Tuesday, May 8, 2007

The Mangler

We watched this thing over t'internet because aparently you can do that these days! What will they come up with next... anyway, the film was called:

THE MANGLER!

and it was about...

A MANGLER!

If you're not entirely sure what a mangler is, it's aparently a huge machine that folds up sheets in industrial sized laundry places... I didn't know, and I wasn't sure how common a piece of knowledge it was...
Anyhoo... the basic plot is thus:

The Mangler machine down at Blue Ribbon laundry is out of control with the possession and the killing people.

THAT'S IT!

I'm not sure there's alot more to say about the plot really, and I don't want to give away any of the gripping plot twists and character development.
I will say though that the guy who played Buffalo Bill in Silence Of The Lambs does a damn good job of playing a drunk, angry cop. Also starring is good ol' Robert Englund who does a good job of playing a senile perverted old crazy guy... another chalk mark on his tally of fine roles!
Anyway, in spite of the poor plot and lack of a role played by Samuel L. Jackson, the actors in the film seem to tackle the fairly meaningless script with as much enthusiasm as seems to remain in their bones and it's only half-way through the film that you realise that Ted Levine's character probably wasn't in the script as a pissed off drunkard, but working on a film about the possesion of industrial machinery (not just the Mangler gets possessed, oh no!) probably drove him to alcoholism during production...

I give The Mangler 1/5... but I feel bad about it and feel that I'd like to give it more, if that counts for anything...

Incidentally the tagline (which is my subject line) refers to Tobe Hooper, who not only directed this classic cut but also... TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE! and Stephen King who wrote the short story it's based on as well as 5000 other books about something relatively harmless becoming an unspeakable nightmare.
The third "master of horror" is apparently Harry Alan Towers, who wrote... *Scans down IMDB page*... The Brides Of Fu Manchu!?
I feel he may have been slightly misplaced... or maybe I'm just a nobody who doesn't understand movies or the fact that The Mangler is actually one of the greatest film classics of our time! Or ALL time!
I'm so lame

still.

Here's a clip from:

THE MANGLER!

(May contain nuts... and "spoilers")


IMDB Page for The Mangler

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