The Mangler is a campy and comic book-like slice of horror cinema from the mid-1990s. It tells of an industrial laundry pressing machine getting possessed by a demon, featuring Robert England hamming it up as the laundry’s owner, a fair bit of pulpy gore, and American gothic sensibilities. Here from the guys at Arrow is a new Blu Ray release of film- taking in a new 2k scan of the picture, two new commentaries tracks, and other new/ old extras.

The Mangler appeared in the year 1995- it was based on a short story by Stephen King and was directed by Tobe Hooper- who will need little or no introduction to horror genre fans. The Mangler was one of three films he made in the 1990s, and while it’s nowhere near the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Funhouse, or even Lifeforce- it’s an enjoyable enough example of brash and camp horror film making with dark fantasy leanings- making it certainly one of the better films from the decade horror forgot.

As with most King story-based films The Mangler is set in small-town America Maine. At the centred of the town, and employing many of the town’s woman folk is Gartley’s Blue Ribbon Laundry. It’s owned by Bill Gartley(England)- a grey comb back, one white eye, and leg calliper wearing authoritarian, with a sleazy and sadistic side.  One day, while working in the Laundry, one of the workers cuts her hand- bleeding on the huge laundry pressing machine in the factory. And from here on it seemingly gets a real hunger for human flesh and blood- first pulling in, and crushing an older woman in organ mashed and bone broken mess. Before taking every opportunity it can to get new limbs or bodies, to feed on.

Investigating the deaths at the laundry is small-town cop John Hunton- played by Ted Levine, who is best known for playing Buffalo Bill in The Silence Of The Lambs. And he’s joined by Mark(Daniel Matmor) his interested-in-the-occult / hippy brother in Law. And what we get over the films one hour and forty-some minutes runtime is a sort of murder mystery meets comic book horror film- that’s high on camp and gothic fantasy, but low on logic.

England really is going way over the top as the leering and bizarre Bill Gartley. Levine is rather good as the brash & at points emotionally explosive cop- sure it did take a little while for me to unrelate him from the Buffalo Bill part, but once this passed I enjoyed what he did with his role. The rest of the cast is passable to good enough. We, as expected, get quite a few impressive, and later on frankly ridiculous kills and action from the demonic laundry pressing machine. And the whole rattles along at an enjoyable enough pace- blending horror, cop investigation, and fantasy elements into a pulpy dark romp of a film. If I had one main criticism, it would be the runtime, as this easily could have been edited down by twenty to thirty minutes, as at points we seem to treading similar scenes/ points for far too long. But in no way is this a bad film, and as I’d not seen any of Hooper 90’s work beforehand, I was pleasantly surprised by this as most folks seem to write him off after the ’80s.

Moving onto this new Blu Ray on Uk’s Arrow Video- and we get a nice 2k scan of the film, both enhancing the grimy industrial & gothic horror interiors of the laundry and the spurting reds of the more gory bound elements. Moving onto the new extras- and we get two commentary tracks, first is with Australian genre academics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson. They start off by talking about how the film is clearly the work of both Hooper and King, as it has both creators’ tropes/ themes remain. They talk about how the evils of capitalism and dark humour is key to all of Hooper’s filmography- and how these impact the film to hand.  They discuss Robert England’s film work with Hooper, and how both impacted each other. Later on, they talk about the original King Story, and how both he and his mother worked in a laundry. They chat about the film's mix of low brow and high brow, and much more. This track is both insightful and informative, with the pair having a good/ interesting flow to their conversation.
The next track is Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain- both are horror critics/ fans, but Mr Wain is a self-confessed ‘Manglophile'- rating The Mangler as one of his all-time favourite films. They start their track off with a hopeful interview quote from Hooper, before the film came out & its negative press when it came out. They move on to why Mr Wain considers the film his favourite, and how/ when the film came into his life. They talk about the casting of Ted Levine, and what he apparently thought of the film. They discuss when the original story appeared in a magazine back in 1972, before going on to be featured in his short story collection Night Shift. They talk about the other films in the collection, and how many of them went on to be made into films. Later on, they talk about Hooper's career in general, and how The Mangler has a very theatrical/ stagey feel.  They chat about England’s character in the film, and how he uses dark humour/ hammy-ness in all his roles. This is another great track, which is both well-observed and entertaining.
Otherwise, on the new extras front, we get two visual essays- Nature Builds No Machines- which features Scout Tafoya, author of Cinemaphagy: the Films of Tobe Hooper. And This Machine just Called Me an Asshole!- by author and critic Guy Adams on the monstrous life of inanimate objects in the work of Stephen King. Each of these run around the fifteen-minute mark.
On the archive side of things we get a twenty-two on-screen interview with England, behind the scenes footage, and trailer. With the finished release coming with an illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Michael Gingold, Johnny Mains and Henry Blyth.

It’s wonderful to see The Mangler getting this interesting extras edged reissue on Arrow. And let us hope it will help the film get the reassessment it deserves- both in Hooper filmography and horror films of the 1990s.