10 Horrifyingly Underrated Stephen King Adaptations

9. The Mangler

Tommyknockers Stephen King
New Line

What The Critics Said:

Variety had the knives out, deeming The Mangler to feature ‘many reels of pointless running around and milking of subplots’.

Why It’s Worth A Watch:

Forget that this is a movie based on a Stephen King short story for just a moment and process the fact this is a movie about a killer laundry press, starring Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund and directed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper.

When announced for release back in 1995, this was a horror lover's dream ensemble and that was before they even knew there was a killer fridge lurking in the movie too.

Even though critics put this one through the wringer, the combination of bonkers premise – Englund and his band of devil worshippers must sacrifice virgins to the machine – good casting and a director adept at piecing together a scare piece or two have seen the film’s stock rise in the noughties. Worth a spin.

In this post: 
Stephen-King
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Shaun is a former contributor for a number of Future Publishing titles and more recently worked as a staffer at Imagine Publishing. He can now be found banking in the daytime and writing a variety of articles for What Culture, namely around his favourite topics of film, retro gaming, music, TV and, when he's feeling clever, literature.