LeonLouisRicci Director Tobe Hooper rode the Cross-Over success of the Drive-In/Grind-House release of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974) into a Cult Awareness that eventually went Mainstream and managed to Mangle a Career Opportunity with a Descent into Oblivion, Ridicule, and just plain Bad Movie Making.He rode that Beaten Dead Horse for over Two Decades until it was Obvious the Man was a "One Trick Pony". He then Faded to Black as "The End" was Inevitable.This Movie is Not a Pretty Sight. Everything is Ugly, Extremely Ugly, it seems to be Ugly for No other Reason then to be Ugly. The Clueless Notion that because it's a Gore-Fest it has to Look Ugly, Sweaty, and Unattractive with all aspects being Unappealing.The Characters (starring Robert Englund and Ted Levine) the Sets, the God-Awful Acting, the Costumes are all Unappealing. Therefore when the Money Shots (the horrific gore and slaughter) are On Screen, there is No Contrast. Nothing to Differentiate from the Proceedings. It's just more Ugliness among the Ugliness.Adapted from a Stephen King Short Story, the Movie Fails the Paranormal, Demon Possession, Occult Angle and is Muddled and Misses the Main Message( soul-less capitalism and industrial evil) by a Mile.The Budget makes it all Appear Slick and Professional, but the End Result is a Mess of Ugliness that Appears Slick and Professional. One More Mangled Movie made on the Long and Winding Downward Spiral of Tobe Hooper. What a Waste.

Blue_Jay_Way 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.

Max Kämmerer How do you make a horror movie about an industrial laundry machine? Well, they kinda did it alright. Now this movie is not a masterpiece by any means, but it's watchable, even entertaining. The effects are good, except maybe the CGI for the Mangler at the end. The acting is solid at times, but admittedly sub-par at others. I enjoyed the surreal ending with the Mangler (but not the one were it's revealed what happens after the horror in the town stops).The worst part of the movie is Hunton's friend the occultist, especially when he keeps talking about "virgin's blood". Robert Englund is also not appealing as Gartley, aka pirate Mr Burns, but that's mostly because the character he has to work with is ludicrous. I also had a hard time keeping Sherry and Sue apart with their curly hair. The machine itself, the Mangler, is pretty horrifying looking with all its gears and steam. The exorcism at the end is weird - them hysterically throwing sacred objects and Bible verses at the machine. And one last thing: are the police in this movie wearing old Nazi uniforms?

Michael_Elliott Mangler, The (1995) * 1/2 (out of 4) Officer John Hunton (Ted Levine) is called to the Blue Ribbon laundry factory after an elderly woman accidentally fell into the press and was killed. When Hunton arrives on the scene he's in shock at the amount of blood on the floor but he falls sick after seeing what the machine did to this woman's body. In the following days Hunton checks back with some safety officials trying to find out why the safety switch didn't go off but the safety control comes back as working so it's a mystery why this accident happened.However, soon more accidents start happening and the factories elderly owner (Robert England) seems to be keeping his mouth shut on a few things. Confused and not knowing what to do next, Hunton starts talking to his brother in law who studies occult activities and he seems to believe that this machine, known as a Manger, is alive and wanting the blood of virgin women. As more and more accidents start happening Hunton realizes that they are dealing with something alive and that the secret is with the machine's owner.Tobe Hooper is probably the most criticized horror director of the past thirty years. Outside his debut film, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre he really hasn't delivered anything worthwhile and The Mangler might very well be his worst film and that's saying a lot considering some of the films he's made. The film is based on a short story by Stephen King, which could have led to an interesting film but Hooper doesn't know how to tell a story and that really hurts things especially a film running nearly two hours, which is about one hour too long.Suspension of disbelief is the most important aspect when it comes to being a horror fan but if Hooper thinks we can hold that for two hours about a possessed laundry machine then he's got another thing coming. While watching this film I couldn't help but wonder what Hooper was thinking. The actual mystery to the laundry machine is so incredibly boring and silly that the viewer could care less how everything turns out and could care less if the machine likes virgins or not. In fact, things probably would have been better had it liked pizza that way the machine could have ordered pizza and attacked the deliver boys.The direction is all over the map because it's never quite clear what Hooper is trying to do with the film. The running time keeps it from being a clever slasher film and the low body count doesn't help matters either. Even the death scenes, which you'd expect to be over the top, are all rather bland and it takes way too long between each of them. Just when you thought thinks couldn't get any worse we get one of the dumbest and lamest endings in horror film history. The laundry machine grows CGI legs and arms and goes on the attack while our heroes try to perform an exorcism on it.There are a few saving graces in the film however and one is the opening sequence, which Hooper directs very well. Hooper does a wonderful job building up the suspense of the first attack because it's not too pleasant to see someone smashed and crewed to death by a press. The way Hooper builds this up makes one think he has returned to form but then again it all falls apart when he tries to tell the actual story. The art direction is another very big plus as is the rather awkward performance by Ted Levine from The Silence of the Lambs. I've always enjoyed him as a character actor and he makes the film a lot more interesting to watch, although I'm still not sure what's up with his accent, which is constantly changing throughout the film. Horror legend Robert England is also on hand playing a crippled, old man but he's quite awful. Certain people like Vincent Price can go over the top and still be watchable but when England goes over the top the effects are quite horrid.The Mangler was meant to be Tobe Hooper's return to form but outside that opening scene he has delivered a very bad film that doesn't have anything going for it. Perhaps if Hooper had cut the film down to eighty-minutes then something could have happened a bit better. Watching people being chewed by a press could have been interesting but we got a stupid detective story that added nothing and leaves us with a very bad horror film that should have never been made. I keep hoping Hooper will make a comeback but it hasn't happened yet in the nine years since this was released. Somehow, this film got a direct-to-video sequel in 2001