Frailty is like the greatest Stephen King adaptation that isn’t adapted from a book by Stephen King. Watching this movie, with its pulp-mystery structure and literate archetypal characters, gives me the same feeling I get when I read a lot of those great King novels. It’s a real page-turner of a movie. Unapologetically mainstream but totally unafraid to tackle a lot of challenging ideas in regards to religion and faith. It does’t offer any easy answers but feels complete in its open end-ness. There’s something incredibly upsetting and bleak about those final moments. Maybe it’s because the conclusion it reaches is uncomfortably honest and true. Probably Bill Paxton’s greatest achievement. The fact he managed it as both actor and director is pretty remarkable. There’s also an axe called Otis that is the best axe in film history. Suck it, Jack Torrance.

R.I.P. Bill.

Watched on blu-ray.