Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503080094
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Almost everything about it is a mistake, so it's hard to know where to begin. But let's start with the accents. The dubbing is so goofy that somehow, all the characters sound like refugees from an Italian gladiator movie. The words don't quite fit their lips, and they usually sound like they're on the verge of hysteria.
That might not be a problem, but the story, loosely based on a Stephen King short story, is set in contemporary Maine. It has to do with a big laundry machine possessed by demons, and its sidekick, an old icebox. Our alleged hero is a nasal cop (Ted Levine) who knows that evil villain and laundry owner Robert Englund is somehow causing people to be chewed up by the thing. Both Levine and Englund are incorrigibly hammy, but so is everyone else, making the whole film a breathtaking piece of ensemble scenery-chewing.
The plot wanders aimlessly, often making no sense at all, until it arrives at the obligatory big finish, part of which appears to have been filmed on sets left over from "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." All the way through, the action has a stylized quality, possibly intentional, that makes the bloody violence more silly than offensive. Then near the end, when the heroes are spouting Latin to exorcise the demons from the mangler, it sounds for all the world like one of them says, "In Excelsis Fats Domino."
If it didn't happen that way, it should have.
Whatever talent director Tobe Hooper has demonstrated in the genre - "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Lifeforce" - he seems to have lost. Beyond its offbeat humor, "The Mangler" has nothing for horror fans.
The Mangler: turkey
A New Line release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 103 min. Rated R for graphic bloody violence, strong language.
by CNB