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.

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.

A laundry folding machine is possessed by a demon from Hell.The reviews for "The Mangler" are predominantly bad. Richard Harrington wrote, "The Mangler is ludicrous from start to finish: its plot lines dangle, its effects fail to dazzle and the acting and directing are uniformly bad... even the least demanding of genre fans will be hard-pressed to tremble in its presence." This is partially true. The plot is not as strong as it could be, but it does have a few nice touches, most notably the gore.Mike Long rated it 0.5/5 stars and wrote, "There have been many bad, throw-away projects based on material from Stephen King, but The Mangler has to be one of the worst. The movie's laughable premise is only brought down by the inept filmmaking on display here." Yep. The acting is pretty bad (especially the way lines are delivered), and there is just no getting around the fact this is a story about a possessed laundry machine... it might be good as a short story (I don't know), but to make it believable on screen? And I think they made at least one if not two sequels...

I decided to see "The Mangler" (1994) for the sole reason that it was directed by Tobe Hooper. Well, his direction didn't do much for this stinker of a film. Actually, I suppose it's interesting in one way. The horror film was on the wane in the mid-'90s--or at least the cheesy horror film, and "The Mangler" only hastened the decline. This film might have attracted an audience in the '80s, but it seems quite anachronistic in the mid-'90s, especially when based on a story from that icon of the '80s, Stephen King.The plot is simple: A big, ugly laundry-pressing machine is awakened when a virgin cuts her hand and spills blood on it. The machine decides it likes eating people and more accidents happen. The predictable "discovery" plot ensues, with a tough, skeptical cop having to be convinced by his quirky, New Age friend that a demon possesses the machine.