Review

The Winchester Bros head out to Hibbing, Minnesota, after a young boy reports seeing a man vanish into thin air. Sam unearths the fact that Hibbing has a missing persons statistical anomaly, and the brothers fear some unknown supernatural force is at work.

After relaxing at a local tavern, Sam disappears while Dean is taking a leak. Wasn’t too sure how to put that nicely, as kiddies might be reading. Anywise, Dean enlists the aid of Deputy Kathleen Hudak (Jessica Steen) as he goes in search of the missing Sam. A surprising episode ensues. Ready to hear some banjo music?

Director Ellis has his game plan on with this episode, and we are left in the dark as to what’s going down until the full-on final confrontation gets underway. There’s some nice tension going down as Dean and Deputy Kathy track down Sam and work out what’s going down in the Hibbing hood.

I was grinning from ear to ear with all the scenes going down at the Bender ranch; nice dilapidated touches, with a fine eye to detail worthy of Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Given how the Bender family present themselves, I could believe anything was possible, and was wondering how far the producers would allow this one to go in the gore department. Ellis slides right up to the border between what can and can’t be shown on TV, but manages not to cross that line. If ever an episode needed a “Director’s Cut”, then The Benders is that episode.

Once again Ellis has his fog machine working for him, notably in the tavern car park and the woods scenes, has his lighting working like a wild night in Penrith, and builds the fifty minutes with a tight and cohesive story development.

It doesn't have to be about the creature feature aspect to work effectively

For the first time this season we get a false cat scare, though luckily not of the spring-loaded variety. Sam runs afoul of the feline in the tavern car park, and later, when Dean is looking around for Sam, the cat is cleaning itself on a car bonnet, a nice touch that had me chuckling away.

There’s a clear Texas Chainsaw Massacre influence going down, with the inside of the Bender house reminding viewers of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 original rather than the less than effective sequel. I was also wondering if the writers were winking at The Deadliest Game, or even the Australian shocker Turkey Shoot. Once again the references come across as homage, rather than Platinum Dunes style rips of earlier horror genre outings.

Writer Shiban throws a curved ball at us with The Benders, and no, I’m not talking the decided lack of supernatural forces at work. Actually, who needs spooks with the Bender family inbreeding their way through the episode? The roles of Sam and Dean, as defined by the season thus far, go through a marked reversal, with Dean doing the research and Sam going macho man on us. A few people may not like this sort of thing, but I’m all for mixing and matching standard episode plot devices, and keeping the audience on their toes.

And if we think that Sam can motor (as kiwis say), then Deputy Kathy isn’t that far behind him in dealing out retribution to redneck inbreeds. You may or may not take a nod towards early Wes Craven themes there – I chose not to – but that single scene involving Kathy and Daddy Bender remains perhaps the most effective of the episode in what the Director and Writers are trying to imply. Given that this episode has no unnecessary elements, this isn’t simply a shock scene comrades. Dial into the episode to check it out.

Music-wise, short-changed again folks. We get one track, Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way”. Yeah I love the track as well, but isn’t it about time for some more Black Sabbath? Hopefully they have it queued on the old soundtrack for the season’s final episodes, when I assume we’ll get some good old demon action, and the closing of a few of the plot arcs going down.

Speaking of plot arcs, nothing, nada, they have exactly zero to do with The Benders. This episode simply says: “You all ready for a horror show? Well, check out what we have for you.” I kind of approved of the detour, and the Producers certainly delivered on something different here.

I had a hoot with The Benders and was having a fun time from the opening scene to the closing credits. Dean is dropping one-liners throughout, and the brotherly ribbing at the end almost had me rolling on the floor laughing. And of course, who doesn’t like a freaky little girl showing up at some stage of proceedings? Yo Samara, we have a new playmate for you: meet Missy Bender. The episode is chock full of thrills and spills and has the latter half of the season right back on track after some disappointing episodes.

Thought I might check out if there were any statistics about viewing numbers etc on the web, to indicate how the great unwashed were reacting as the season unfolds. If the information is out there then I couldn’t find it, but dedicated fans will no doubt be able to track something down via the network sites. What I did find was a whole load of fan sites dedicated to Supernatural with all sorts of interesting information to flesh out what we are seeing on the screen. Unfortunately, most of these sites are slightly biased towards the show and aren’t able to talk about the few weaknesses that season 1 is displaying. You also get lots of teen chicks waxing on about how much they love either Dean or Sam, so I think I’ll give that avenue of research a miss.

Recommended episode, and a must-watch. The Benders goes right off the Supernatural reservation, and is entirely memorable because of that. I was hoping for something to break up what’s becoming pretty formulaic, and the Producers delivered on that wish with a gritty, nicely-constructed episode for me. The fevered nightmare of Ed Gein lives; just don’t visit back country Minnesota.