Fender Bender

I kept asking myself about Mark Pavia, the director of “Fender Bender”, a home invasion slasher little brother to The Collector, when I noticed his name come up at the end credits as the film was concluding. I researched him and sure enough, he directed “The Night Flier”, a film based on a Stephen King story that starred a particularly nasty Miguel Ferrer. I always liked his film but wondered why he hadn't directed more than he had.

Fender Bender (2016, a joint ChillerTv and Scream Factory effort) itself is quite a mean-spirited slasher, with a short supply of bodies butchered, but just the same the killer doles out some hostile violence certain to leave an impression. A serial killer preys on teenage girls by using fender bender “accidents” as a means to derive information from them so he can descend upon their homes (sharing info after the wreck occurs), puts on a leather mask fashioned with metal rings for eyes and metal pins favoring teeth, wears a thick leather jacket certain to withstand retaliation from those who might return some of what he dishes out, and drives a particularly menacing ride that serves as his “introduction” to the victims he desires.

His next selection is a cute Makenzie Vega, not long with her driver’s license, dealing with an ex jock who cockily emerges at her door thinking he might can get her back. Vega exchanges info not imagining Bill Sage (I know him from the CSI: Miami episode, “Recoil”) will return to her home with a knife meant for her torso. Dre Davis and Kelsey Montoya are Vega’s buddies, coming over to hang out with her. Soon all three (including Harrison Sim as the prick ex who Vega threatens with a bat!) are targets for Sage.

There’s no doubt that you can pick this apart and find one flaw after another. There are stupid decisions aplenty (particularly from Vega) and what Vega does to Sage (the use of a crow bar multiple times and even gasoline lit fire fail to keep Sage down long!) would kill any normal human being. The ending shows Sage as human which belies what just happened before him. His going through Vega’s bedroom and personal items, removing his “murder disguise/gear” delicately/meticulously, and setting up bodies in cars in a line as a type of artistic statement really leave an unsettling feeling I found especially effective. But I simply have a hard time with you asking me to accept that this human monster could endure what Vega delivers on his person at the end of the film, and then buy the bill of goods regarding his ability to go on with his life as if he didn’t just receive heavy contact across the face/head by a crowbar and get lit on fire! Countless opportunities for Vega to call for help and how she’s punished for the fender bender despite not being responsible for it are also details that really noise aloud at how preposterous the film can be at times.

But when it gets down to the bread and butter of the economical slasher film, Fender Bender does have its moments. Bill Sage in costume summons the Shape and moves about the grounds and home like a silent phantom, purposing a mission of destruction that seems impossible to defy. Sage has a type of make-shift switchblade he impales with quiet ferocity in the victims who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time: around Vega, at her home. Vega, though, is allowed to be the raison d'etre for Sage’s devotion. The others are playthings for him to slay before getting to her. A blade through the stomach or throat, and even using his car to drive over a victim, are appetizers: Vega is the meal.

As far as what to expect: the usual. It has style and Pavia knows how to build scenes to their apex. His script wasn't afraid to lure us into relaxation only to bum us out. As mentioned, the killer is ridiculously superhuman (he does kind of function as a spectre who winds up where he needs to when it is time to kill victims) and we are asked to believe he is impervious to bodily harm. Vega could have been victimized at different points but the killer waits until the script wants him to attack. The three scatter chaotically instead of go out the nearest exit immediately when the killer showed himself in the house. The parents away so that the killer has the "final girl" all to himself... And on and on.

By now we kind of know what we're getting into. The film seemed designed as a throwback with a score that isn't exactly synth but has a beat to it that follows the hunt and the execution. I particularly like how Pavia unveils Sage with lightning strikes that reveal him in the dark. The phone voicemail from her mother after all the carnage, and how it is Sage who listens is particularly disturbing. Vega begging for her life and Sage diminishing it as meaningless also leaves a really bad taste. This shows that Pavia is willing to not pull punches. But there's a lot of stupidity I had a hard time looking past.

Not a total success, but I think some slasher fans will approve.