DVD cover from Artistan Entertainment, showing Bradeen with wires in his head.
The Mangler 2 is a 2001 film sequel to the 1995 movie The Mangler. The film was written and directed by Michael Hamilton-Wright.
The film was followed in 2005 by the sequel The Manger Reborn.
Plot[]
The Mangler Virus' catch phrase "You've been mangled" on a computer screen.
Joanne 'Jo' Newton, a girl desperate for attention from her workaholic father, ends with her going to an upper class private boarding school after a break in at her dad's computer company. The school is getting ready to install a new security system. Jo and several others students are to remain behind while the others leave for Spring Break, as punishment from the school's Dean, Headmaster Bradeen (Lance Henrickson). However, Jo, with her knowledge of computers, has hacked into the school's mainframe and unleashed a malicious and rogue computer virus called "Mangler 2.0" in the security system.
But what nobody knows is that this virus literally has a mind of it's own, and it controls everything around the school. At first, everybody thinks it is a blessing, but when the virus starts killing everyone in sight, the remaining students and staff attempt to escape from the building, which proves very difficult, as the virus is watching their every movel. Unfortionately, Bradeen, has been captured by one of the computers, with wires being planted into his head. The virus controls his movements, and turns him into a walking computer. With Bradeen at the virus' bidding, he is forced to go after the students.
Jo finally confronts the monster she unleashed which is now in the school's basement. Jo tricks the virus by distracting Bradeen with a non-violent program on creating new lives, featuring snowflakes. Then, she stabs him and pushes him against the supercomputor that he now no longer controls. The virus himself is destroyed as Bradeen dies. Jo managed to end the carnage and escape with her bodygaurd Paul, the chef, and her father.
Jo later went on Spring Break in Europe. The camera shows her getting a call from her father. After her phone call ends, a strange and familar message appeared on the screen of Jo's cellphone saying "you've been mangled", which means that the virus is still alive.
Reception[]
The Mangler 2 received very negative reviews from critics and fans alike, who call it, almost unanimously, the worst film in the series. It was criticized for its plot, which some see as being similar to another King story, "The Lawnmower Man", the acting (with the exception of Henrickson), and how it no relation whatsoever to the first film, therefore obviously using the name The Mangler to cash in on the first film.
The Mangler 2 currently has a 2.3 rating on IMDB, lower than some of the movies in the IMDB bottom 100 list, but it does not have the requisite 1,500 ratings to appear on the list.