jaywolfenstien
Mangler 2 contains a great metaphor for itself. Midway through the movie, tensions run high, accusations fly, two female characters nearly get into a scuffle, and then we cut to fingernails dragging across a chalkboard … and they keep dragging, inflicting that irritating screech upon the poor helpless viewer.Gone is the possessed laundry machine from the first film, replaced by an even more ridiculous unrelated premise: a private school receives a new state of the art security system which, in traditional horror fashion, goes haywire and starts killing everyone. Yes, a new security system that automates everything from the doors to the refrigerators to, presumably, the motion detector auto-flushing toilets. This of course means those darn "'puters" factor heavily into the narrative, which means the script requires the characters to interact with the computers, which translates to scenes of actors standing around monitors, reading information off the screen, and telling the audience what they're typing as they're typing it.Note to filmmakers: while computers may provide fun and exciting direct interactions such as video games and other applications, there's few things as boring as watching someone else interact with them.The protagonist, Jo, is a rich girl outcast who hates even her own little clique of stereotype horror staples, leading her smiley bodyguard to muse aloud, "it's kind of sad that I'm your best friend." Then again, said clique threatens to blame her for a website vandalism prank, prompting Jo to unleash the Mangler 2.0 virus upon them. Tight knit group, non? Now, I'm all for a bitter anti-social protagonist (especially one who goes all out and embraces her dark side). It's certainly more interesting than the typical PG13 heroine plaguing horror movies these days … but if you're going to venture into those waters, go all in and make it a dark movie. Not long after Jo has stormed off at the brink of tears, she's sitting around the pool, chatting with those same "friends" who would rather make her their scapegoat so they can go to prom.Yet, I might—might—forgive all of the above. That is until time comes for the first kill and we see Mr. Bob Fix-it working on a lawnmower, but he has the wrong wrench size. So he walks out of the room, across the hall, into another room to fetch another wrench. Personally, I'd have the toolbox next to me, but never mind. He hears some funny sounds coming from down the hall, goes to investigate, and … it's just the French chef in the john. So, false scare over with, Bob goes back to his lawnmower and, again, wrong wrench size. Back out of the corridor, into the other room, into the toolbox, and he comes back with another wrench. As he returns to the lawnmower, we see a pair of garden sheers following him. And what's supporting these garden sheers? Why, a snake-like cluster of wires and cables. Goodbye suspension of disbelief, and goodbye any chance of overlooking premise/character shortcomings.I hesitate to mention this, but clearly director Michael Hamilton Wright intended to pay tribute to the much superior garden sheer scene in William Peter Blatty's Exorcist III (itself, a much superior film, incidentally.) And so goes the long parade of ideas either ill-conceived (synchronized escape from the evil security cameras? the "snowflake" analogies? the "hip" slang and "Scream" explanations the Mangler 2.0 virus has picked up?) or ill-executed (a murder in the dark, illuminated only by the brief inadequate flash of a still shot camera? the murder by hanging that shows only bikini bottoms?) It all leads up to the underwhelming climax featuring an uninspired nod to Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (reminding us, yet again, there are better time investments within the very same genre.) It's funny how when a competent director quotes another movie within his own, the attentive viewer will pick up on it and smile appreciatively. In the case of Mangler 2, it feels like Michael Hamilton Wright is physically molesting the memory of better movies.
morilibus
It's amazing what kind of movies are made when monkeys write the script. There was a scene in the movie where a guy tries to be really philosophical about the periodic table, saying that it's a language written by aliens. For example, they communicate with molecular formulas... "Take Silicone for example, it's used to make computers faster, but put it into a woman's body, and that speaks in much different ways." The element on the periodic table is Silicon. I'm pretty sure if you put that in a woman's breast area, it would kill her. Silicone and silicon are two completely different things.Nice going, ya dunce.
HumanoidOfFlesh
A top-notch computer security system installed in a private college becomes deadly when infected with a computer virus called The Mangler 2.0.The virus crawls into the school's mainframe and all sorts of mechanical gadgets,like freezers,washing machines,security locks,and the various cameras all begin to go haywire and kill students/college workers."The Mangler 2" has nothing to do with gory and enjoyable original.The film itself is a tedious bore.The script is filled with holes,the gore is non-existent and the dialogue is rubbish.The techno soundtrack is incredibly annoying and horror regular Lance Henriksen is completely wasted as the strict head master.Stay away from "The Mangler 2".3 out of 10 and that's being kind.
David Hart (dhart-2)
This is a story about a teenager who deliberately downloads a virus to take down the new school computer security system. What she doesn't realize is that it is out to kill everyone.Where this film goes wrong is in everything that has to do with the physical universe. A combo of wires and mechanical doors moving by themselves, cold water pipes suddenly becoming scalding hot (for those who don't know, cold water pipes, especially sprinkler pipes, are physically isolated from hot water pipes in every building), and a computer turning a human into a cyborg. Most of these are forgivable in movies that involve possession or paranormal. But these have no place in a computer/virus horror movie. The only believable scenario involves an electric fence. Though, why anyone would install an electric fence around a school is beyond me.....All of the characters make the usual horror movie mistakes: splitting up, going back for more, not pulling the plug, etc. The acting is okay, considering the script...Only watch this if you are totally bored out of your mind. This would be a perfect film for Mystery Science Theatre 3000 to lampoon....David
