User reviews

The unsettling true story of America's first serial killing family. A troubled doctor (Jon Monastero) searches for patients swallowed by the prairie and encounters the Benders, homesteaders trapped by a life of unspeakable sin.

If nothing else, this film deserves praise for bringing the story of the "Bloody Benders" to life. Somehow, despite a lifetime of reading true crime and history, as well as devouring thousands of horror films, this reviewer has no recollection of ever hearing about the Bender family. And it is such a good story, that it really deserves to be explored more. From 1869-1872, the family killed at least 11 people and even captured the imagination of a young Laura Ingalls (1867-1957), who had a loose connection to the Benders.

Horror fans will delight at James Karen ("Return of the Living Dead") as lecherous Old Man Bender. His actions are ravenous, almost animalistic, but perhaps not far from reality. According to reports, the real Bender "spoke very little English. When he did speak it, it was so guttural that it was usually unintelligible." Further, he "was prone to laughing aimlessly, which led many to consider him a half-wit." So this bizarre portrayal is actually quite appropriate. (Horror fans also get Bruce Davison of "Willard" fame as the mayor!) The plot is clever and imaginative. The easy way out would have been to do a straight-up exploitation film with blood and guts. We still get that, of course, but the focus is really on an outsider (the doctor), which provides a more interesting story than just the same old hack-and-slash. The unfortunate thing is that there is very little dialogue, and a fairly short (80-minute) running time, so the film feels less than fully fleshed out at times. There is also the fact that the costumes seem too clean for pioneers. Apparently they could not afford to buy the costumes outright or get them dry cleaned, so the actors had to avoid dirtying the rentals.

While the film is less than perfect, it is still a valiant effort and ought to be appreciated for being more than the same old thing. Horror, as much as we all love it, has a tendency to beat a dead horse. Not so in this case. The "pioneer horror" subgenre is small – beyond "Ginger Snaps Back" and "Ravenous" there are few entries – and "Bender fits in well here. The film was in distributor limbo for a couple years, but is now seeing the light of day thanks to Candy Factory Films.

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.

I live in Cherryvale where these murders took place. This movie is barely based on the real story of what really happened in Montgomery/Labette counties of SE Kansas. The writers didn't even use first hand information from the Cherryvale Historical Museum which has a terrific collection of Bender evidence and stories. I understand not all movies are filmed in the locales depicted but to base your evidence of the murders from a county 125 + miles away is not due diligence. There is not much in this slow wooden film to even begin to understand this family and the horror they really unleashed on SE Kansas...not the Osage which is in Oklahoma. Very disappointing and not worth my time. Thumbs down.

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 behind this has such potential, but this movie fell flat.

I gave it two starts because not once did they use shaky-cam, good for that at least.

The acting/actors were very bad. It's so odd to see so many films with poor actors because here in SoCal there are a tremendous amount of talented unknowns.

If you know the true story regarding the Bender family you understand what I mean that a movie on them could be pretty large if done correctly.

At most this movie is only good for background noise while cleaning or cooking, nothing more.

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

Too bad they brought little of the truth to what is a fascinating true story. They made a sadly horrific history's retelling boring and mundane. Only two Benders spoke English and I get that could complicate the story telling but why change the age of the brother when it's been almost proven without a doubt Kate was in fact John Benders wife and not his sister. The backfill of assuming the Benders interrelationship was ridiculous and nonsense. Supposedly Kate did readings and touted a gift, but I am sure why they had to play Kate's gift as real and furthermore so strangely creepy. Watchable but I suggest any viewer research the true story of this family.

I love this movie it's so creepy! I'm glad I'm watching it during the day so I don't get nightmares! It's based on a true story I never even heard about.

Each of the Bender family characters is super creepy in their own way. Even the child in the movie! The dad takes the cake though. He reminds me of Father Jack on that show Father Ted. LOL

I love how they filmed it in Kansas. I love seeing the prairie and how people used to live back then. I'm sure it was a very difficult existence. I can't even imagine living back then. And these people came from Europe and ended up in the middle of frigging Kanses with a lot of nothing!

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.

The acting was horrible, the writing was worse. They had a story, that had so much to it, and yet, this was like, children acting out a school play. Worse than that. I really can't figure out which was worse, the movie, or the fact I watched it till the end. So bad. Just sooooo bad.

Really, really bad acting.

Almost nothing about this movie is actually true except there was a family in Kansas in the 1870's who were called the Bloody Benders, and they were serial killers. That's where the similarities end.

Sticking to more of the actual facts would have made a much better movie. Why did the writer make the brother a little kid? In actuality there were two adult Bender children, some say they were a married couple rather than actual brother and sister.

Knowing a little about the facts of the case I thought this would be a really good movie, but I was wrong.

My cat has a better imagination than the screenwriter.

Some of the worst acting I've ever seen. Also a very vety slow movie, took me several tried to even get through it. I shut it off several times because it was so boring lol.

This is another one of those movies that the title depends on just where you happen to look for it. I found it by chance after having looked absolutely everywhere. And it also gets pretty danged mondo bizzer-O too. If you read up on the real family Bender, you'll see that this movie differs quite a lot. That would be OK if it were different in a good way...but it isn't. The cast is solid but the story is like I said...quite different from what went on back with the real family Bender. That happens sooooo much these days. People have no interest in staying with the real story if changing it will sell a few tickets.

Anyway, check it out...it is fairly good. As always, THANK YOU and ENJOY A MOVIE TODAY!!!

This film is classified as horror, and, as a story of the notorious Bender "family" (who probably were not a true family at all), it would be assumed to be one - however, in reality, it is primarily a quiet psychological drama with some metaphysical elements, and a touch of the macabre. There is a small element of the core story of the Benders within - a group of apparently related people (who definitely are a family in the film version) open an inn in the American Wild West during late XIX century, and proceed to entrap and murder lonely travellers who stop by in the night - but it is very far away from the known facts of the true events, and the film should be treated as something of a very loose fantasy, peripherally inspired by history.

It is, in fact, quite involving, slow and - rather unusually, considering the subject - sometimes almost peaceful in its tone.

The film has the feeling of a local project, and I suspect that it was conceived, born and filmed in Kansas, by people personally interested in what may be the darkest story of the region (or at least was one, until a certain Dennis Rader appeared there...); I would certainly not mind its full score being released.