The Mangler Reborn

Repairman Hadley (Weston Blakesley) buys an old laundry machine at an auction, and restores it to working condition, unaware of the demonic force that lurks within. The machine possesses the man, and drives him to kill so that it can feed on blood and guts. Meanwhile, house-breaker Rick (Reggie Bannister) and his son Mike (Scott Speiser) make the mistake of choosing Hadley's home for their next robbery...

Some might say that The Mangler Reborn should have been terminated before it reached full term. Some might say it should never have been conceived in the first place. But while it's true that the film looks and sounds terrible, having been shot on digital video on a very tight budget, I actually think it's not all bad. The plot is sufficiently twisted, allowing for some fairly suspenseful moments and a few scenes of graphic violence (although the use of a rubber mallet and not a lump hammer detracts a bit from the nastiness), both Aimee Brooks and Juliana Dever (as victims of the killer) are easy on the eye, the claustrophobic house setting works well, and the downbeat ending makes for a nice change. Plus, it's always good to see Phantasm's Reggie Bannister, but I wish someone would tell him that the bald head and ponytail is not a good look.

Sure, The Mangler Reborn isn't as effective as the original film (which starred Robert Englund, was directed by Tobe Hooper, and based on a story by Stephen King - and even with that talent involved, it wasn't that great), but it's still better than the current IMDb rating of 3.1 would have us believe.

4.5/10, generously rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

There was absolutely nothing else to rent at the video store so we ended up renting this movie thinking it would be alright. Boy, were we wrong! It was a total waste of time and money. The acting was amateur and the plot had no twists and was not thought out. The "machine" was pathetic. The whole movie basically took place in that house and there could not have been more then 10 people in the cast. It seems like a low budget movie and the special effects were terrible. Most of the movie did not have any music, but when there was, the music was annoying rather then adding suspense.

I would not recommend this movie to anyone.

Even though all or almost all the action takes place inside one admittedly large detached house, this had the makings of an excellent horror film. Unfortunately, it falls far short.

From the title, this is an obvious sequel, albeit a belated one, it would lose nothing if there were some sort of tenuous explanation. Instead, all we see is the bad guy hardly uttering a word and walking around almost in a trance. There is a lot of blood and a lot of pain, but hardly anything else. Terribly disappointing.

The original film is based on a 1972 short story by Stephen King, a novelist who has a well-deserved reputation for horror. Alas, not every horror classic translates from the written word to celloloid, or whatever films are made of in the cyber-age.

"The Mangler Reborn" is a million times better than the atrocious and unfortunate "The Mangler 2".

The plot: Hadley (Weston Blakesley) is a repairman. He finds pieces of the mangler machine and puts it together. He grows obsessed about it and starts going on a killing spree to feed the machine. His latest victim Jaime (Aimee Brooks) is trapped in his house. Can she escape before she's another body on the chopping block?

The pacing is slow,but the acting is pretty good. Reggie Bannister makes an appearance as Rick the house robber. In his limited screen time he makes you feel for his character. You can see that the directors really put their heart into the film.

In the end: The movie is scary, and there's some heavy gore scenes. It's worth seeing at least once.

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The bloodthirsty laundry machine is purchased at auction by repairman Hadley,who quickly becomes possessed and kills his wife.Some time later,Hadley is now abducting young women for the Mangler to kill.One such victim is Jaime,who is taken back to Hadley's house,where the Mangler devours its victims.But while Hadley was away father and son thieves Rick played by Reggie Bannister of "Phantasm" fame and Mike are doing some breaking and entering and it just so happens that their latest target is Hadley's horror house."The Mangler Reborn" is pretty bad.The gore doesn't come until the last 20 minutes,the action moves at the snail's pace and the acting is stiff.Still the third act of "The Mangler Reborn" offers plenty of blood and gore and is worth waiting for.5 out of 10.