Although Sherry may not be a household name she yet has
the looks and talent to be a promising actress in low budget films. She still
had a fairly descent amount of credits to be considered an actress as she had
alot going for her in the film and TV industry.
Plus, she has a great
attitude as told on set.
Well in the beginning Sherry was born and raised in
Nebraska and the second of 8 kids (Big family).
Sherry lived all over the US
as a Navy brat and finally settled in Iowa at the age of 13 where she grew up
around horses on 20 acres.
She worked as a model at the age of 16 and then
started acting in her 20's and has been involved in the entertaiment field since
1985.
She first had a bit part in the motion picture 'Sid &
Nancy' but her scene was cut out.
During the late 80's there were a ton of horror films being made so
she saw a trade paper by the name of “Drama Logue” that had audition and casting
notices for an indepdendent teen slasher film titled 'Slaughterhouse'. Sherry submitted for the film and was called
in to audition from her head shot. The director Rick Roessler loved her audition
as she was up against many women and won the lead role as Liz Borden.
She
worked very hard on set and was a real trooper with everyone.
In fact, this
film was the breakthrough of being noticed by many cult horror fans.
She was
the innocent teenage victim to pitted against two redneck slaughterhouse killers
Lester Bacon (Played by dinner theatre stage actor Don Barrett) and his retarded
son Buddy (Played by Joe Barton). She was the daughter of the head county
sherrif (Played by William Houck) who shut down their slaughterhouse and Lester
wanted Buddy to hack him away with his homemade meatcleaver. So after they find
out who she is things don't look good for her after her other friends were
killed for trespassing on their property during a stormy night when the power
went out of thier little pig out party in the county area so they decided to
kill some time daring one another to go to the Bacon slaughterhouse and boy they
did kill time as well as getting killed.
Although the film wasn't a top cult
classic slasher flick like 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre',
'Halloween', 'Friday the 13th' or 'A
Nightmare On Elm Street' it nonetheless had gorehounds loving it ,
becoming a top 38 out of 40 during it's small theatrical run and remembering who
Sherry was.
The film was of course an experiment for indie filmmakers and
they did a superb job of what they had on their shoestring budget with all sorts
of neat gore effects.
She received alot of work after the film and worked
at FOX TV, CBS, and Universal Studios in production.
Horror films became more noticed going
direct-to-video more and more when the 80's were nearing their end and in 1990
Sherry won a good supporting role by playing the role of Bonnie in the
film 'Demon Wind'.
She plays a friend of the lead actors as
one of them named Cory (Played by Eric Larson) tries to find out who he really
is after his father took his own life by slitting his wrists when him and his
friends are on their way to a broken down farm that his grandparents owned which
was torn apart by a demonic evil force which is in the middle of nowhere many
years ago.
But Sherry's character herself finds herself in tied up by the
evil forces and becomes the first victim after they do some research at the
broken down farm.
The film played on cable TV for a long time before going
direct-to-video and the box title was an attention grabber assuring horror fans
that it was a true horror film.
A year later, she had another supporting role but a
smaller one as a combat trainer named Kimberly in a typical bad direct-to-video
action-thriller titled 'Born Killer' and was again a victim to
two escaped killers.
Also, Sherry was a guest in a short-lived
crime-action TV series shot in Hong Kong titled 'Yellowthread
Street' as the role of Annie which she said she cherished doing the
most and was in the area doing another project.
Sherry then changed her last name to Leigh and
worked steadily as a full fledged stuntwoman for TV and film as well as at live
stunt shows such as 'Viking America' in Wakayama, Japan, Water
World and 'Terminator 2' and 'T3D' all at
Universal Studios, Hollywood.
She still does the odd acting gig like in the TV
commercials of Ab Slide and Flipside.com, a
small guest role in the daytime soap 'General Hospital', a good
friend of Gene Simmons so she appeared in a Kiss "Caroling"
music video and small roles in the indei flicks 'The
R.M.', 'L.V.J.' and 'Jolene'. Sherry
proves to have done it all and a busy woman she is.
There's exciting news follks as in 2016 she had the leading female role as a bounty hunter Cheryl in a flick titled 'Happy Hunting' about an alcoholic drifter must battle withdrawal and psychotic rednecks after he becomes the target of a deranged sporting event. The film rode film festivals and was categorised as a horror flick but it's a psychological thriller with the odd horror elements.
She is also a full time realtor and lives in Arizona
nowadays. Plus she weightlifts, rides motorcycles and horses as well as playing
sports.
But in my heart and lots of fans too she will always
be remembered in 'Slaughterhouse' and 'Demon
Wind'. Long live Bendorf!!!!!
Slaughterhouse. 1987 Well, in 1994 I found the box cover at a grubby old video rental store but
didn't want to watch it yet as I was just adjusting to gory slasher films
like 'Friday the 13th' and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street'
and it wasn't a good time to watch horror films period due to some
personal issues I was having. I was thinking to myself though it must be a bad
film due to it's title and it said contains material too intense for it's
theatrical release and thought to myself it doesn't have a catchy enough title to
stay in theatre's for long.
Over a year later when I was feeling a bit better
about things I found this to rent at a store called Hollywood Videos so I rented
it hoping to watch a fun party flick although I read in my movie guide it was
rated a turkey and featuring stupid everyday teenagers. I had to tell you I
hated it with a passion at first as I found it overly gory and disturbing with
sick jokes.
But before I watched it the film says it co-stars Sherry Bendorf and
I thought to myself it must be a beautiful teenager girl running around freaking
out but probably someone talented at that.
Well Sherry proved herself worthy as
an actress and does great as a typical teenager in a Jamie Lee Curtis type
fashion. She was very talented and had the looks too so it was a bonus. I felt
sorry for the poor gal being restrained to a butcher table with two redneck
psychopaths and having dead bodies on hooks in front of her which were her
brother, the deputy sherrif, his wife, a businessman and her friends.
She said
that the dead bodies were the real actor with make up on and it psyched her out
as they looked so real it caused real tears for her plus she lost a best friend
a few years before shooting the film and seeing her friends on the hooks helped
her with her character.
Also she found the scene a little difficult when Joe
Barton's character Buddy was restraining her on the butcher table as he kept
sweating etc. so it got a little uncomfortable. However, she found both Barton
and Don Barton professional and fun to work with as they were both very down to
earth people and had a blast working with writer/director Rick Roessler as Rick
himself said that Sherry was very energetic and ready for anything even when the
shooting was overlong and tiring.
This film will have a place in fans hearts who
enjoy Bendorf's work. I bought the DVD of this film 11 years later and enjoyed
it better as people said for what they had it was a good film.
I can sit through
any gory film now and although it was overly gory during it's limited
theatrical release (Which the rating almost received an X beforehand and then
changed to an R Rating), there are lots of films out there today that has alot
more gore in them. Especially remakes like 'The Hills Have
Eyes' and 'Black Christmas'. This film is a fun party
flick indeed and a spoof on many slasher films like 'The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre' plus there was alot of Freddy Krueger type jokes which were
common for alot of horror films during this genre as dark comedy were being
used in lots of horror films.
Demon Wind. 1990 I
eagerly wanted to rent this one after finding out that Sherry had more films to
her credit on the imdb.com. I loved the cover of it but I couldn't find it at my
local video store.
However, I was visiting my sister in Alberta which is in a
small county in the middle of nowhere with a small video rental store as I saw
some horror films that were hard to find and this was one of them!!!! I was so
excited to watch it. It was an average b-film sure but an exciting one as I
loved the cheesy effects used in it.
I was happy to see Sherry in it and her
name was in the opening credits too. Of course she tags along with her friends
in a strange abandoned area where they find a torn up farmland that was devoured
by evil demonic forces.
When they go in one of the busted up houses Sherry's
character spots a writing on the wall and reads it out loud which causes the
evil to awaken and they are all trapped there by a mysterious fog. Her character
freaks out about all of this and suddenly a child demon grabs her. She screams
and then turns into a doll. Then the doll devours. She is seen in a couple of
other scenes such as a hallucination sequence and then a giant demon eating her
alive. Sherry said that the scene took way too long as when the actor playing
the demon was biting her neck it tickled hysterically and when they shot the
scene he couldnt bite her neck cause she was laughing instead of screaming so at
the end of the day, she had a huge hicky on her neck that hurt like crazy.
Her
last scene was in the torn up house scene as if it was all a dream but then she
turns into a drooling demon with the other people.
Francine Lapensee was one of
the lead actresses in the film and became Sherry's best friend in real life as
well as in the film while they got cast in the film.
The flick is easily
considered an 'Evil Dead' ripoff but a very exciting, dark and
adventerous one. It ran on cable TV for a long time before the film went
straight to video. This one is by all means my favourite Bendorf flick and her
role suits the film.
Born Killer. 1991 Oh
god how awful this film was and I couldn't explain how terrible the story is as
well as the acting in it.
Sherry had a smaller supporting role in the film as a
combat trainer. Her name wasn't used in the opening credits but is friends with
one of the lead characters and her best friend Francine reunites with her again
as another combat training friend in the film. This was not by any means a
horror film. Just a goofy bad action/thriller with redneck policemen, bimbo
dipstick deputy's and two serial killers whom escape and go on a killing spree.
Sherry's character is seen in the beginning of this film as her and her girl
friends are in a jeep speedin away from the men in their jeep. Later on they are
combat training in a forest.
Suddenly Sherry's character is alone with another
woman played by Victoria Nesbitt as the two vicious killers catch them and are
shot down and killed. Then their dead bodies are tied to a tree (A horror
element there).
Suddenly there are two male survivors left as they play a game
in order to survive.
Sherry had a few good scenes in this one but all in all
this one was the pits. Sherry said the work was alot of fun but very
tiring.
Happy Hunting . 2016 Sherry wears her acting cap on since it's been a long time which is great. But this movie isn't very good and although it's categorised as horror and riding those types of film festivals it's strictly a psychological thriller. Had the odd horror elements but that was about it.
The story centers arounds an alcoholic drifter in a deserted type of town
in which he must battle withdrawal and psychotic rednecks after he becomes the target of a deranged sporting event. Other people with addictions are the target for their sick game but get killed off pretty fast.
Sherry plays one of the evil rednecks and the leading actress but only has about 4 scene's in it since it's mainly an all male cast but does a good job as usual in which at first seems to be deceivingly nice at a dinner table talking to this drifter but later on had a vicious type of attitude after this person is drugged and passes out.
Then she joins the cult of rednecks for their ceremony as this moment almost reminded me on a similar scene in the cult gorefest '2000 Maniacs' as well as a scene with someone in a lab storing dead body parts in which this made me wonder if the film will be a horror but not a chance with it being categorised in that genre at all.
Then her final scene is in a vehicle when she has a spiked bat ready to kill the lead character but gets pulled out of her vehicle and is killed off.
This one can easily be categorised as a ripoff to 'Surviving the Game'. The film is also very tiring and couldn't wait for it to end.
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