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Frailty | 2002 | R | - 1.7.5

Bill Paxton stars as the widowed father of two young boys who believes that his family's mission is to destroy demons -- seemingly normal looking people, who supposedly walk the Earth as pure evil. He states that he is visited by angels who bring him lists of demons to destroy, and so, with his younger son, he's off on a killing spree. His older son, however, is not a believer and does not want to participate in the murders. Also with Matthew McConaughey, Luke Askew, Matthew O'Leary and Jeremy Sumpter. [1:40]

SEX/NUDITY 1 - A man and woman hug. A man is shown with no shirt on exposing his bare chest.

VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - People are shown emptying garbage bags into graves a few times (we hear things hitting the ground and they are presumably body parts although we don't see anything). Several people are shown being hit on the head with a pipe and then, with their hands, legs and mouths taped, they're killed with an ax -- we don't see anyone being hit by the ax, but see the ax swinging down toward them: One of these scenes is extended, with the victim crying and whimpering and a boy pleading for her life. A man is hit in the chest with an ax, falls back against a wall, gurgles and dies. A man is hit on the head with a pipe and tumbles down some stairs, an ax is raised over him and brought down (we don't see the impact). A boy holds an ax and prepares to swing it at a victim, and a boy charges at a victim with an ax raised over his head as his victim yells. A man tells a young boy to kill someone and instructs him to "do the neck first." A man is shoved into an open grave and another man brings an ax down toward him (he is apparently hit and killed). We see bloody bodies lying by the side of graves a couple of times. A man is hit on the head with a pipe (we hear the thud). A boy has a dream of a man swinging an ax down, presumably toward a person but we don't see anything else. A man is shown stabbing a woman repeatedly as she screams (we see blood splatter on a sheet hanging on a laundry line and see the man's face covered with blood). A woman is shown briefly lying in bed with a dead man (the man has a bloody wound in his neck). A man is shown dragging a young girl out of the back seat of his car (the girl is presumably dead; we see only her legs). A man drags a boy into a cellar and nails the door shut while the boy screams and pleads with him; the boy is kept in the cellar with no food for many days and when he is taken out he is pale. A man holds a gun to his head and we hear a gunshot (we don't see the shooting). A man hits another man in the stomach with a crowbar, a boy hits a man on the head, and a man hits another man on the head. A man threatens a boy with an ax, and a man threatens a man with a gun. A man has a body slung over his shoulder and walks by a window as a boy watches. A man accuses a man of being a murderer of little children, and a man talks about his mother having been butchered. A man touches people and they both (the man and the person being touched) convulse for a moment. There are photos on a wall which show murder victims with bloody wounds. We see several newspaper articles with details of murders and photos of decaying corpses. A man has bloody handprints on his shirt, and a wallet has blood smeared on it. A man vomits; we hear him gagging and briefly see some goo. A boy is forced to dig a huge hole and we see his bloody blistered hands. Two young boys talk about their father being a murderer. A man yells abusively at a woman. There is a reference to a woman having died in childbirth. Two young boys talk about a girl having thrown up in school. We see the ground covered with mounds of dirt -- they're presumably graves.

LANGUAGE 5 - 6 F-words (4 of which are uttered by a person with tape covering his mouth so they are somewhat muffled), 1 scatological term, 3 anatomical terms, 7 mild obscenities, 3 religious profanities, 2 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - A few people are shown drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Murder, insanity, God, demons, truth, Judgment Day, reality, having faith, brainwashing, orphanages, the story of Abraham and Isaac.

MESSAGE - Truth defies reasonable explanations.

(Note: This film may offend some people of faith since it may be making the statement that God does direct some of the faithful to commit murder.)

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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