Horror Movie Review: The Mangler Reborn (2005)

The third film in The Mangler series (yes, this is true), The Mangler Reborn is a hilarious attempt at a rebirth of the franchise. Hilarious because there had only been two previous films. The insane original that is a ‘so bad it’s good’ movie, and the dreadful sequel, The Mangler 2: Graduation Day. Neither of which were anywhere successful enough or popular enough to warrant a rebirth.

Whose dumb idea was this? Well, Erik Gardner and Matt Cunningham have to take a lot of the blame seeing as they are credited as co-writers and co-directors. For once, we can’t really blame Stephen King, as there is no way the horror author could ever have envisioned this level of nonsense for a short story that he wrote decades earlier.

Although nonsense can often be a good fit for King, something the loose adaption that was the original 1995 movie at least understood. Had The Mangler Reborn done that, been stupid and silly, it might have been passable, but it’s not. It’s a very serious film and the worse for it.

Seen as an alternate sequel to the first film, the story surrounds the character of Hadley (Weston Blakesley), a repairman by trade, down on his luck and with a nagging wife. She’s concerned about the bills, but he’s more obsessed with rebuilding the machine from the first film, something he was compelled to buy. Don’t ask about the how or the why of it all, the movie doesn’t care to tell.

Of course, it’s still a possessed machine, and Hadley ends up waking it up with his blood. He ends up being ‘eaten’ by it and becoming a slave to its desires. It wants blood, it needs blood regularly, and it’s up to Hadley to feed it. If only to keep his rotting body together.

Now, this might sound kind of fun, but the story doesn’t play out in an entertaining way. Hadley stalks a victim, kidnaps her, a pair of thieves get caught up in the dark events, and eventually, so does Hadley’s daughter. Most of the focus is on these characters, and not the actual machine. Which is immensely frustrating as the practical effects at the end of the film show things could have been a lot more fun if it was.

Does a bloody ending make up for so little happening elsewhere? Of course not. As far as villains go, Hadley carries very little threat and it is genuinely surprising that he manages to get the upper hand on anyone in this film. As for the victims? Characters are immaterial here, which is really strange, considering the amount of time spent with them.

The Mangler Reborn was an attempt to restart the franchise and fittingly, appears to have killed it outright. As of the time this review was published, it’s been nearly 20 years since this final entry was released. We’re all definitely better off without more Mangler movies.