Episode 9: Cutting Cards

Episode 9: Cutting Cards

Original Airdate: April 21, 1990

Written By: Walter Hill, Mae Woods

Directed By: Walter Hill

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Kevin Tighe, Roy Brocksmith

Gambling used to be something frowned upon to polite society for its sleazy nature and often diabolical hold on the addicted, malfunctioned members of the community that once were called family. Las Vegas was a crater hidden in a radioactive wasteland that mere mortals without mob ties dare not invade. Atlantic City; merely an eyesore curtained only by greater sights across the Hudson and on the shores of the bright boardwalks. By today's standards, gambling transcends black-balling as an art and sport form, finding national television coverage in various formats as well as trendy infomercials that are as educational as they are enlightening. 

When one gambles on slots, cards, or in a mathematically charged game of chance, they're typically leaving the odds in favor of the house and putting their savings on the line for a string of luck. But when one gambles against a fellow gambler, they're engaging in a battle of wits and words that can leave a man battered, bloodied, and humbled. For our two leads in the desperately greedy "Cutting Cards," they'll be leaving nothing to chance: except life and limb. 

"I don't need no intro to Sam Forney." -Reno Crevice

Reno Crevice (Lance Henriksen) has stumbled back into town looking for a little good luck to send him a long way.  Crevice, a noted gambler and avid poker player, is greeted warmly by the staff at the bar but wants to make his way back to the dealer's room for a shot at Sam Forney (Kevin Tighe), a reported big shot who no man is daring enough to face heads up. No man, of course, except for Crevice, who claims to have a long history with Forney that includes several victories and more than a few bitter battle scars. 

As Reno heads to the back table, a feeling of uneasiness is cast over the club with he and Forney exchanging barbs about their rough and sorted past. Forney attempts to call Reno out on his current "down-on-his-luck" situation, but Crevice bluffs with a large sum of money that Forney's greed, and manhood simply can't resist. The first game is dice, and as simple as it may seem to leave the fate of this bet up to chance, it is only the torrid beginning. 

"They don't come around here anymore. I cleaned them all out. I guess they weren't used to my kind of competition." -Sam Forney

"Cutting Cards" found its way to the screen thanks mostly to executive producer, writer, and director Walter Hill, who absolutely adored the idea of two men waging war in a most trivial manner. Hill, who previously worked on the season one episode "The Man Who Was Death," brought his brand of simple storytelling back to the series with a slow, tension-filled ride that stars horror favorite Lance Henriksen as well.Henriksen and Hill worked together quite often, leaving Hill's work with a great feeling of impending doom (especially if the character in question is Henriksen's).

Henriksen plays wonderfully opposite to Tighe's role as Sam Forney, and even though the two men are polar opposites in regards to how they got their reputations, they each mirror each other perfectly, making rooting for one over the other a near impossibility. In this kind of high-risk game, Writer/Director Hill tries to purvey that very message by implying that these two are simply too evil, even towards each other, to ever be trustworthy or heroic. Seeing them get what they deserve in between ounces of amazing dialogue is only fitting. 

"You wanna fuck with me? You wanna duel? Alright, let's do it. Russian Roulette." -Reno Crevice

After the roll of the dice proves inconclusive, Reno loses his cool and calls for a .44-caliber pistol to settle the score. What started as a "loser leaves town" match has turned into all-out madness as Sam and Reno reconvene in the streets in an effort to blow each other away. As the tension mounts, they each take turns pulling the trigger against their own temple and brow-beating the other as only a nemesis could. This game of chicken boils over into unspeakable rage when only one shot remains with no suicide apparent.

Reno, last to act, shows how much of a man he is by pulling the trigger and revealing the final shot to be a dud. Both Sam and Reno are terribly unsatisfied, accusing each other of cheating in a game that is otherwise unbreakable. When a final, conclusive game is called for, Sam suggests the aptly-titled "Chop Poker." For those unfamiliar with the concept, it doesn't take long to understand. A dealer menacingly shuffles the deck over a meat cleaver with the intention of not only dealing out the cards for each and every torturous hand, but also the pain to the loser of such a dastardly game. 

"No chips, no pot, just play the hand and see where it falls." -Sam Forney

The game is a simple 5-card draw poker, but with one exception: the loser of each hand loses, at minimum, a finger from the blade of the cleaver. The first to quit, be it from pain or fear, will be the loser and will never be allowed to show his face again. Things start slowly, with Reno taking the upper hand (mind the pun) after showing a set of Queens to best Sam's two pair (tens and eights). With no hesitation nor remorse, Reno takes off Sam's right pinky finger. On the second hand, Reno continues his winning ways with a Full House (Aces over Sevens). 

By the third hand, Reno believes himself to be in full control until he's bested on a pair of tens by Sam's pair of Jacks. And it goes on like this. Sickly and slowly, Sam and Reno continue to destroy each other as neither are willing to relent to the other. In the final moments, we cut to the two facing off in a different sort of game: checkers. They're playing in what appears to be a hospital, each with gowns on and lacking several appendages. And unsurprisingly, they're still arguing over who stands tall, even without legs.

"I told you, I've always been a lucky kind of guy." -Reno Crevice

Parallels to the EC Source Material: 

"Cutting Cards" was originally published in Tales from the Crypt #32. In this version, the names have been changed to Gus Forney and Lou Crebis, but the basics remain the same. Gus and Lou jump straight into the game of death when they play a game of high card (instead of dice), yet both come up with Aces. When the two change the game to Russian Roulette, the same outcome befalls the characters as it did in the episode. 

In a slight change, they alternated who won hands, whereas the first two in the episode belonged to Reno (named Lou in the comic). At the end of the day, however, both ended up in the same place as was originally intended, even maintaining a clever joke about passing the chewing gum for one last zing.

Horror Alumni Roll Call: 

-Lance Henriksen (Reno Crevice) is a popular horror and science fiction actor whose credits include Mansion of the Doomed, Damien: Omen II, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Visitor, Piranha Part Two: The Spawning and anthology film Nightmares. Of course, all of that was before his biggest breakouts in The Terminator, Aliens, Near Dark, and Pumpkinhead. In the 90's, Henriksen appeared in Alien 3, The Pit and the Pendulum, Man's Best Friend, and an episode of The X-Files. As if all that isn't enough, he continued to make waves, appearing in Scream 3, The Mangler 2, The Invitation, Madhouse, Alien vs. Predator, Hellraiser: Hellworld, and two more Pumpkinhead films. There's about a dozen films in there that weren't name, so you've got a lot of catching up to do.

-Kevin Tighe (Sam Forney) managed to avoid horror for most of his career until participating in an episode of The Outer Limits and the Stephen King miniseries Rose Red. In 2009, he returned to the genre with an appearance with the horror all-star cast of My Bloody Valentine 3D.

-Roy Brocksmith (Bartender) is making his third appearance in nine Tales episodes. In fact, by once again playing the bartender, one could infer that this story and "The Man Who Was Death" take place in the same town during the same time period.

-Diane Cary (Hostess) appeared earlier in her career in V and V: The Final Battle, keeping with television until a recurring role in Forever Knight.

-Allan Graf (Driver) made most of his keep as a stunt actor throughout his career, notably appearing in Poltergeist, RoboCop, Total Recall, and a recent episode of Supernatural. 

-Alisa Christensen (Blonde Woman) may have had a very brief appearance in this episode, but it's worth noting that she also made acting spots in several B-movie projects, notably Troma films Terror Firmer and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.

-Walter Hill (Director, Writer) worked with Lance Henriksen numerous times in his career, not just this episode. He helped write Aliens, Alien 3, and is working currently on the sequel to Prometheus. As previously mentioned, Hill was also an advocate of action pictures, directing both installments of 48 Hours and The Warriors.

-Mae Woods (Writer) is more of an assistant to Walter Hill, but does have three screen credits in writing, all for Tales from the Crypt. 

Number of puns delivered by the Cryptkeeper: Four (though his love of alliteration is at an all-time high).

In Summation: "Cutting Cards" clocks in at just over 20 minutes, making it easily the shortest episode in the Tales from the Crypt production run. But the perfection of this episode comes in the very succinctness of such short breaths. Who knows where our two lead protagonists (or is it antagonists) would be if they hadn't reached to such depths so quickly? You don't need to look too far to realize how deceptive, greedy, and deadly the game they continue to play will become. Even without limbs, they prove to be a continued danger to one another and society, so the briefer the experience around them, the better life is apart from them. You almost get the sinking feeling that this Cold War will never end, continuing with each generation of hard-headed kin like some kind of macabre Montague vs. Capulet street fight. The gun doesn't have to be loaded in only one chamber. You could easily place a bullet in all six to see what the end result for two addicted gamblers will be. 

-Benjamin M. Benya

Episode 8: The Switch

Episode 8: The Switch

Original Airdate: April 21, 1990

Written By: Michael Taav, Richard Tuggle

Directed By: Arnold Schwarzenegger 

Starring: William Hickey, Rick Rossovich, Kelly Preston, Ian Abercrombie, Roy Brocksmith

To what lengths would you go for love? Not money, power, greed, or glory, mind you, but love? For Carlton Webster (William Hickey), a wealthy geriatric living through his remaining years, he would do almost anything he had to do. Carlton is completely and totally in love with a young woman named Linda (Kelly Preston) and seems fully intent on bringing her youthful exuberance into his home with a marriage vow. Though his butler Fulton (Ian Abercrombie) warns that she may only be out for his money, Carlton has no intention of advertising just how wealthy he is, or how he will only marry her if it is true love.

When Carlton visits Linda with said proposal on the table, he deflects the value of his property and is instead scorned by Linda's all-too-obvious refrain: you look too old. In denial of his current predicament (and perhaps science and logic as well), Carlton intends to visit a plastic surgeon to remove as much of his age as is possible. But he become dissatisfied with the lack of immediate gratification he would get and pursues other options to completely rebuild his face for the youth Linda so desires. And he'll go to any lengths to capture that glory.

"Life is cheap, doctor. But youth, youth is very, very precious." -Carlton Webster

Carlton eventually finds himself a mad doctor (Roy Brocksmith) willing to perform a controversial operation wherein he will receive the face of a young man named Hans (Rick Rossovich) for a nominal fee of one million dollars. Recognizing that the overall sum could bankrupt him, Carlton is blinded by his lust and proceeds with the front to science, nature, and general decency. Thinking he has succeeded, Carlton visits Linda once more with his new features, but only stands to horrify her further thanks to his intermediate changes.

Carlton's return to the doctor's laboratory finds him even deeper in debt as he requests a new torso and an upgrade on his face. Surgery continues to be a flowing success as the doc and Hans milk the old man for all he's got whilst Carlton continues to upgrade his youth, so to speak. Now, his entire upper half is that of the ripped Hans he met earlier, and all it cost him was $3 million cash. Things with Linda begin to turn around when Carlton takes her out for weightlifting and a walk on the beach. Unfortunately, since he only covered the top half, Linda finds herself further repulsed when things get hot and heavy. 

"But your face, it's so different and bizarre, and your body is still old and decrepit." -Linda

Arnold Schwarzenegger became the first full-fledged celebrity to step behind the camera and direct an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and it feels as if he couldn't have been pegged for a better interpretation. "The Swtich" delves into a warped world where beauty equals power and money can be had from anyone willing to sell from their own devices. It isn't short on sympathetic characters or morality plays; quite the contrary, in fact.

You find yourself feeling for the lead's desperate and blinding love all around him. He'd do anything for his beloved, making William Hickey a more than appropriate fit for the role. The man reeks of sorrow and the inclusion of an almost disconnected Kelly Preston adds to the calamity. At the time of filming, Tales from the Crypt had taken off after an impressive first run to levels that made HBO quite a profit. Bringing in Schwarzenegger may have felt like a money gouge, but he did a more than serviceable job with an intriguing and almost ironic plot.

"Love conquers all." -Carlton Webster

The dark spiral continues from here on out. Carlton's continued pursuit of Linda leads him to spend more and more of his database away in an effort to make himself look and feel young. As cryptically predicted by the mad doctor just scenes earlier, the parts continue to come from Hans whilst Carlton transforms into a completely different person...on the outside. Is love as blind as Carlton Webster assumes it to be?

Linda has other ideas. His lower body becomes unsatisfactory. Then, his manhood itself is called into question. The pressure never seems to mount high enough for Carlton to think twice about his continued existence, leaving his butler Fulton to leave him after the pool he pulled his salary from runs towards a shallow demise. As the doctor continues to take from Carlton Webster, Carlton Webster continues to believe he's growing into the reflection of perfection for Linda.

"Love can also be blind, sir. I just pray you're not the only one it conquers." -Fulton

The final minutes of the episode play out like a typical cat and mouse affair. Carlton is persistent, cunning, and untamed in his quest towards the lovely Linda's heart. But with each passing hour and day, he's slipping further and further away from the reality of the situation. Carlton loses his grasp on all of reality and falls madly into a stuper that, by the time he's free to break out, he's made a grave set of decisions that there is no going back from.

When he proposes to Linda one final time, he must come to grips with the idea that her aspirations and desires have made a drastic change towards a man with financial stability and valor. That man appears to be the old Carlton, except he's introduced as Hans, and we're left to watch in horror as our fledgling romance goes down the tubes once and for all.

"You're nice, Carlton. But I needed a man of financial means who could make me comfortable for the rest of my life." -Linda

Parallels to the EC Source Material: 
"The Switch" was originally published in the EC Comics release Tales from the Crypt #45 (though it was a story from The Witch's Cauldron). And, not just to make this section shorter, but the whole story is identical to the original. The perfect companion!

Horror Alumni Roll Call: 
-William Hickey (Carlton Webster) portrayed various characters in four decades of film and television outside the Crypt. He appeared in both the Tales from the Darkside movie and television show as well as the film Puppet Master. Late in his career, he appeared in The Outer Limits, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and posthumously in Knocking on Death's Door. He is, however, best known for his role in Wings as another Carlton: Carlton Blanchard.

-Rick Rossovich (Hans) used his good looks to land roles in The Terminator and Spellbinder prior to his appearance in this episode. Later, he made appearances in horror/sci-fi mash-ups like Future Shock and the straight horror picture The Evil Inside Me.

-Kelly Preston (Linda) caught one of her first big breaks in the Stephen King adaptation of Christine. She had a cameo appearance in the cult classic From Dusk Till Dawn and would later appear in her husband's (John Travolta) work of Scientology science fiction, Battlefield Earth.

-Roy Brocksmith (Doctor) is making his second appearance on this list in as many seasons. He was known for appearing in both Arachanophobia and Total Recall. He also did episodes of Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and the children's anthology program, Eerie, Indiana before his death in 2001.

-Ian Abercrombie (Fulton) had hundreds of acting roles before his death, but horror fans remember him most for his part in Army of Darkness. He was also apart of Battlestar Galactica, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Catacombs, Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge, Addams Family Values, Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon 5, Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars television show, just to name a few projects.

-Renata Scott (Female Patient) was in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the film Stepfather II. 

-Mark Pellegrino (Punk) found a lot of minor horror work along the way, including an episode of The X-Files and the films The Lost World: Jurassic Park as well as The Number 23 and Fear Itself. He is probably best known, however, for playing Lucifer in the show Supernatural.

-Kendall McCarthy (Doorman) was also apart of the cast of Ice Cream Man with Clint Howard.

-Peter Kent (Muscle Beach Trainer) was good friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger, thus landing him roles in nearly every Arnold movie (which is too many to list). He was also in Ragewar, Re-Animator, Dead Heat, and various made for TV horror pictures.

-J. Patrick McNamara (Dr. Thorne) was notable for having made it big over a decade before Tales with his appearance in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He was also in The Fury, Phantasm II, and an episode of the spinoff Freddy's Nightmares. 

-Arnold Schwarzenegger (Director) is a household name and doesn't need much of an introduction. To list his contributions to action and Sci-Fi would be a paltry catering to your needs, so just know that he made the apocalyptic thriller End of Days.

Number of puns delivered by the Cryptkeeper: Two (though Arnold jumps in with a few as well)

In Summation: What "The Switch" lacks, if anything, is true horror and terror. The story is about normal people driven to extreme and irreverent means to get what they want. And of course, in true Tales/EC style, they find a complete irony of their situation when things go awry. Love is as blind as Ray Charles. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

-Benjamin M. Benya

Episode 1: The Man Who Was Death

Episode 1: The Man Who Was Death

Original Airdate: June 10, 1989
Written By: Walter Hill, Robert Reneau
Directed By: Walter Hill
Starring: William Sadler, Roy Brocksmith

Meet Niles Talbot. He's an incredibly mild-mannered, self-reflective advocate of the Death Penalty. And, outside of the Cryptkeeper, he's likely the perfect exhibit of a character representation for Tales from the Crypt.

In the very first episode of Tales from the Crypt, William Sadler stars as Talbot, a character of little sophistication who borders neither protagonist nor antagonist waters. He doesn't have any ties or convictions, friends nor family, yet he's a sympathetically vigilant character. In fact, it is his vigilance that makes this first episode such a wonderful demonstration of Crypt content. And it makes this first review all the better to soak up.

The story starts with Talbot discussing his next victim, Charley Ledbetter, who has been sentenced to immediate execution at the hands of the electric chair. Ledbetter cries and pleads for remission, going as far as to claim that the governor will call for him. But Talbot remains unmoved. Talbot is the titular character, working his job in the prison system as an executioner. A 12-year veteran, Talbot was brought up to love the electric chair in one of the simplest, most one-dimensional ways imaginable.

"I like electricity. It's dependable. You can trust it." -Niles Talbot

Such simplistic, one-sided appeal leaves little to the imagination about Talbot. As best we can tell, he goes through everyday just the same, flipping the switch on one side, and mercilessly recanting his tales of pleasure from pain to any audience with an ear. For Niles Talbot, however, things are changing rapidly. Just hours after the execution of Ledbetter, the state announced a repeal on the death penalty, putting Niles out of a job.

As he's let go, he's informed that the prison system has nothing for him and would prefer to keep him distanced from the inmates he knew. He makes sense of his predicament, but only as some soluble justification. In truth, Niles is devastated by the loss of the one thing he thought he did well.

"This ain't the kind of work they give you a gold watch for, is it?" -Niles Talbot

Tales From the Crypt was created and executive produced by five visionaries of the motion picture industry during the late 80's. Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis, each with great background in horror and science fiction, came together on this incredible collaborative effort for HBO. The horror anthology show was nigh untouchable.

The Twilight Zone had long held the torch for greatest in a field that included few other contenders. Rod Serling's work, his lifework in the Zone, paved the way for hundreds like him in the decades that followed. So taking source material, like critically infamous 1950's EC Comics, and adopting their ironic and satirical motifs into the new age was a massive undertaking. What followed was the seven seasons of terror that crept quietly through the night during the breakout age of Home Box Office.

And "The Man Who Was Death" started it all. During the embryonic first season, the five producers stepped in to secure six episodes of absolute joy. Walter Hill was in charge of both directing and writing duties on this one, and his fingerprints are visible all throughout the black light bulbs. Hill had previously contributed to (and been perhaps most notable for) the adapted screenplay of The Warriors. So telling another story on the streets with morally righteous characters who tread the surface of good and evil wasn't all that difficult. Enter Niles Talbot, a character who so embodies those basic ideals. Now back to the story.

In one of the more significant court cases following the ban, James Flood walks despite being confirmed as a murderer. With no penalties in place and no justice to be had, Talbot enters and uses an almost Batman-esque objective to make Flood pay. Talbot waits, and, with a few simply placed charges of good ol' electricity, murders Flood by shocking him to death.

"Sure there's a God. No doubt about it. Problem is he spends too much time making assholes like that biker." -Niles Talbot

As Talbot celebrates with drinks around his sympathetic bartender Vic (played by Roy Brocksmith), more crimes throughout the city go unpunished. Theodore Carne (Gerrit Graham) and Cynthia Baldwin are the next victims for conspiring to murder Carne's former wife. Talbot's murders are becoming more barbaric, as this time, he traps them in a hot tub with his friend the circuit.

The beauty of this episode lies in the continued struggle of Talbot's appeasement. For every life he takes, he feels no greater knowledge nor being. He's simply a man doing his job as he's been trained to do. But without the shackles of selection or even the slightest hint of a sympathetic conscience, he's slipping further into madness. From what was once a righteous crusade into the world of vigilante justice, Talbot is now spending his evenings in a strip club where he decides to take the life of a go-go dancer in a cage.

It's a setup, however, as Niles is captured and arrested after evidence links him back to the three previous murders. He's a man of God, of this there is no doubt, but God doesn't seem to take jurisdiction when Talbot is forced on the other side of the judicial system. Upon his incarceration, Talbot finds out that Capital Punishment has been reinstated and he'll be the next victim of its wicked ways.

As he's dragged, inch by inch, to his inevitable conclusion, Talbot screams at the top of his lungs that the governor will call for his pardon. Just like Ledbetter had done earlier. In the end, Niles bemoans that he still hasn't done anything wrong, but that justification is only temporary as a new state appointed executioner throws the switch.

"If a man ain't good at his job, then what the hell is he good for?" -Niles Talbot

Parallels to the EC Source Material:
"The Man Who Was Death" was originally published in the first EC Comics release of The Crypt of Terror (later Tales From the Crypt). In this version, we follow Edgar Bowman on the same basic journey from executioner to acute madman. Bowman's personality is less of a simple man doing God's work to a more cynical, "eye for an eye" kind of rogue. Bowman is also much more adaptable to different kinds of Capital Punishment, including both hanging and the gas chamber.

Bowman even goes as far as attempting to top himself following each of his vigilante murders, until he's finally captured attempting to murder a woman named Betty Bates. As he's hauled off to his own execution, he finally expresses the same kind of fear his previous victims had about mortality. Overall, however, the story is much less sympathetic towards the lead.

Horror Alumni Roll Call:
-William Sadler (Niles Talbot) appeared in Tales From the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight, the first HBO-based Tales movie in 1995. He would also go on to play the role of the Grim Reaper (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) in a cameo appearance during the later Tales episode, "The Assassin." He reappeared in the same skit for the intro of Tales From the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood, but this time, he portrayed a mummy. He was even the Cryptkeeper-archetype Mr. Rush in the EC Comics/TFTC spinoff, Two Fisted Tales. Sadler's latest horror works include the adaptation of Stephen King's novel The Mist, one of numerous collaborations he's been on with director Frank Darabont (including Two Fisted Tales).

-Roy Brocksmith (Vic) stuck mostly to the satirical and Sci-Fi side of acting, appearing in both Arachanophobia and, in perhaps his most notable role, as a lab technician alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall. He also did episodes of Star Trek, Red Dwarf, and the children's anthology program, Eerie, Indiana before his death in 2001.

-Gerrit Graham (Theodore Carne) is best known for his role as the paranoid sidekick to Kurt Russell in Used Cars. Graham also played parts in B-grade horror films Demon Seed and Chopping Mall. But, in 1990, Graham played Phil Simpson in Child's Play 2, a foster parent to lead character Andy Barclay. He was murdered after Chucky tripped him down the stairs towards the basement.

-Dani Minnick (Cynthia Baldwin) made a career, albeit brief, out of television roles. In mainstream cinema, however, she appeared in terrible films like The Sleeping Car and From the Dead of Night, the latter of which featured fellow Crypt-alum Bruce Boxleitner.

-Walter Hill (Director, Writer) has been out of the horror business for sometime, instead helping to produce parts of one of the most thrilling science-fiction franchises of all time. He helped write Aliens, Alien 3, and is working currently on the sequel to Prometheus. As previously mentioned, Hill was also an advocate of action pictures, directing both installments of 48 Hours and The Warriors.

Number of puns delivered by the Cryptkeeper: 4 (The worst of which happens at the end of the episode).

In Summation: Hill's delivery of this simple tale, about a simple man doing simply cathartic things that he feels are morally and contractually unambiguous, can leave one feeling quite contemplative. At the end of the day, the cruel irony that befalls Niles Talbot isn't unlike that of anyone masquerading as the Angel of Death. No man is their own maker; a fact they may not understand until the meeting with said maker takes place. And by that time, the governor's call wouldn't even be enough to save you.

-Benjamin M. Benya