A 3.0? Really? Have horror fans suddenly come down with a case ofcollective amnesia in the facts in the case of Tobe Hooper? The samedirector whose signature traits include a smattering of extreme goregarnished with dark humor? The man who made one of the mostinfluential, landmark films of the 1970s ("The Texas ChainsawMassacre")? I mean, granted, Hooper's career has been frustratinglyinconsistent overall, but "The Mangler"--easily one of his mostmaligned works--is an unsung gem that suggests his tongue was plantedfirmly in cheek, but nobody really noticed. While the concept alone has"disaster" written all over it (a feature-film rendering of a StephenKing short story), what Hooper does with (and to) "The Mangler" is,really, what should have been done with "Graveyard Shift": he tearsinto the story with the veracity of a mental patient chewing the headoff a rag-doll, elevating the absurdist elements to their breakingpoint, filling the film with (un)intentional humor to counteract thebloodletting, and fleshing out the characters and concept into asatisfying marriage of B-movie bliss. The plot? It's all about ananachronistic laundry facility where an ugly beast of a steam pressstarts folding the employees into bloody pulp; a pill-popping,chain-smoking local cop (Ted Levine) and his wiccan brother-in-law(Daniel Matmor) suspect foul play on the part of the disabled owner(Robert Englund, once again under a heavy latex mask), but the realreason is much more sinister (Hooper does succeed in making acompelling argument for the ridiculous explanation). While I haven'tread King's short story, I will say that the script (by Hooper, StephenBrooks, and Peter Welbeck) efficiently captures the quirky, small-townmannerisms of his characters, juxtaposed against evil spawned out ofthe banal territory of Everyday Life. While Hooper is unable to sustainthe tricky balance between terror and dark humor that has made "TexasChainsaw" so endearing, he ultimately transforms "The Mangler" into asturdy, clean-burning B movie, buoyed by fantastic performances byEnglund and especially Levine (who seems to be operating under theinfluence of a perpetual hangover).

While on the surface this movie may seem a little silly, trite horrormovie, having worked in a manufacturing environment for the last 12years, I found it fascinating. The contrast between workers and topmanagement, the lack of regard for employee's safety, the willingnessto literally sacrifice to the almighty machine were too close toreality. The extreme portrayal of the main characters, laborers so meekand owners so owned by wealth, are reminiscent of Dickens. The FX werestartling and exceptional. I loved this film and I don't love filmsvery often. Even the over acting was great, because the roles requiredoveracting. And woven through the whole story was the mundane andrelatively normal main character.

Robert Englund is the evil owner of the laundry company who has theancient steam press that periodically sucks workers into itsbowels,turning them into bloody mess.Ted Levine stars as the localsheriff who is called in to investigate the deaths and solve themystery.Levine discovers the steam press was possessed when a virgincut her hand into it's gears causing it to come to life.And Englundwants to make his niece the next human sacrifice to unleash theevil."The Mangler" is an enjoyable little flick filled with plenty ofgore.It's based on Stephen King's short story in his famous collection"Night Shift".Admittedly the plot is pretty silly and there are somehuge lapses in logic,but who cares.I wanted grue and this flickprovided it in spades.7 out of 10.Much better than crappy sequel thatfollowed.