Stephen King: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

29. The Mangler

The title of The Mangler makes it sound like a really crappy B-movie and, well, that's precisely what it is. The short story was first published in the collection Night Shift and involved a laundry press machine that had become possessed by a demon and was now killing people. To be fair to King, it was one of his earlier printed works, and was inspired by his working in industrial laundry to subsidise his writing career to begin with. Why on Earth Poltergeist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre director Tobe Hooper decided to adapt it is another matter. Especially since he totally half-assed it. Then again, Hooper has been without a decent film in a good couple of decades. Robert Englund - the original Freddy Krueger - is kind of fun as the owner of the evil laundry machine, but the premise and lack of production values add up to one total turkey.