Bill Paxton is deep in the jungles of Mexico shooting a new project when I talk to him.  Ironically and frustratingly, Paxton's cell phone is getting great service despite the fact that he is within stomping distance of insects the size of my head.

“It's a little hot and humid down here," Paxton says in his slow Texas drawl.  "If I didn't have this air conditioning I think I'd put a revolver in my mouth."  He pauses for a moment and then says, "Or kill myself with an axe.”

I use Paxton's remark to segue into his debut directorial feature, the critically well-received film, Frailty.  Starring Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe and Paxton himself, Frailty is the tale of two young brothers who grow up watching their father murder people because the father believes that God has told him to do so.  This has a rather traumatic and profound effect on the brothers, as Boothe's FBI agent gradually discovers throughout the film.

“I thought there were some pretty troubling implications to the movie,” I say.

Paxton nods and states simply, “Yes, there are.”

“It's the only movie I could think of that advocates serial killing,” I tell him.

This elicits hearty laughter from Paxton who continues my sentence for me.  “Yeah, it advocates vigilantism and the death penalty and child abuse, corporal punishment and torture.”  He reflects on what he has just said and finishes with: “The happy things.”  Then, he adds quickly, “But if you look beneath the surface, this is a familial tragedy... You realize that, whether God came to this guy or not, this family is just torn apart; this nice, loving father and these two innocent, nice boys.  To me the whole thing is an Edgar Allen Poe story.”

Paxton is a veritable chatterbox about the project, rarely ever stopping to catch his breath.  It's hard to get a word in edgewise, so I hop on for the ride. 

“I wanted people to savor the dark journey that the film takes them on,” Paxton says.  “I didn't want to shock them out of their seats or disturb them to the point of revulsion.”  It's for that reason that “I had a lot of blood-letting off-screen,” Paxton rationalizes. 

When I compare Frailty, in style, to M. Night Shyamalan's films, Paxton concurs.  “I like what [Shyamalan] does,” Paxton says, “the suspense he creates, the characters and the story.”  Unlike Shyamalan though, “I had a very limited budget, so I didn't have any heavy special effects,” Paxton grins.  “But, yeah, I guess we're working a similar side of the street.”  Barely a breath and then, “What was cool about the writing [in Frailty] was that [screenwriter] Brett Hanley would let you figure out some things that were going to happen... He feigns to the left while he's getting ready to hit you with the right.”  Another very quick breath and then, “I felt like [Hanley] earned his gags in the film the old-fashioned way.  It is a slow burn kind of movie.”

Translating the elements of Hanley's supernatural script to the screen, especially on a limited budget, proved to be quite challenging for Paxton.  At one point “the writer wanted more actual bestial images, to see the killers turn into beasts in the flashbacks,” Paxton remembers.  “You'd be able to see their faces kind of morph into bestial types of creatures,” he sighs, and then, "but I [just] didn't have the budget to do that.” With the insight and enthusiasm that Paxton brings to this project, maybe he didn't need it.

JAKE LEVER

yes, it's true: He made his film debut in Roger Corman's New World Pictures film, Crazy Mama (1975), directed by Jonathan Demme.