thriller with some elements from horror. Regardless, this one is quite well made and largely underappreciated. Not a fantastic film by any means, this one is still really good.

Just saw this on TV after it was recommended by 'Mystery Exec" on twitter. Excellent thriller. Great performances from Bill Paxton and Matthew McConaughey. Bill Paxton should direct again. Strange it got such poor reviews when it came out. Only Ebert seems to have seen what a compelling film it is.

matthew **** being rust cohle, that is, acting inscrutable, showing little emotion, and coming off as nicely creepy years before he realized roles like this were his calling. he's the only reason to watch the film. m. night shymalan covered this these far more effectively in "unbreakable".

Having terrorised a small Texan town years before, the God's Hand Killer has returned leaving many more victims. Late at night Fenton Meiks arrives at FBI Headquarters claiming he knows the killers identity and so, in order to convince Agent Doyle Fenton, returns to the beginning of a story that started with his father. Frailty doesnt rely on blood and gore to produce its shocks instead choosing to gradually explore the relationship between Meiks, his brother and his father. The story that builds is truly gripping as we learn the origin of the Gods Hand Killer and start to understand how Meiks knows as much as he does. Thankfully the finale is able to match the rest of the film making for one of the most underrated thrillers in recent times.

This is a great cast in a terrible movie. McConaughey goes to the FBI with an eyewitness account of a notorious murder he witnessed when he was a kid. From there the whole movie is done in flashbacks, similar to The Usual Suspects. Sounds pretty good right? Nope! In The Usual Suspects, things happen, you were drawn into the story. Frailty doesn't have any of that. It's like watching one of these lame reality shows, that takes place inside some families home. Until the end nothing happens! ...finally you get to the end and you see something! My reaction to it was, 'that was it, that's what you were building up to this whole time!?' The trailer, the description, and the cast might **** you in, but seeing this movie is a waste of time.

A film that is like many other crime dramas but with a dark scary twist to it. Every scene in this film is important. The film flows very smoothly and the shocking finish fits perfectly with the past events that have already occured in the film. Unlike many other films this ending was necessary for the story and it's themes. The question i'm still pondering at the end of the film is if Adam Meekes is a hero or if Fenton was right. The film does lean towards one side but there is still room for Fenton's perspective.

A bait-and-switch contrivance of the worst kind. (Is there a good kind?) The creepy religious weirdness that characterized the bulk of the movie was an accurate - and disturbing - cautionary tale about how faith and belief untethered to objective reality morphs seamlessly into bat-**** crazy. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people like those depicted in the film (some of them are currently running for president), so the apparent message of the film would have seemed to be: watch out for nut-jobs masquerading as good God-fearing people. I say apparent because this prevailing theme gives way in the end to its opposite. Namely, no matter how crazy you thought these people were, you were wrong: they were actually doing God's handiwork. Really. So I guess regardless of how irrational people might seem, who knows, they may just be taking orders from God. This is not a plot twist; it's a plot reversal. Or a sick joke. If you're truly religious, I don't see how you could make it through most of this movie. If you're not, you'll be thoroughly disgusted with the ending. If you're neither, maybe this is the movie for you.

This is a good film.. i thought that the plot was well thought out and it's a very interesting film to watch. the ending is very clever and i liked this film a lot. whilst the film's plot twist is obvious from the beginning it's still very gripping

This movie is fairly interesting, however, the ending is very disturbing because I am an agnostic. I do not deny the existence of god but I also have seen no proof, ergo the ending would be disturbing to a logical person.

Starts out as a good psychological and moral chiller which ends up with a drawn out disappointing ending with one plot twist too many. Paxtons descent into apparent insanity is too quick, and an attractive idea that can be taken from the film which is the greatest evil comes from men who believe that they are doing good is swiftly destroyed with the reveal that it was God all along taking with it themes that could have been explored of sibling rivalry and family loyalty. Had the writer kept his feet on the ground this could have been so much better. Instead the script starts to implode leaving you wondering why you bothered in the first place.