Bender

Hitchcock Style!!! The horror that it's a true story is enough.

I expected more from a movie with Linda Purl, Bruce Davison, Buck Taylor & James Karen. Even as 1800's American History, the story was lacking.

Bought this DVD under the title 'The Family' . Nothing online regarding this title as a movie but eventually discovered this movie is actually titled 'Bender'.

It is painstakingly slow. Nothing like what the true story of the 'Bender' family depicts.

Disappointing movie. Could've been so much better.

Trivia - Nicole Jellon and Jon Monastero who play the characters of Kate Bender and William York are married with a kid in real life.

This is another fine release from High Fliers Films, a company I only discovered recently with the release of 'The Cleansing (2019)'. I am delighted to find there are many films under their banner, and a lot of them are horror stories.

This is another modestly budgeted chiller, based on the real life Bender family of the 1870s, the first known serial killer family. Director and co-writer John Alexander orchestrates events in a restrained manner, never in a hurry to tell their story. If you are prepared for a mainly unspectacular, intelligent slow-burner, this will not disappoint. That isn't to say there aren't moments that won't make you jump - the fate of one of the local doctor's patients, and the doctor's own eventual fate, for example, are handled deftly. Shocking moments in an overall ambience of distinctly calmed oddness.

There's an unspecific but unsettling nature about the directorial choices here too - lingering just too long on a smile, highlighting the rugged features of a character contrasted against a wide blue sky, introducing the grocery store as a lone silhouette, the omnipresent but barely perceptible buzzing of flies - that further communicates the sense of dislocation and unease as further disappearances occur in Fairweather.

Just don't eat the pork.

The true story and legend of the Bloody Benders is quite fascinating and horrific. This movie barely skimmed the surface nor showed the many proven acts or alleged acts of America's First Serial Killer Family. The acting was wooden. The known stars, Bruce Davison and Linda Purl, have abojt 3 minutes of combined screen time and are not very important roles. I had been looking forward to this movie as there is very little out there on this family if killers besides some short documentaries and in an episode of Supernatural. I was left very disappointed.