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Man I wanted to like this movie so bad. I am a sucker for the good ole “religious” horror. Stuff like The Prophecy and Rosemary’s Baby are the kind of stuff that really turns my crank when it comes to movies. I have to confess here and now that I even like The Seventh Sign with Demi Moore, and the admittedly terrible made for TV movie Child of Darkness, Child of Light. I couldn’t tell you what it is about the themes of religion twisted into the horrific that makes a movie compelling for me, but it does. So I really wanted to like Frailty.
Fenton (Matthew McConaughey Reign of Fire) and Adam (Levi Kreis the one hit blunder on “The Apprentice” last season) Meiks have a dad that is one of two things. He is either a total nutter or he is called by God to kill demons. One son believes they are on a mission from God the other of course does not.
Told through an extended flashback the story revolves around the murders that Dad Meiks (Bill Paxton Brain Dead) is committing with the help of young Adam (Jeremy Sumpter The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang) and young Fenton (Matt O’Leary Mom’s Got a Date with a Vampire). As the murders get more vicious the brothers find themselves on opposite sides, until Dad locks Fenton (the evil son) into a basement that he dug himself, in the hopes that the evil spirits will loose their grip so Fenton can help in the demon slaying.
It is a fascinating idea and one that honestly comes together pretty well. The performances from the two young boys are fairly committed and show a depth that I normally wouldn’t expect from child actors. They are torn about the situation that they find themselves in, and as the watch their father murder people that for all intents and purposes are just regular people it becomes harder and harder for Fenton to accept his role in his family. Eventually he finds a way out of the situation.
So what made me not like it? I really don’t know. It is one of those intangible things that just didn’t ring quite true. The acting was good, the story was interesting and engaging but it lacked the kind of charisma that I think is required for this kind of film. There is such strength behind people’s beliefs that when you make a movie out of them you expect that power to come through. This movie had its moments but lacked the over all power that should have pushed it over the edge into a great film.
I think part of the problem may have come from a lack of a dominant character, the brothers almost come across as two sides to the same coin, and Paxton delivers a kind of wooden performance as Daddy Meiks. I think one of the other problems is it’s reliance on a twist ending to obfuscate its central theme. Instead of shocking you it just kind of leaves you feeling tricked. The end could have been done better, I wasn’t exactly sure what the twist was going to be, but I knew it was coming. That knowledge kept me second guessing the movie the whole way through and that kept me from enjoying it as much as I should have.
Another thing that was kind of strange to me was the restraint that the film showed when it came to violence. I get that it is taboo to show kids witnessing violence in a movie, but the murder scenes just didn’t pack the wallop that they could have if they would have been stepped up a notch. I just find it odd that this got an R rating. There was probably a ton of swearing that I just didn’t notice.
The DVD has a great transfer of course, and a few featurettes nothing that really grabbed my attention, but it was a decent package. So I really wanted to just dig the hell out of this movie, but when all is said and done, it just makes me want to pull out my tattered old VHS of The Prophecy and watch it again. “I remember the first war…” ahhh that’s better.
