Review of The Mangler (1995) by Brett B — 08 Aug 2013

Holy smokes, what the hell happened here? On paper, I'm sure this could have sounded like a fine idea: a collaboration between three horror genre heavyweights (based on a story by Stephen King, directed by Tobe Hooper, starring Robert Englund), but good grief does this thing stink.

Hooper's direction is uninspired, Englund hams it up (and not in a good or fun way, either), and the screenplay bears little resemblance to the King short story that inspired it (which, admittedly, isn't a terrific piece of source material, either).

Overall, the movie just feels off from frame one, and it's also kind of needlessly mean-spirited and nasty, even for a horror flick. Blech.