The Mangler

The Mangler is a decent,scary film.It aint Shakespeare,but it's a good way to pass some time.Based on on of my favorite Stephen King short stories,it has an interesting premise and some good performances,especially Ted Levine and Robert Englund.It's nice to see Tobe Hooper back in something like good form after so many dogs.6 out of 10.

This movie rocked. It scared the heck out of me and I loved it.

The original short story by Stephen King is bizarre and terrifying. The idea of a possessed laundry-folding machine becoming sentient and homicidal sounds ludicrous, but it works in book form. Obviously, this is due to the titular horror being conjured in the mind of the individual reader.

As a movie it suffers on several fronts:

#1- The source material is only a few pages long, so, the movie had to be padded out to the extreme. This bloat adds nothing to the story, except for nonsensical side issues.

#2- The special effects necessary to make such a mechanical monster even remotely believable would cost many millions of dollars. This movie's microscopic budget made it look more like a poorly-realized cartoon.

#3- Director Tobe Hooper seems to have tried his best, but had very little to work with here. If there's ever been a tale that should remain only in our imaginations, it's THE MANGLER!

On the positive side: Robert Englund and Ted Levine are hilarious. This actually makes the movie bearable, bringing some much-needed mirth into this catastrophe. Their performances are so histrionic that the movie becomes a comedy...

I was hunting down some old Horror DVD's, the DVD cover and the information on the back was enough for me to be excited to purchase this.

I watched it last night, it's quite watchable, it is a very competently made horror movie from the 1990s, it feels cheap B entertainment at it's best. A Machine possessed by a demon, I mean it's pretty clear this ain't no Conjuring standard.

The acting was fine from all the leads, the director also did a good job in making a dark believable environment, nothing about this movie stands out as it's defining feature other than that it was made in the 90's and stars Robert England (Nightmare on Elm Street's Freddy Krueger).

Surprisingly to my knowledge, this also spawned a sequel "The Mangler 2" from 2002 and "The Mangler Reborn" in 2005.

I don't think I would be checking those out anytime soon, but if you are curious like me, you can have a watch at least once.

Based on the reviews here, either people really loved it or just purely hated it, the rating reflects exactly that. It's definitely a 5 out of 10 for me.

This is a B-movie through and through. Terminally flawed, but, if you let yourself, you can have a lot of fun watching it. Levine and Englund are both over-the-top and captivating, the plot, script and score are simple and stupid, but in a way that renders them unimportant. Just invite some buds over, get some beer and laugh as Robert Englund hobbles around cursing, Ted Levine pops pills and the machine folds people like sheets. Don't get me wrong, it's really bad and, at times confusing. But, while Tobe Hooper may have dropped the ball on this, he never kicks it out of the court. If you're looking for stupid fun, this is pretty solid.