25 Years Anniversary Review Of Frailty

Every single year i watch so many movies, i am trying to remember at least half of the ones i have watched. And it´s not because i didn´t enjoy most of them, it might be more connected to how terrible some titles have been. Just look at the British independent low budget horror film Deadly Little Mermaid, how many can honestly say:- Wow, that was truly an amazing film experience. Deadly Little Mermaid is a perfect example of a film you want to forget, because this film didn´t have any qualities at all basically. It would be more exciting staring intensely at a shoe string for 3 hours than ever have to experience Deadly Little Mermaid again. This is why i really appreciate quality films that have a really fascinating story, really powerful acting and a well written dialogue included. A perfect example of this is the 2019 psychological horror film Saint Maud from director Rose Glass, her feature directorial debut film. This is exactly my kind of film, that have a very simple plot but build up a disturbing atmopshere, where the religious undertone matched really good with very effective horror scenes. Saint Maud tell the story of Maud ( Morfydd Clark ), a deeply religious young woman who have become a Roman Catholic, takes a job to take care for Amanda Köhl ( Jennifer Ehle ) as a palliative care nurse. Amanda is diagnosed with terminally ill with stage four lymphoma. Maud is hoping through her strong belief in God to help Amanda find her way to God as well. But as time goes by, it becomes more clear that Maud is really struggling with her mental health which affects her working life, and her personal life as well. Actress Morfydd Clark is absolutely brilliant as the mentally struggling young woman Maud, she really capture the personality of a broken soul and a broken mind. I feel that this film is very impotant to watch to understand that metal illness is a very serious subject, that´s needs to be talked about more often in society. Saint Maud is a must watch if you enjoy psychological horror films. Speaking of this genre, i was actually requested a while ago to do a 25 Years Anniversar Review of the 2001 psychological horror film Frailty. I have seen this film several times since the film came out in Sweden on DVD, which i still own a copy of ( never head a theatre release in Sweden unfortunately ). Even if i remembered this film i was curious to see, does Frailty still hold up after so many years of have this film aged a lot more than i would have imagined?

FBI Agent Wesley Doyle ( Powers Boothe ) have an unknown visitor to his office. He call himself Fenton Meiks ( Matthew McConaughey ) and he have something very important to tell Agent Doyle. He tell the story of his brother Adam, who he claims is behind the "God´s Hand" serial killings that Doyle is investigating. Fenton says Adam commited suicide, and Fenton buried him in the rose garden in their hometown of Thurman, Texas. Wesley do a check up regarding this information, and Fenton seems to be telling the truth. However, Fenton have much more to tell Agent Wesley how all of this started back in 1979, where especially his Dad Meiks ( Bill Paxton ) were the one who started all of this, after he had a visit from an angel.

While the 2019 film Saint Maud tried to show us how a mentally unstable woman tries to escape within the pages of the Bible, i find that Frailty leads us on a completely different path that´s still deeply connected to a religious belief. Now, when this film start you actually start to believe you know what is the complete truth. And for most people that would probably be that the character Dad Meiks ( brilliant performane by actor Bill Paxton ), has to be suffering of a very serious mental illness considering he is constantly saying that an Angel is telling him to kill demons, disguised as human beings. As the film goes on we suddenly find out some very interesting details, and these details might actually explain why Dad Meiks is killing the chosen ones. There are several reasons why Frailty is such a high class psychological horror film. The acting basically from the whole cast is pretty much a perfect match to each character, but what really makes this film so unique are the surprising twists and how effective they manage to combine the different characters into the plot. On paper this film doesn´t sound very original, and that´s exactly how you keep the biggest surprises and let the biggest secret reveal itself towards the end that´s not predictable. The religious undertone is a very important part of this film where Dad Meiks strongly believe he is doing what God tells him to do. From a psychological perspective this would be a big red warning flag for most people, unless you can understand the character Dad Meiks and i feel this film manage to give a fascinating perspective from where Meiks is coming from, both of him as a father raising his sons but also dealing with everything in his personal life while having a strong belief in God. I also find the story fascinating from his son´s perspective, living with a father who kill human beings. How do you as a child even deal with horrible traumatic memories such as this? Especially when you live inside a religious home, and you have no options but to actually believe what your own father is doing is coming straight form God´s words? There are so many interesting angles and discussions you could have about Frailty, depending on how you feel about religion and religious beliefs. Frailty really show how you construct a storyline using very simple threads, and yet make it work so well with the powerful acting performances. The horror elements are extremely effective, and with the religious undertone connected this become a delightful combination. I have no doubts about saying this but from the early 2000´s i would easily call Frailty one of the best psychological horror films of this time period. The fact that Bill Paxton directed this excellent film proved that not only was he a brilliant actor, he could direct really powerful films as well. Frailty is a must own on digital or physical media that´s definetely worth a rewatch every year.

Rating: DDDD