The Mangler Reborn (2005) (V)

Directors:

Matt Cunningham
Erik Gardner

Writers:

Erik Gardner (written by) &
Matt Cunningham (written by)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

The Massacre Continues...

Plot:

A decade after the original massacre, another man obsessed over his machine ends with several murders and possession. |

Plot Keywords:

Demon | Machine | Sequel | Low Budget | Third Part

Cast

Aimee Brooks	...	Jamie
Reggie Bannister	...	Rick
Weston Blakesley	...	Hadley
Scott Speiser	...	Mike
Juliana Dever	...	Louise Watson
Sarah Lilly	...	Beatrice Watson
Renee Dorian	...	Gwen
Rhett Giles	...	Sean
Jeff Burr	...	Lawnmowing Man

MPAA:

Rated R for bloody violence/gore, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Assembly Line Studios

Trivia:

The characters of Hadley and the Watsons were named after the turn-of-the-century company that built the laundry machine in the original "Mangler", Hadley-Watson.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Behind the Mangler (2005) (V)

Soundtrack:

For Adeline (Guitar Trio)

A cyclic exercise in monotony

Imagine reading a book where Chapter One features a character named Rick trying to perform a task. Let's say he's trying to fix a computer. And in chapter one, Rick ultimately fails to get the job done. Now, imagine in Chapter Two a character named Mike tries to fix that exact same computer. Mike, too, fails. Then in Chapter Three the author introduces us to Jaimie who tackles the project, trying to correct what Mike screwed up, and solve the original problem ...

Now I ask, dear reader, what's the point? Ultimately, Mangler Reborn tells the story of three (technically four) characters one by one trying and failing to accomplish the exact same thing – escape from the house. This is a movie about futility, failure, and monotonous repetition. It spends most of its running time showing Rick trying and failing to pick practically every lock he comes across, exploring the seemingly abandoned house, hiding from the killer, trying to escape, and then dying. Then the film moves on to Mike who repeats the cycle, then the film continues on to Jaimie and her fellow prisoner.

Oh yeah, the ending of the film implies that the cycle continues indefinitely.

Mangler Reborn is a reality TV show for a possessed psychopath. The victims are not people, but rather chores for Hadley Watson to clean up. Loose screws that inconvenience him and wander around his domain for 15-30 minutes at a time before he finally breaks out the screw driver (or more literally: rubber mallet) and fixes the problem.

Over the last century of horror films, we've watched the villains go from tortured miserable yet strangely sympathetic souls to faceless killing machines who refuse to die. And then you reach the sad and depressing realization that not even the victims in this horror film, people destined to die terrible and bloody deaths, receive any sympathetic touches from the filmmakers.

I rooted for Rick purely for actor Reggie Bannister and his role in the Phantasm series. Mike? I didn't really care about him, especially after wasting my time trying and failing at the same things Rick failed at. Jamie? I hoped Jamie would survive solely because I was tired of watching failure after failure after failure to escape. I wanted Jamie to succeed just to break the monotony of the preceding 60 minutes. Nowhere did I root for a character because I liked the character or felt the character was competent, and nowhere did I get the sensation that any of these guys had enough screen time and development to carry the label "main character." Just fodder.

Thus, Mangler Reborn is a cold, mechanical, formulated, and emotionless journey. Perhaps that's satisfactory for the titular character, a cold, mechanical, emotionless machine; however, the horror genre is rooted in (dare I say "dependant upon") human emotional reaction and psychological manipulation. This film, unfortunately, treats its characters, its victims, like line items on the killer's grocery list and nothing more.

Then again, it's just as well. Even if Reborn did manage to muster the emotional investment to truly invoke horror, without a main character it lacks a focal point to channel it through.

As much as I want to be forgiving for the film's technical merits, because some of my favorite horror films were small independent and very limited productions, because I hate big-production studio PG13-ized remakes as much as the next horror fan and want to see the little guys succeed (Lord knows we need another John Carpenter) … I can't forgive Mangler Reborn. Like its (many) characters, the film tries but ultimately fails.