Mangler, The

In this film Stephen King touches a quite common theme in his fiction : the evilness of industrialism. But in this case the machine is not possessed by an animal monster like in The Nightshift, or by an It like in IT. It is possessed by the devil itself, but the devil of power. This machine, this devil needs sacrifice and those who have power have to sacrifice something to it to get this power. They have to feed its hunger for fresh blood, virginal blood and belladonna. The machine tries to eat the people who are using belladonna for their nerves and the machine receives human sacrifices from those who want power. If you want to evade giving a part of yourself, you have to sacrifice a young virginal sixteen-year-old girl of your family. And there is no way to stop it. It cannot be exorcised by anything. No holy water, no holy wafer, no biblical incantation will stop it, and even if one powerful person is sacrificed, then another one will benefit of this sacrifice, another one who will have given, by accident or willingly, a part of himself or herself, a finger or an arm. This vision of industrialism as a devilish possession is a rare way to show that industrial work is slavery and total alienation. This vision of power in this industrial society as a pact signed with the devil that inhabits the machine is a rare denunciation of capitalism. And yet, since this is linked to a tradition as old as humanity, it is human social life, and the organisation of human society on a power pattern that is denounced in the most general way. One little element shows how this power-giving and blood-hungry devil works : the photographer and then the intellectual who discover the existence of this devil and try to denounce it and even exorcise it are killed by the super power of this devil. It does not like being known. It likes secrecy and ignorance. The film is extremely effective in its powerful images and symbols and it is heart gripping. A very rare introduction to Stephen King's realm of horror. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Paris Universities II and IX.

I bought this as a gift for my husband. It took a month to get here. This DVD didn't play in the DVD player. It would have been nice if the description stated not NTSC. And if we want a refund, we will have to pay to ship it back to Germany. If you live in the US don't waste your money. This doesn't even deserve 1 star! Extremely disappointed.

Another addition to my Stephen King dvd collection; watchable but not as good as other films of his works

Based on a short story by Stephen King, this film expresses the ever present and ever surviving nature of evil, hence of fear. Here the film deals with the big monsters that the big machines of the industrial age contain and represent. Machines are evil spirits that can only work if they suck on humanity, their blood, their pith and marrow, and even their spirituality. The machine is the bloody god of the modern age that requires regular human sacrifices to go on working properly. This is frightening because it is coming from a popular saying that the machine eats the worker up. It is also visually shown in the fact that the master, the owner of the machine, the one who will make a big profit from it by exploiting the work of the workers has to sacrifice a body part of himself or herself to the machine for the machine to accept to work for him or her. There is no morality in all that, in this world. There may be a desire for the world to be ethical, but this desire is nothing but a pipe dream that has absolutely no chance to be realized. Once we have committed ourselves to the god of machines, we cannot go back and even destroy these machines. The devil that is living in them will get us before we ever even try, what's more succeed in destroying it. There is no effective exorcism even with holy water and wafers and incantations in Latin. These evil spirits living in machines are beyond this because they are the pure creation of men : Man created the machine and thus provided these evil spirits that are roaming the world with a haven where they can prosper and from which they can dominate and enslave the world, even if they need some « boss » to enact and realize this domination, to the boss's profit of course, but this profit is only a delegation of power from the devil to the boss and a temporary probation for the boss who will have eventually to go back to the machine as simple fodder. This is the most disquieting vision of our free enterprise society a sane mind can imagine.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Annoying voice and popping of pills, labored acting not even fun to watch just boring and gross. I kept fast forwarding to get through it. Sorry, not fun like Christine even though such a fun sounding premise.

This was an ok movie. It was the typical Stephen King movie, great book corny movie.

Since apparently only lunatics are writing reviews of this DVD (not you Johhnykay), I thought I'd better chime in to offer a reasonable voice.First thing: Stephen King has no approval regarding movies like this. He sold off the rights long, long ago, and thus cannot control when and if they get made, much less the quality of the movies.Second thing: this is not a good movie. Don't make the mistake of thinking that it is. The plot is ludicrous -- it sort of works on the page, but filmed, it is just silly. That said, the movie is not entirely worthless. Robert Englund is fun to watch as the factory owner, and there are a few decent sequences. Mainly, though, I'd say the best reason to watch is for Ted Levine, in a rare starring role as the policeman trying to sort this mess out.Just don't think this is any sort of undiscovered masterpiece; it isn't.

Fast shipping and excellent product

This film I watched a few years ago and just had to add it to my collection

Another masterpiece from Stephen King, I collect all his movies transferred from the book, so I could be biased. I love the setting here and the plot evolves around a piece of machinery, hence the title. A masterpiece for anyone employed in the health and safety industry who could use some new material and thoughts. And then there is the 'Mangler Reborn' to look forward to....

enjoyed the film as a 'b-movie'. It came very quickly the order & in perfect condition. Very happy overall.

La película que me llegó ni siquiera es original, el dvd no viene prensado como se supone que deberian ser los DVDs originales, quiero una devolución

good movie. good seller