The Mangler is a short story by Stephen King, published in 1978 in the compilation Night Shift.
It was first published Cavalier in December 1972.
The Mangler is set in an American town, and the action largely takes place in an industrial laundry. Stephen King has stated that, among the many jobs he took to support his family before he became famous, he worked in an industrial laundromat.
A police detective investigating a sudden rash of grisly deaths caused by an industrial laundry press machine, which through a series of unfortunate coincidences has become possessed by a demon. The story ends after the detective and his friend underestimate the demon's power; and in seeking to exorcise the machine, they instead goad it into ripping free of its moorings and prowling the streets in search of fresh prey.
This story was adapted for the screenplay of a 1995 film (directed by Tobe Hooper) of the same title, though the brevity of the source material required significant additions not...
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