The Mangler (literature)

"The Mangler" is a short story by Stephen King from the Night Shift collection. It tells a story of a laundromat in Maine, which has a demon-possessed industrial pressing machine killing people.


 * Demonic Possession
 * Did Not Do the Research: The plant used to summon a demon is referred to as both belladonna and the hand of glory. In reality, belladonna (deadly nightshade) and the hand of glory (mandrake) are two separate, albeit related, plants.
 * Eye of Newt: Possible ingredients for a demon summoning include virgin's blood, horse's hooves, graveyard dirt, and belladonna/the hand of glory.
 * Haunted Technology
 * Homicide Machines
 * It Won't Turn Off: When the mangler catches the arm of Stanner, the laundry foreman, Diment, the maintenance man turns it off. It doesn't stop. Diment removes the fuses; everything turns off except the mangler. Diment is eventually forced to hack Stanner's arm with a fire axe.
 * Locked Into Strangeness
 * Post-Modern Magik
 * Too Dumb to Live: When Jackson and Hunton are planning the exorcism, Jackson explains that demons who have been summoned with the hand of glory are much harder to kill.
 * Vomiting Cop: Officer Hunton in the beginning after seeing the remains of a woman caught in the machine.