frailtyDid you and your family ever have family game night?  Maybe you still do.  Can you remember those times when you were a kid and the family would pile into the car and go bowling, or to the movies, or go play miniature golf, raid the mall, or watch a midget battle royale on pay-per-view?  That’s good times right there.

Now, did you and your family ever kidnap people and kill them because God told your dad they were demons?

Thus is the premise of Frailty.  Fenton and his little brother, Adam, are being raised the best they can by their widowed father.  Their dad is a mechanic who works long hours to support his sons, and the boys pick up the slack by helping around the house, doing chores so their dad doesn’t have too much work to do when he gets home.  They live a simple life, but it works for them.

Then one night, their dad comes home and tells the boys he has had a vision from God.  They are church going people, so it starts out innocent enough, but Fenton isn’t sure what to make of his dad’s vision when told they would be doing God’s will by killing demons.  Demons that look like ordinary men and women.  Dad has a list of names given to him by the good Lord.  Dad is also divinely led to an axe.  Fenton thinks dad’s gone loco, especially when he brings home the first victim.  Little brother Adam, on the other hand, is in full righteous kill mode.


Frailty, star Bill Paxton’s directorial debut, is recounted in flashbacks by the grown Fenton to FBI Special Agent Doyle.  He explains that his little brother is the current God’s Hand Killer and offers to take Agent Doyle to where the bodies are buried.  The story Fenton tells is a ripping good yarn, and a genius take on brother against brother, and father/son divides.

You may have to remind yourself it’s only a movie because the level of religious zealotry on display here isn’t that far fetched.  The true horror is that it’s downright plausible.

the_novacula