Cheap The Mangler (Video) (Robert Englund, Ted Levine) (Tobe Hooper) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Mangler

A spanner in the works
The Mangler for all its hype, boasting three of the best in the business, is unfortunately blasted to death in parts by some very hammy acting from Daniel Matmor who plays a nerdy supernatural guy that advices our main protagonist about the paranormal. Whenever his presence is on the screen the film just fails miserably. If he was cut from this movie it would automatically be elevated by two more stars.

The premise is a simple one. A town's laundry press machine has a life of its own. It gobbles up the women workers there and a detective (a great Ted Levine!) is set to try and figure out what is going on. The factory owner (Robert Englund) is over the top in his performance, but he just does it so well that you enjoy it! The story from Stephen King is not that bad and there is lots of blood and suspense along the way. This is not a bad horror movie but unfortunately Matmor and his scenes are completely out-of-touch with this movie and since he is in 40% of it well we can do little more than award it two stars when we could have given it four.

Having Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs playing the detective here is a classic call by director Hopper. It was a great idea!

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Surprisingly repulsive
To disagree with another review of this gory adaption of a King short story, the movie hardly follows the story at all. Sure, the plot elements are the same, but minor details are different. Details just minor enough o affect the outcome of the story. Because there's so many I'll only reveal one: Both the man characters are wifeless. Levine's wife is dead and his pal's a bachelor. Also, Englund' character and the pact he's made with the demon in the machine is different. Englund's character in the book is only mentioned once or twice, and he isn't a main player in the events. Overall repulsive, yet shockingly entertaining. Much like Rob Zombie's: "House Of 1000 Corpses". But, what more to expect from the director of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

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Three (bloody) Sheets to the Wind! (2 1/2 Stars)
How could you possibly go wrong with a movie forged by the Holy Trinity of Terror: the inspired, deranged, ghoulish minds of Stephen King, Tobe Hooper, and Robert Englund---particularly when the subject of "The Mangler" is a demon-possessed industrial laundry machine ravenous for human flesh and blood?

Short answer: you can't! If your local coin-op laundromat is closed for the night, it's certainly worth your while to take your dirty clothes over to the old Bartley mill and get 'em steam-pressed.

For your time and blood money, here's what you get out of this tasty little nugget of pure bloody stupidity:

*A REAL villain---certainly not your boring, ordinary old serial killer from central casting, but a demon-possessed 19th century steam-belching industrial press laundry machine (the Hadley Watson #6, naturally). This mass murderer means business: rather than just stabbing or shooting its victims---how mundane!---it folds, spindles, and mutilates them, then considerately folds and presses them!

*The great Ted Levine (who played Buffalo Bill in "Silence of the Lambs") woefully miscast as a small-town Maine police detective and hero of the movie! Levine slurs every line in that trademark cross between a gargle and a whine, and I would burst out in laughter every time he talked. Funny stuff! While Levine was investigating the messy death of the pill-popping Mrs. Frawley, I kept waiting for him to say "oh yeah, I remember, she was that great big fat person".

*Daniel Matmor as a sort of poor man's Tom Conti, who proposes to "read Leviticus" to the demon laundry machine and engages in a scenery-chewing contest with Robert Englund and the Machine. The Machine wins.

*And of course, Robert Englund himself, cackling insanely, cracking that corporate whip, and waddling about in a kind of combination crutches-lower body exoskeleton like some a demon-possessed version of Lionel Barrymore's Old Man Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life"!

There's a lot of material thrown into "The Mangler"---you've got the demonic laundry machine, belladonna pills, virgin blood, ancient sacrifice, the town's power-mad aristocracy, even a contract between Englund's insane old tycoon and the Hadley-Watson #6--- served up with some nice directorial panache and stylish camera angles by Tobe Hooper. But that said, "The Mangler" isn't about viewing-for-comprehension: this is high-octane garbage, served up with a fine helping up gore and with a side-order of extra-rare gore. Did I mention "The Mangler" is gory?

Levine, despite forever being cross-dressing serial killer Jame Gumb in my mind, is actually pretty funny as the lead, and puts some rough miles on a Jeep Cherokee. Datmor plays Watson to Levine's Holmes, and overacts ferociously to the scripture-quoting finish. Englund does his sneering, leering, cackling thing, and gets a good tailor in the bargain. Loved the ascot and smoking jacket!

Tobe Hooper keeps up the pace, throws in some moody interiors, cobbles together a pretty ferocious man-eating laundry machine (all stamped Industrial Revolution gears and pressed black metal---brrr!), and keeps up an onslaught of mayhem as workers get pulled into the presser and you start wondering about the damage this is doing to the mill's profit margins.

Moral of the Story #1: Don't let the virgin mill-worker bleed into the press of the Demonic Laundry Machine.

Moral of the Story #2: If you're a 16-year-old virgin mill-worker, you probably shouldn't work for Robert Englund.

Is this a horror classic? Absolutely not. Is it enjoyable, bloody, unapologetic fun? You betcha---and it's good enough to cry out for proper DVD treatment. Throw this sick puppy in the hopper and let's get to pressing laundry---we're on the clock, and time is money!