Chopping Mall (1986)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Jim Wynorski

Writers:

Steve Mitchell (writer)
Jim Wynorski (writer)

Release Date:

21 March 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Where shopping can cost you an arm and a leg.

Plot:

Eight teenagers are trapped after hours in a high tech shopping mall and pursued by three murderous security robots out of control.

Plot Keywords:

Mall | Shopping Mall | Blood | Splatter | Person On Fire

Cast

Kelli Maroney	...	Alison Parks
Tony O'Dell	...	Ferdy Meisel
Russell Todd	...	Rick Stanton
Karrie Emerson	...	Linda Stanton
Barbara Crampton	...	Suzie Lynn
Nick Segal	...	Greg Williams
John Terlesky	...	Mike Brennan
Suzee Slater	...	Leslie Todd
Paul Bartel	...	Paul Bland
Mary Woronov	...	Mary Bland
Dick Miller	...	Walter Paisley
Gerrit Graham	...	Technician Nessler
Mel Welles	...	Cook
Angela Aames	...	Miss Vanders
Paul Coufos	...	Dr. Simon

Also Known As:

Killbots (USA) (theatrical title)
R.O.B.O.T. (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

77 min | UK:73 min (DVD) | Belgium:81 min (video version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Belgium:16 (video rating) | Italy:VM18 (VHS rating) | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | UK:18 | USA:R | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:R (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Beverly Center - 8500 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Concorde Pictures

Trivia:

The horror movie that Allison (Kelli Maroney) and Ferdy (Tony O'Dell) are watching in the furniture store is Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957), another Roger Corman movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: Suzie is killed when one of the robots blows up a gasoline can in her hand with a laser. Yet, when we see Suzie's burning body, the gasoline can is still intact.

Quotes:

Ferdy: You know, I got a worry.
Greg: Report from the front, Ferdy's got a worry.
Rick: Yeah?
Ferdy: What if these things can read our minds?
Rick: It'll be awful mad when it gets to me!

Movie Connections:

References The Lost Empire (1985)

Predictable, but still a blast and a must-see.

This film isn't half as gory as it's name and the box (which shows a metal hand holding a shopping bag filled with dismembered parts,) would have you think. The victims here die by lazer blasts, or are electicuted, or are dropped off high ledges. One girl is burned to death. The film's dummy title,"Killbots", is probably far more appropriate for this particular movie. The plot: at a shopping mall, presumably sometime in the not-too-distant future, a super computer is installed which is activated at night. It activates solid steal doors which seal off the enterances, making breaking in (and getting out,) almost impossible. The computer also controlls three high tech security robots, known as "protector" units. Then, one night, there is a thunder storm. Lightning strikes the antena on the roof of the mall, scrambling the computer's circuts, and the computer turns the protector robots into killing machines. After offing two techinitians hired to operate the computer overnight, and a janitor, (B-movie vet Dick Miller,) the protector units go after four teenage couples who've decided to spend the night in a mattress store for an orgy. Anybody who's familar with the teen extermination flicks of the 80's, or who've seen "Scream", will figure out right when the couples get together who will live and who will die. But the film is still worth seeing just for Keli Maroney's preformance as Alyson. She manages to play a strong female heroine without becoming a male clone. Her charecter is comparable to Ripley from the "Alien" series. Also, unlike some splatter movies, this one's more interesting in that the young people find out right away what's going on, and then they all battle the robots together, instead of one person getting seperated and killed, one by one until there's only one left. This is a definete must-see.