Manglers, Machines, & Monsters

I’m back with a couple more reviews for you. Today I’ve got 2 stories and 1 movie. I’ve also got an update on my first edition collection, as well as a change to the structure of how I’m going to do some of my reviews. But, that’s all boring, so I’ll put that at the end. Let’s start things off with the reviews.

The Mangler

This story was pretty enjoyable. It doesn’t mess around either, it jumps right in, and so I will too (spoiler alert). This story starts out with officer Hunton being called to the Blue Ribbon Laundry to investigate an accident. One of the workers was somehow been pulled into the large industrial speed ironer/folder machine, nicknamed The Mangler. The accident is horrific. After the machine is inspected for negligence, which is what Hunton assumes, it is found to be up to standards. The incident is ruled a freak accident, and work is allowed to continue. Hunton is not entirely convinced. While discussing the case with a friend of his and emphasizing that with all the safety features working properly, this accident not only shouldn’t have, but really couldn’t have happened, Hunton’s friend proposes the idea of possession. Hunton laughs this idea off, but the friend persists. Upon receiving word of another accident occurring, Hunton begins to consider this as a viable option. After doing some investigating, Hunton and his friend suspect the machine must have become possessed by random “ingredients” falling into it. They suspect that the possession is of a “mild” nature and visit the laundry in an attempt to perform an exorcism. While they are doing this, the readers are told that there was one ingredient that was added which Hunton and his friend don’t suspect. This ingredient makes the possession much more powerful than expected. The attempts at exorcism thus fail and only make the machine even angrier. Hunton’s friend is killed, Hunton flees, and the machine frees itself and begins to wander through town.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. I’ve left out some of the littler details, so the story should still be able to present some intrigue should you decide to read it yourself. As with most of the short stories I’ve read so far, there isn’t a lot of depth to this one. This story is certainly not going live on as a masterpiece or anything, but it is entertaining and I enjoyed it.

I cannot say the same thing about the movie version!

The Mangler (1995)

This movie was just plain awful. I don’t think any other word would describe it better, except maybe horrible, or terrible. Actually, I think what I would really say is that this movie was just a mangled mess. I would definitely not recommend it to anyone.

First, and foremost, the acting is completely horrible. Now, anyone who has watched a lot of horror movies will be able to tell you that as a general rule, horror movies aren’t watched for the acting, but this was exceptionally bad.

Secondly, because the story itself was so simple in premise, details were added to make things more screen worthy. All of the main elements of the story are there, but the movie added a whole new sub-lot to the movie involving the owner of the laundry. In this sub-plot, which I suppose was more the main plot, the owner had been sacrificing young girls to this machine for decades. It seemed, although not explained very well, that in doing so he was able to obtain wealth and perhaps live longer in return. What’s really ridiculous about this is that, even though the movie portrays this angle, which almost makes one assume that he was the one in brought on the possession, the movie still includes all of the aspects from the story about the random ingredients getting into the machine to cause the possession. So the big question becomes, if it took all these ingredients to cause the possession, what was happening before when the owner was “feeding” the machine? Or, if the owner brought on the possession, what was the purpose of noting the ingredients (besides them being the link to the original story)? It almost seems as if two separate ideas came together into one movie, and someone forgot to bring up that they didn’t intertwine right.

Lastly, the story version ended at just the right spot. You knew the machine was possessed, and you knew it was loose and free to wreak havoc. But you are left to determine just how that happens and to what extent. Alas, this would not be an acceptable end to a movie (by the regular movie viewer’s standard. I personally would have no problem with it). Thus, after the botched exorcism, we get to see the machine break loose of its holdings and chase the main characters through the building, all the while watching them run and scream in horror (well, we know it’s supposed to be in horror, but see my comment above about the acting). This scene, in my opinion, took what was already a horrible movie and shot it into overdrive. Rather than be taken into the movie and encapsulated in the fear that was indenting to be produced, I was pushed further out of it and into the realm of laughing at the absurdity of what I was seeing.

Also, if this horrible movie wasn’t bad enough, it actually spawned two sequels. The first, The Mangler 2, actually seems, from the plot description – I haven’t actually watched it, to have nothing to do with the original idea. It’s about a computer virus that comes alive, so I suppose there is some slight comparison. The second sequel, The Mangler Reborn, appears to go back to the original idea. It takes place 10 years later and seems to be more of just a rehashing of the same idea. After the horribleness that was this movie, I’m very glad I’ve decided to not include sequels in this journey.

Well, I think I’ve wasted enough of your time on this movie. I know I’ve definitely wasted enough of my time. So let’s move on to the next story.

The Boogeyman

This story was short, simple, and pretty good (spoilers ahead). The story opens with a man walking into a psychiatrist’s office and saying he needs to talk. He then proceeds to tell the doctor about how he has killed his three kids. The doctor asks if he means he actually murdered them and the man clarifies that no, he didn’t, but that he feels he is the one responsible.

The man then proceeds to tell his story, beginning with the death of his first child. He describes how the child started to become afraid of the dark, but that he wouldn’t let him have a night-light because he didn’t want to coddle him. Later, when the boy woke up crying one night and saying “boogeyman” over and over, the man dismissed this and scolded his wife for teaching him the word. Later, when they found their child dead one morning, he only barely noticed that the closet, which he was sure he closed the night before, was open, but only slightly. The cause of death was attributed to crib death syndrome.

When the cycle started to repeat itself with their second child, a daughter, the man became a little more suspicious, but still didn’t do anything about it. He ignored the child’s cries of “boogeyman”, and ignored the thoughts in his mind that he saw something moving in the closet one evening when he was checking on her. It was only after they found her dead one morning as well that he began to really put the pieces together. This time, the death was due to suffocation caused by the girl swallowing her tongue. The doctors say she must have had some sort of convulsions that caused her to swallow her tongue. The man however, felt that the only thing that could cause convulsions like that in a child was intense fright. And, of course, the closet door was open, but only slightly.

After this, he moved to a new house. When his wife became pregnant and had a third child a year later, the man started to make some startling discoveries. He noticed closet doors starting to be open again. This time he let the child sleep in his room to better keep an eye on it. However, he started getting the feeling that the monster wasn’t just after his child this time. With his wife out of town, and the feeling growing stronger, he decided to do something awful. He put the child in its own room, thinking if he did the monster would leave him alone. However, when the child began to scream that night, he went into the room, only to see a grotesque monster shaking his baby. When he heard the baby’s neck snap, he fled in terror. Upon returning the next morning, he told the police that they child must have tried to climb out of its crib and fallen, breaking its neck, which is of course exactly what it looked like. Also, the closet door was open, but just slightly. He ends his session by telling the doctor that he is glad to have finally been able to tell someone this story.

I won’t spoil the very end of the story for you; I’ll leave that to you if you decide to read it for yourself.

All in all, I enjoyed this story. It was again, short and to the point. But it was good. There were some nice subtle touches that added to the depth of the emotion, like the man constantly being suspicious of the doctor’s closet. I’m sure that this line is getting old by now, but it remains true: this story isn’t anything fantastic, but it’s a fun read.

Well, that’s all I have for reviews for today. As promised earlier, however, I do have a few updates to talk about.

First update is on how I’m going to continue to handle my reviews when it comes to stories with movies. When I originally started, my intent with the short stories was to always include the movie review along with the short story review. However, when I sat down to watch The Mangler last night, I realized this might not be the wisest course of action. The movie was horrible, and I recognized this earlier on and was already starting to form the basis of my review in my mind. However, I also realized that I had not yet written my review of the story, a story which I actually liked. I started to be afraid that I wouldn’t be able to separate the two when I sat down to write this. As I didn’t want this to be an issue in the future, I was planning on telling you I was going to start separating story and movie reviews into separate posts, like I have done with the novels so far. However, now at the end, I don’t think I had too much of a problem. I still might separate some of the reviews, but I’ll probably make my decision based off of when I finish reading and when I’ll be able to watch the movie. If there is some significant time there, I’ll probably write my review of the story while it’s fresh. However, if I’m reading during an afternoon, and going to watch the movie that night, I’ll probably do them both together.

So, that seems like a lot to tell you something that really isn’t going to affect you one way or the other. But, this is my blog, so I can do what I want 🙂 Besides, sometimes a lot of what I write is for me anyway. I think that’s the case for most authors. They write for themselves. Some of them, like King, just so happen to write things that others find interesting and entertaining. Others, like me, have our moms, wives, sisters, and work buddies. 🙂

My final update is much more exacting, at least for me. I’ve added two more first editions to my collection. I went out on Friday and was able to find a first edition of Storm of the Century. Additionally, I found a first edition Cujo on eBay last week and it arrived on Saturday. I’m slowly completing my collection, and that is cool. However, I will eventually run out of the “easy finds”, and will only have the truly rare ones left. I’m not looking forward to that, as that will mark the point where this quest will go one of two directions. Either it will come to an end, uncompleted, or it will get very, very expensive. Until then, I keep my hopes up that I’ll find something, somewhere, where someone doesn’t realize what they’ve got. I might never actually find something, but the hunt and the search is exciting enough for now. And when that hidden treasure does come along, it sure is exciting.

That’s all I have for you today. As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll be back again soon.