A carnival of technology

There is a fate worse than death

Rated R for gory horror violence and language.
Rated O by the USCCB (link)

Starring Robert Englund, some other guy who looked kind of like Robert Englund, and Ted Levine playing Frankenstein’s monster on a Listerine bender playing a cop.

Viewed 2005-05-27 by dshea, dcantrell, susi, dane

Stephen King really likes demonic possession. Children of the Corn II’s antagonist was a kid possessed by a corn demon. Dreamcatcher was about people possessed by diarrhea-based aliens. In The Mangler, the antagonist is a demonically possessed industrial laundry presser and folder, joined by a demonically possessed refrigerator as a sort of miniboss. The fate worse than death is death by folding.

This movie tries to drive itself more on gore than on plot. There is some explanation provided for the Mangler’s behavior, given by the hippie character with plenty of resources on the occult and laundry equipment, but none of it matters. All of that is just filler between the three or four scenes where someone gets eaten, ironed, and neatly folded. As comic relief to break the remaining 90 minutes of tedium, Ted Levine attempts to talk without ever moving his tongue.

The Mangler, as a sort of side-plot from the inanimate antagonist, also provides a hidden documentary on anachronism. This small Maine town—Cabot Cove or whatever it’s supposed to be—seems to have been casually grazed by the hand of technology, leaving computers and new cars beside ancient-looking gas refrigerators, flash bulbs, and labor laws. I believe that the moral of this is that Maine sucks and will kill you.