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The stranger is Fenton Meiks. He’s 12 or 13 and now played by Matthew O’Leary. He’s in a motherless household in a small town in Texas. He lives with his nine year old brother Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and father (Bill Paxton). His father doesn’t get to spend much time with them, but it soon changes when an angel supposedly visits the father. The angel told him to “destroy demons” that haunt the land. Destroy, as in kill, and demons, as in demons who look exactly like humans. Adam, being young and susceptible to this, goes along, but Fenton has his reservations. Intensity ensues.
Leave it to Bill Paxton to create a creepy yet subdued and spiritual movie with a theme that nobody could ever think of. Paxton, who also directs, played a disshelved father who loses it. From the creepy opening credits to the twist ending that I still haven’t understood, I found myself enthralled and yet somewhat unsatisfied. Granted, with a shocker ending like this, it can’t give you all the answers, but it ended too abruptly, yet it seemed to go over its 100 minute runtime. McConaughey did narration, since it is told in flashback, but it seemed to slim down more as we reached into the second act.
To me, the greatest actor in this movie isn’t McConaughey, Boothe, or even Paxton. O’Leary packed a powerhouse performance with credible emotions and a powerful display of grasping what is needed to be an actor. That’s not to say that the others weren’t good, in fact, they were quite good.
The subject matter is quite disturbing and hauntful, so don’t go in looking for a sobering experience, unless you are needing some spiritual guidance. I was shocked at times by the length they made this family go through. I won’t spoil it.
To lighten the mood, there should have been some more humor in it. Sure, the story and the entire movie is dark, but to put a couple one-liners or something in would have helped. It is always good to have some comic relief. The ending, as mentioned earlier, was unsatisfying. Most of the ending was predictable (such as the flashback about Doyle), leaving no surprise. The final twist, though, was just a shocker.
One last point, I was surprised on how little blood there was; if some of the language was taken out it could have been a PG-13.
Rated R for violence and some language.
Review Date: February 1, 2003