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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
I Fold, May 25, 2007
The Mangler's not one of the more popular King adaptations. The inspiration for King's story most likely was how nasty it would be if someone actually got caught in one of those steam irons. It certainly would be a horrific scene, but as nasty as that is, it's not a concept you can really make a feature film around. That's probably why King wrote it as a short story. Stretching the short story into a feature length film requires much more plot to be added(the short story may have had a half hour worth of film material, tops). Alot of folks who bash this film usually have something along the lines of...."With the talent involved, how could it be this bad?"...to say. Well, most horror fans have a hard time admitting to themselves that since Texas Chainsaw, Tobe Hooper has become increasingly schlocky as the years go by. We all know it, we just don't say it. Englund hasn't always made the best stuff, and not every King story is a winner. In The Mangler, Hooper is trying to actually make the film scary. The tone is much more serious than subject matter like this should be. Sure, the first scene where the machine claims it's first victim is effective, but by the time you reach two grown men performing an exorcism on a laundry folder, and then having the machine turn into a Lovecraftian monster, it's just too damn silly. So why the four stars? Well, I actually do enjoy this movie quite a bit. If you want to view this with the intention of getting your pants scared off, it'll fail. If you view The Mangler as drive-in fare, it's fun. It's got some nasty gore, an over the top villain played by Robert Englund, funny lines(both intentional and unintentional), and the film is actually shot very well. As others have stated, the acting is hammy, particularly in Englund's case. However, certain mention should go to Ted "wasn't she a great big fat person" Levine. The film is practically a showcase for Levine's odd performance. Is he being campy and over the top? Is he serious and coming off as goofy? It's hard to tell for sure, but he's always amusing and never boring to watch. I think the guy's actually a good actor and it was cool to see him in a leading role. If this were made today, it'd be Orlando Friggin' Bloom or some other schmuck that's mistaken for a good actor. My disappointment with this dvd is that it's the theatrical R-rated version. One of the special features shows a split-screen comparisson of the R and unrated versions. Why the hell not just put those snippets back in the movie? Especially in these days where studios are so "unrated" hogwild. I'm surprised we didn't see an unrated version of Happy Feet when it csme out on dvd. I used to have a vhs copy of this movie, and it was the unrated version with the extra nastiness. So, I know it can be done. The deleted bits are quick gore shots that actually do enhance the scenes and make them much nastier. But anyhow, I do actually think this is a pretty fun movie...depending on how you look at it,that is.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Believe it or not this is a near miss., August 7, 2001
With a great looking mechanical monster and a plot that expands Stephen King's little horror story (but does not adequately explore its expansion), Tobe Hooper's The Mangler is a near miss. The movie needs more than a little editorial tinkering, cutting to be precise. Far too many scenes, if not all of them, run far too long, passing the point taken and are you stretching this boundaries and plunging right into DO SOMETHING ELSE ALREADY territory. Nonetheless, when The Mangler is in action and revealing its demonic personality the movie is, more or less, worth sitting through. Englund is a hoot as well, firmly embracing Vincent Price's lay on the ham with relish acting philosophy. Worth at least one viewing.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Industrial power is a blood thirsty Devil, March 12, 2001
In this film Stephen King touches a quite common theme in his fiction : the evilness of industrialism. But in this case the machine is not possessed by an animal monster like in The Nightshift, or by an It like in IT. It is possessed by the devil itself, but the devil of power. This machine, this devil needs sacrifice and those who have power have to sacrifice something to it to get this power. They have to feed its hunger for fresh blood, virginal blood and belladonna. The machine tries to eat the people who are using belladonna for their nerves and the machine receives human sacrifices from those who want power. If you want to evade giving a part of yourself, you have to sacrifice a young virginal sixteen-year-old girl of your family. And there is no way to stop it. It cannot be exorcised by anything. No holy water, no holy wafer, no biblical incantation will stop it, and even if one powerful person is sacrificed, then another one will benefit of this sacrifice, another one who will have given, by accident or willingly, a part of himself or herself, a finger or an arm. This vision of industrialism as a devilish possession is a rare way to show that industrial work is slavery and total alienation. This vision of power in this industrial society as a pact signed with the devil that inhabits the machine is a rare denunciation of capitalism. And yet, since this is linked to a tradition as old as humanity, it is human social life, and the organisation of human society on a power pattern that is denounced in the most general way. One little element shows how this power-giving and blood-hungry devil works : the photographer and then the intellectual who discover the existence of this devil and try to denounce it and even exorcise it are killed by the super power of this devil. It does not like being known. It likes secrecy and ignorance. The film is extremely effective in its powerful images and symbols and it is heart gripping. A very rare introduction to Stephen King's realm of horror. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.
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