Review of The Mangler (1995) by James C — 14 Aug 2013

A series of gruesome accidents leads a police officer to believe that something demonic is taking place at a laundry factory.

Here we have a movie with a lot of genre greats attached to it that should be an absolute masterpiece, but unfortunately isn't. The plot is closely adapted from a short story by Stephen King, and though it has very good ideas at the beginning, it just starts to get more outlandish as it progresses, and the climatic battle is very silly indeed. The directing by Tobe Hooper is solid enough, and in places has an almost otherworldly feel about it, as even though it is set in modern day, the sequences within the laundry factory have a look and feel that they are taking place in the past. The acting is mixed bag and has everything from completely wooden to quite believable, and special mention must go to the great Robert Englund who is totally over the top and steals every scene he is in. The gore is not particularly widespread, but the few deaths that happen are incredibly well handled and the corpses look suitably mangled. All in all, this isn't a bad film and it does have some quite good parts, but with the likes of King, Hooper and Englund attached to it, one feels that it should have been a lot better.