The Mangler

While on the surface this movie may seem a little silly, trite horror movie, having worked in a manufacturing environment for the last 12 years, I found it fascinating. The contrast between workers and top management, the lack of regard for employee's safety, the willingness to literally sacrifice to the almighty machine were too close to reality. The extreme portrayal of the main characters, laborers so meek and owners so owned by wealth, are reminiscent of Dickens. The FX were startling and exceptional. I loved this film and I don't love films very often. Even the over acting was great, because the roles required overacting. And woven through the whole story was the mundane and relatively normal main character.

A lot of people are shocked that this even got the go ahead but think about it. New Line Cinema(Nightmare on Elmstreet), Robert Englund(Freddy) and Tobe Hooper(TCM) are all in on this. They probably thought given that this was a short story by Stephen King they might be able to profit. Well, anyway, this movie isn't that horrible. Yes, it's slow but I think Ted Levine and Robert Englund make it watchable. I wish they would try to make more movies like this just so we don't have to see so many so called horror movies with the target audience of teenage girls. While some of these movies have been very good or at least had one or two moments with suspense, most have sucked. I still cannot believe that I saw I still know what you did last summer. Even Jack Black and the underrated Matthew Settle couldn't save that.

Mangler is one of the worst movies ever made. Robert Englund is a horrible actor in any movie where he is not playing Freddy Krueger. Ted Levine is equally bad here. The movie features a dry cleaning press that eats people in order to guarantee profits. So when the employees are putting the shirts in to get pressed, the Mangler grabs onto their arms and pulls them in to chomp and mangle them to death. The comedy of seeing a dry cleaning press stomping through a building trying to eat people, who manage to fall down at the right moment, is what takes this movie from just poor and stupid to incredibly lame and silly. This movie could have been a decent comedy if it had been produced as a cartoon with Sylvester and Tweety, or Mutt and Jeff.

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 underrated horror by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist) is an allegory of industrial capitalism and very graphically depicts the worth(lessness) of labor in relation to the survival and development of businesses in the eyes of the owner. But even if we look at it only superficially, "The Mangler" is a film that has quite enough to offer. The story, albeit linear, is not superficial and illogical, as in most of the horrors of the '80s and '90s, but multilayered and mysterious, yet not complicated. I would say, just right. It is well filmed and directed, with effects that make a significant contribution to the story and amplify the horror atmosphere, as opposed to excessive, unconvincing, and often ridiculous effects on which we are accustomed in movies of this type. The movie is dark, satisfactory tense and bloody, with good dialogues and a dose of black humor. I think it could be adapted into an excellent novel, especially if written by Stephen King. :D 7/10

As far as Stephen King adaptations go this one sits right in the middle. The story trickles along nicely and the machine is both funny and cool. Robert Englund is over the top but that's nothing new. A nice late night 'horror' movie watch.