Bill Paxton directed a disturbing horror film starring Matthew McConaughey

Fans of actor Bill Paxton – and we are legion – probably know that he made his directorial debut in 1980 when he directed the music video for Barnes & Barnes’ immortal classic “Fish Heads.” The video, shot on a very, very low budget, features Paxton as the buyer and lover of the titular Ichthyoid Crania, throwing her a birthday party and generally enjoying her company. The video also featured a cameo appearance from Dr. Demento, the famous Los Angeles DJ responsible for spreading hundreds of well-known novelty hits and ensuring that “Weird Al” Yankovic spread the word to the world. Paxton was a strange, wonderful man who operated on the fringes. The fact that he became a well-known mainstream star is kind of wild.

Paxton, of course, began appearing in feature films in the late 1970s and early 1980s, appearing in notable genre films such as Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker and Mortuary. Many probably first became aware of him in 1984 when he played a tattooed punk in James Cameron’s The Terminator. He became a good luck charm for Cameron and also had notable roles in the director’s films “Aliens,” “True Lies” and “Titanic.” He also appeared in other crazy films like Brain Dead, Near Dark and The Dark Backward. He played supporting roles in thrillers such as Next of Kin, One False Move and Trespass. He alternated between huge Hollywood projects (“Apollo 13”) and strange experiments (“Boxing Helena”), which he contributed with enthusiasm and aplomb. When Paxton died in 2017, we lost a great talent.

It also turns out that Paxton was a talented director who went beyond music videos about fish heads. In 2001, Paxton made his feature film debut with Frailty, a scary, austere and haunting drama about a crazy father (Paxton) who has convinced his two young sons (Matt O’Leary and Jeremy Sumpter) that he sees demons lurking inside people… and that they must be killed. “Frailty” is one of the best horror films of its year and features great performances from both leads Paxton and Matthew McConaughey, who plays one of the adult children.

“Frailty” begins with the McConaughey character going to an FBI field office to admit that his recently deceased brother Adam is the prime suspect in a recent series of murders nicknamed the “God’s Hand Killings.” The film then goes back to 1979, when brothers Adam and Fenton (Sumpter and O’Leary) were raised in isolated poverty by their ultra-religious father (Paxton). One day, Papa (he is never named) announces that he has been visited by an angel of the Lord and that he has been tasked with tracking down and killing demons on Earth. The demons, he says, are disguised as ordinary people and only he can recognize the evil that lurks within them. He also says that God leads him to tools of justice, and they are just gloves, an ax and a lead pipe.

The audience immediately recognizes that Dad suffers from an undiagnosed mental disorder and that his sons are too young to reject his paranoid fantasies. It doesn’t take long before Dad kidnaps, “exorcises” and murders people in the presence of the children. It’s up to the boys to bury the bodies. Fenton accepts that he cannot see the demons, but Adam soon announces that he can. Psychologically, this is called Folie à deux.

As the murders continue, poor Fenton begins to fear that his father is simply a serial killer, or at least that his life is in danger. Dad keeps telling him that enduring violence is just a test of faith and that Fenton is failing this test. There are several plot twists that I dare not reveal, other than to say that the murders of the past are actually directly related to the murders by God’s hand in the present. The FBI agent who listens to McConaughey’s story is played by Powers Boothe.

“Frailty” wasn’t a huge success, grossing just $17.4 million on an $11 million budget. Nevertheless, it was hugely popular with many people who saw it, and there remains a passionate, ever-growing group of supporters to this day. At the time, critics were divided, with Christy Lemire, writing for Associate Press, citing the great performances but feeling that it didn’t quite succeed with the themes of religious indoctrination. Stephen Hunter, writing for The Washington Post, felt that “Frailty” was a copy of “The Sixth Sense,” published the year before, and that the story deviated from the reality of child abuse. He also felt that the plot twists were announced too loudly, which made the film’s final surprises seem disappointing.

Overall, “Frailty” only received a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but some critics were very pleased with it. In fact, Roger Ebert gave the film four stars because he felt that the depiction of madness and abuse was actually disturbing and he felt that a mentally unbalanced father manipulates his children in a way that they cannot escape. Ebert didn’t call “Frailty” one of the best films of 2001, but it had serious competition that year (“Ghost World,” “Waking Life,” “In the Bedroom,” “Monster’s Ball,” “Wit,” ” Mulholland Drive,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Gosford Park,” “Innocence” and “Black Hawk Down” were his top 10.

For those looking to spice up their spooky marathon month, “Frailty” is currently available on Starz and is definitely worth a look. It functions as both a raunchy serial killer battle film and a powerful drama about religiously motivated domestic violence that will be all too relatable for many viewers. Paxton directed only one other feature film, the golf drama “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” This film was less impressive. However, it’s a shame he never got the chance to direct more.