The Mangler 2

While most of her peers are away on break, a student genius (Chelse Swain) plans to get revenge on the stern dean of her school (Lance Henriksen) by developing a computer virus that will shut down her high-tech campus long enough to give her and her stupid friends some time to party. Instead, the plan backfires when the computer system takes on a mind of its own, traps the group inside and starts killing them off by manipulating and controlling the electric wiring.

Chelse Swain (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES) fails to convince us she can tie her own shoelaces, let alone is a genius, and the talented Henriksen is sorely wasted as the human heavy, who's eventually transformed into what looks like Plughead from the CIRCUITRY MAN films.

Highly implausible plot, amateurish acting, insipid dialogue, painfully annoying characters and offscreen murders mean don't bother with this "sequel," which is completely unrelated to the 1993 Tobe Hopper film.

Ladies and Gentlemen, The times of great film are thought to have gone the way of the Tasmanian Devil and the Ne-Ne--lost to the ages. If you find yourself a believer in this school of thought, I submit to you "The Mangler 2--Graduation Day." Our times are defined by a select few films, viewed by folks generations from now who see the characters and scenes of these films to portray the thoughts and emotions of those living in its time period. Truly, "The Mangler 2" is one such film. With its true-to-life dialogue, allowing the viewer to not only empathize with the character but to BECOME the character, this movie takes us by the collar and pummels our emotions brutally, stomping on our conceptions of modern security systems and slicing away piece by piece our false sense of safety in our schools. From the first intense seconds of this film, the viewer follows along the turbulent life of a young girl who struggles with her father as well as herself and what society expects of her. She soon meets up with several friends, all of whom are perhaps the most well-developed, complex characters to grace the big screen since those of "Taxi Driver" or "Citizen Kane." These young men and women struggle against a foe far greater than they can comprehend, and several succumb to its evil plots, meeting only the most horrible (yet thought-provoking) deaths imaginable to the human mind. Without spoiling the ending of this cinematic classic, I will suffice it to say that the climax is gripping, a true testament to fine camera-work, acting, writing, and music. The viewer is left on the edge of his seat until, finally, the movie comes to a breath-taking close, leaving us to ask "what's next?" Not only do I give this movie 10 stars, I give it a standing ovation and offer it my first born. Dare I ask when "The Mangler 3" will come squealing from the womb of its writers, squinting into the bright lights of fame?

Okay fine it's true I watched the Mangler franchise a bit wonky, I saw the first which I think was a watchable effort followed by the third which was a total mess and now finally all these years later have gotten to part 2.

Now going in my hopes were fairly high, it stars Lance Henriksen so it couldn't possibly be that bad, right?

Well The Mangler 2 follows on from the first movie in no shape or form, it's an original tale about a virus that takes over a heavily automated school and starts killing folks off.

Devoid of originality, oddly dull, with awful death scenes and instantly forgettable characters The Mangler 2 tops part 3 but just barely.

Not entirely sure what they were going for but I can confidently say that it doesn't work, not even slightly.

Watch The Mangler (1995) and pretend it doesn't have sequels.

The Good:

Decent soundtrack

The Chef stole the whole film

Lance Henriksen

The Bad:

Weak connection to the original film

Really quite boring

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

I'm left wondering whose idea it was for one of the girls to just wear her bra for near the entire film

This movie only scored 1.6 out of ten. which makes it in the bottom ten movies ever in IMDb's rating. for some reason this fact is not recorded on IMDb's worst 100 movies list. perhaps someone knows why this is. In any event it was truly an excellent movie, in my opinion and should have come in the top ten movies of all time. There are a few goof in the movie though. there biggest one being that the opening credits were not immediately followed by the closing credits. however after 80minutes of playing the fool, the director finally realised the gravity of the goof and corrected the error, allowing us to settle down to watch far more talented productions such as the shopping channel.

Holy Macaroni! This one really is as bad as everyone says it is. Poor Lance Henriksen! This truly is one of the worst movies I ever saw him in. This movie should have been called "The Cables of Death" or whatever, because it has nothing to do with the original "The Mangler" (1995) and all we see is some cables and wires moving around once in a while. At least in my country DVD distributors had the sense to re-name it "Virtual Death" (a more stupid & more fitting title). All killings are off-screen and there's no real tension whatsoever throughout the whole movie... And that stupid, cheap electro/techno soundtrack... Ow, aw, ugh! On to the points: One point because this movie makes "The Mangler" look incredibly good (and the original one needs that, in my humble opinion), if not to say excellent! One point for Lance Henriksen hanging on cables with wires running through his head and body near the end. One point for Daniella Evangelista doing a lot of running dressed in a tiny red bikini, making her boobs go up and down and up and down and up and down and... wooow, what a fascinating sight that was. There you have my generous rating for "The Mangler 2" explained.