Frailty (2001) #414

In his first role as director, Bill Paxton delivers a complex and haunting film about two young brothers who witness their father's decline into madness as he comes to believe that he is performing God's work by killing demons in the appropriately titled "Frailty". The movie is riddled with the perfect amount of tension and suspense, with outstanding performances that drive the film forward by both Paxton and Matthew McConaughey. What could have been a straight forward "realistic" slasher turns out to be more involved and chilling than it is at first glance, with twists and turns that make the viewers almost feel sympathetic for the various characters and the crimes that they commit.

Fenton Meiks visits the Dallas FBI office, asking for Agent Wesley Doyle. Upon meeting the agent, Fenton begins to tell him how his brother is the serial killer "God's Hand" and how his brother came to become this wanted criminal. The story's roots take place when Fenton and his brother where much younger and living with their father, who one night came home and told his sons that he had a vision from God, telling him that he was chosen to kill demons that were hiding as normal people. Fenton and his brother then join their father as he sought out those that were supposedly demons, killing them with an axe named "Otis". While Fenton thought that his father had gone, his brother Adam fully believed in their father's work, continuing to finish the job that Dad Meiks was given.

Brain Dead (1990)

“Brain Dead” is a trippy horror film that keeps you guessing at what reality is the real one for the main character that’s played by Bill Pullman. It was written by a main contributor to the old “Twilight Zone” episodes, Charles Beaumont. Bill Pullman does a great job as a man who is experiencing a never ending nightmare while Bill Paxton gives a very held back performance when compared to some of the other films that he has worked on. The only distracting aspect of this movie that I had to force myself to get over is the poor lighting and film quality. This was a lower budget movie and it shows; both Paxton and Pullman had been in major movies where the quality is outstanding (“Aliens” and “Spaceballs” for example), but this film feels like it’s from the early from the early 1980’s and not 1990. The other, much lesser issue is the fact that a 15 second special effect is the prominent selling point, the picture of a disembodied face that is being manipulated by the doctors in a research lab. This thing had nothing to do with the movie!!

Dr. Rex Martin (Bill Pullman) is a neurosurgeon who is working on mapping out the brain and the various ailments that it can suffer such as paranoia and other mental illness. An old college friend and rival, who now works for a megacorporation shows up asking for help with an employee who has had a mental breakdown. Dr. Martin is coerced into helping and after he does what he’s asked, he begins to suffer the delusions that his patient had. His nightmarish decent shifts and changes constantly, always giving Dr. Martin a glimmer of hope before having it dashed away.

Favorite moment – Bud Cort plays Halsey, the original mental patient that Dr. Martin operates on. His presence in the films keeps the viewer easily entertained during some of the drier scenes in the film.

Halsey

The Bills

Is he real?

The Bills again

Near Dark (1987)

“Near Dark” is a decent horror film that came out during the resurgence of serious vampires movies. It may have had a better run in the box office if it hadn’t been released just three months after the super fun movie “Lost Boys” in 1987. The cast of vampires in “Near Dark” include the always charismatic Lance Henricksen, Jenette  Goldstein, and Bill Paxton, who was cast as the sadistic Severen; I should point out that these three actors had major roles in “Aliens” and that the directors of these two films, Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron, would eventually be married…for two years. With these great casting choices, I’m thoroughly confused why such an untalented unknown was cast in the lead role as Caleb. This actor had very little presence and wasn’t convincing in his part.

I personally feel that there should never be a cure for someone after they become a vampire, but if it must happen then it should be the one that Bram Stroker originally gave, which is to kill the lead vampire; this might cure you but it still leaves you pretty messed up for the rest of your life. I thought the cure in “Daybreakers” was cheesy and I downright do not like the cure in this movie; a simple blood transfusion! How does a complete blood transfusion cleanse your body from that state, and how did a veterinarian have enough human blood to make this transfusion…twice??

The other thing that really bothered me about this film is that the vampires healed from their burn marks way too quickly or the film crew’s make-up department was really lazy. If being exposed to sunlight for 90 seconds causes to explode, then I would imagine that the burn marks you receive after being hit in the face directly by middle-of-the-day sunlight might take more than a few hours to heal up. Am I wrong? This small detailed bothered me a few times throughout this movie.

Caleb is a young guy who meets a young vampire girl named Mae. He offers to drive her home and on the way we see that Caleb is just a horny boy who cannot take a hint that Mae is not interested. As dawn quickly approaches, Mae wants Caleb to get her home but he gets creepy by stopping the truck and hiding the keys, telling her that she has to kiss him first. She does so, for a while, before she gives him a bite on the neck and then jumps out of the vehicle to run the FOUR miles that she said her place was.

• -          Why did she bite him? Was it out of hunger? Was it as a punishment? Did she just have pointy teeth at the moment and it was just an accident?
• -          Why and how did she run four miles and not burn up? She was a full blown vampire and it looked awfully bright to me.

Caleb is now a vampire and begins to smolder as he walks home. He’s almost home, close enough that his sister and dad can see him all smoky. Then all of a sudden an RV comes racing through the field and grabs Caleb before racing away. It’s Mae and her “family” of nomadic vampires that travel back and forth along the southern US killing and burning stolen vehicles and truck stops.

• -          Why did they come and grab Caleb? Was it because they don’t leave any witnesses behind? Only Mae knew that he had been bit and none of them claimed to have had a slow night and needed a snack before getting some sleep.
• -          Why do vampires like the south? Do they like warm nights? Is it because the truck stops and rest stops are frequent and not very busy? At least Jesse, their leader, tells Caleb that he fought for the South during the Civil War.

No one is happy that Caleb is a vampire. Homer, the little boy who turned Mae is pissed off, Jesse just wants Caleb to prove himself, and Severen just wants to kill him. Caleb fails to impress the crew at a truck stop killing spree but redeems himself during a shootout with police in the morning. But just as things are looking up for the vampires, Caleb’s sister and dad find them at the hotel that they’re at. Caleb and his real family run out into the morning sunlight (the sun rise really quickly in less than two minutes!) and goes home for a good old fashioned blood transfusion in the barn. And BOOM, he’s normal again. But now he has to deal with four angry vampires who want to kill him and explain to Mae as to why he chose dad and sister over her.