Frailty (2001)

(In theaters, April 2002) Sometimes, the problem with cinema is that you have to pad a film in order to make it marketable. There is not much of a commercial outlet for 45-minutes-long films outside of anthology TV shows, and even then it’s a gamble. The sad result is all too often a thinly-plotted film stretched over at least 80 minutes, dressed-up with a lot of “atmosphere”. Frailty is a lot like that; not exactly bad, but so long and deliberate that you’ll have ample opportunity to ask yourself what happens next, which logically leads to the “twist” conclusion well before the end of the movie. Technically, at least, it’s rather good. The acting is fine, especially from the two young boys, and the direction -by co-star Bill Paxton- is serviceable. However thin the story is, it’s neither silly nor stupid which already gives it an advantage over most of the other horror films out there. Interesting, and maybe even more so when played in 2x fast-forward.