User reviews

A treasure trove of teen movie clichés and outlandish murders, Chopping Mall is - and I'm as surprised as anyone - a lot of fun! It's well-paced, the action's good and these are likable characters. Not only that, but the Kill Bots themselves are kinda cool. You can tell pretty quickly which of the teens will step in at the last minute and be the hero, yet I was engaged throughout.

Part of the appeal is the setting; They used an actual location during production (the go-to Sherman Oaks Galleria in this case), so the mall culture is legitimate. It's a snapshot as well as the wish-fulfillment of having free rein in a mall after-hours. That can't be just me, right?

The premise is absurd and characteristically naughty, and that's all part of the charm.

Had all the boxes checked: cheesy dialogue, campy feel, bad acting, silly villain(s), gratuitous boob shot. It was just an entertaining 80 minutes. Please don't expect more out of that and I don't think you will.

CHOPPING MALL is one of those cheapies made in the 1980s that was probably green-lighted because of the expanding video market. Even though it was released theatrically, CHOPPING MALL looks more like a direct-to-video movie than anything else. The video I saw had a terrible transfer (out of focus and murky) and the cheesiness of it all could have made this a chore to sit through but even with those things going against it, the film was fun and fast paced. It's totally played for laughs and never takes itself seriously. The upbeat goofiness basically saves CHOPPING MALL from the usually unwatchable Concord/New World junk.

It's a definite minor Cult film.

Well, there is a whole lot of cheese in Chopping Mall. Remembering this movie from my childhood, I was compelled to rent it last night. Well, I am glad I did! Yeah, there isn't anything spectacular about the movie...There is a lot of Cheese (Automatic Rifles in a Mall?), but it still stands out as one of the better B-movies of the 80's.

The Robots are pretty decent looking. The acting is typical for the genre and timeframe. The head explosion scene is just classic.

I now feel compelled to track this down on Ebay, since I don't see an American DVD release anytime soon...

Rent it and just enjoy the actual quality to this b-movie. I don't mean the acting, but the scenery and the robots. The CGI is laughable...but, that is another topic...

7 out of 10

Teenagers are partying in a shopping mall late at night, and find themselves having to escape the latest in mall security: the Killbots. Sucks to be them, since the Killbots are armed with laser beams and C4 (in case some military commandos break in, I guess). I started laughing at the hilarious facial expressions of the second guy to get killed, and from that point on the movie was pure comedy. The silliness factor is out of control, with such things as a sporting goods store that just happens to have a few M-16s in stock, a couple watching TV while 6 people have sex in the background, a girl who wears her pants so tight that she has a huge you-know-what throughout the entire movie, a soundtrack inspired by Atari, a cameo by Dick Miller (whose entire career seems to be based on making cameos in B-movies), an exploding head, etc. Pretty crazy stuff.

Security robots at a Los Angeles mall malfunction after a lightning strike and become a deadly threat to a group of youths partying at a furniture store after hours.

"Chopping Mall" (1986) takes the malevolent robot idea of "Westworld" (1973) and places it in the mall setting of "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) with robots that look like malicious versions of "Short Circuit" (1986) and R2D2. "RoboCop" didn't debut until the next year.

Winsome girl-next-door Kelli Maroney is a highlight as protagonist Alison while Russell Todd from "Friday the 13th Part 2" (1981) is stalwart as Rick. Suzee Slater as Leslie is a'right. This is a spirited Grade B flick but at the end of the day it's a throwaway; it's fun and well-executed, but somehow hollow and forgettable.

The movie runs 1 hour, 17 minutes, and was shot in Los Angeles at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which was also used in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982) and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991).

GRADE: B-/C+

The 80's are known for their hits and misses, and also for their cheese factor. In "Chopping Mall" it really makes sense. Here you have 8 friends who all work at the mall, who have decided to hang in after-hours. The mall is high tech, and has three security robots to watch the mall. For the first night, there was going to be a storm, so what happens? A lightning bolt hits a generator, causing the computer system to affect the robots in a very bad way. They go from high tech security into high tech terror! Hence "Killbots". After killing the technicians and a janitor, they go after the teens with deadly results. However, they decided to fight back with every arsenal they can get. Talk about a fight of man against machine. This movie was rather too short for me, I wanted more action from it. I did remember seeing the gun-shop named "Peckinpah's" (The name of the late movie director Sam Peckinpah), that is where the guys picked up the guns to take out those killer robots. This movie was fun, but it could use more story to it.

A group of teens wanting to spend the night at a shopping plaza get more when they bargained for in Chopping Mall, a very entertaining mid-80's cheese fest.

In order to eliminate criminals from stealing from their stores, a massive shopping mall named Park Plaza decides to create robots designed to detain anyone in it's path after hours who shouldn't be there. The robots have darts put inside of them made to shoot out and knock out criminals. One night during a thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning seem to turn the robots into killing machines with a mind of their own. A group of young people who work at Park Plaza decide to spend the night in the mall after hours for a little fun. Little do they know, the group of killer robots are roaming the dark corridors of the shopping centre ready to slaughter all of them for being there when they shouldn't be...

Chopping Mall was a very enjoyable horror flick for me. I loved the filming location of the mall and how 80's everything was, from the fashion to the mall decor. I was taken back to 1986 and was living for it. The theme of people staying after hours in the dark/desolate mall is a great horror sub-genre for me, done well by films such as Dawn of the Dead and The Initiation to name a few. Chopping Mall brought that fun atmosphere of exploring an empty mall with seemingly no one around to stop you from doing whatever you want.

The characters weren't really fleshed out or given any riveting backstories. Outside of maybe 2 or 3 of them, they were simply there to add to the body count. Kelli Maroney who I had never seen before was strong in the lead role. We got Russell Todd of Friday the 13th Part 2 fame, and the always terrific Barbara Crampton from horror classics like Castle Freak and Re-Animator. The special effects were up and down for me. In terms of gore and kills, I thought the movie did a great job in the blood department. But some of the robot laser effects were very dated and didn't look great. It only added to the cheesiness of Chopping Mall which in some strange way worked for the film.

All in all, Chopping Mall is a comedy horror film that I highly recommend seeing. There is a deserted mall, a group of horny teenagers, and killer robots. What else could you ask for from a cheesy late 80's scary movie?

7/10.

A fun little ride into the domain of 80s cheesy B-horror style, refined with some blood work and a good shot of humor. The moment you see the first scene unrolling you just know that this is a movie of the 80s, including the soundtrack. No classic in my opinion but still Chopping Mall got some fine and funny moments. Some kids fighting killer robots in a mall (instead of zombies and rockers) - what you waiting for?

In this insignificant but nevertheless fun 80's low-budgeter, the sex-hungry teenagers for once aren't chased around by a killer wearing a ridiculous mask but by a troop of malfunctioning and heavily armed security robots! Four couples that work in various stores at the Park Plaza shopping mall secretly throw an after hours party during the same night when a lightening storm completely disorientates the 3 brand new "Protector" robots and get killed off one by one. "Chopping Mall" (how can you not love that title?) is a lot of fun to watch and it's easily Jim Wynorski's best effort out of more than 60 directed films. Despite the fact that "Chopping Mall" doesn't take itself too seriously and mainly focuses on satire, there really are some tense moments and properly mounted suspense sequences. The laser head-explosion sequence is famous and there are multiple other cheese-highlights. But what is perhaps the most surprising, are the engaging acting performances and the welcome amount of tasteful nudity. The most familiar cute face in the cast is Barbara Crampton who stars as a screaming beauty in between her two greatest films "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond". Truly ingenious are the endless references towards Roger Corman's repertoire, especially illustrated through cameos of Paul Bartel, Dick Miller and Mary Woronov. Unquestionably, "Chopping Mall" is a righteous guilty pleasure of many, many horror fans.

I have watched the 1986 movie "Chopping Mall" once before, but must admit that I only vaguely remember it. And thus, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it again here in 2024, of course I did so, with no persuasion needed.

The storyline in "Chopping Mall" is unique, to say the least. Writers Jim Wynorski and Steve Mitchell, with the former writer also directing the movie, put together a rather distinctive and unique script, which included elements of many different types of movies, such as teen romance, teen comedy, sci-fi and horror. The end result is a little bit over the place, but that is sort of the charm of the movie that is "Chopping Mall".

There are some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Barbara Crampton, Mary Woronov, Dick Miller, Angus Scrimm, Rodney Eastman and Gerrit Graham. It should be noted that the acting performances in "Chopping Mall" are good, especially if you enjoy the cheese of the 1980s.

The music in the movie is wonderful, especially if you enjoy the unique 1980s sound of synthesizers.

"Chopping Mall" actually has pretty good effects. The robotics were, and are still, actually not too shabby, whereas the laser effects are a bit dubious. But it all worked well in favor of the movie, adding a good layer of 1980s cheese to the entire package.

Keep in mind that before Robocop and ED-209 there were the Park Plaza Protectors 1, 2 and 3 in "Chopping Mall".

It is a campy movie, no doubt about it. And yeah, there is some guilty pleasure in viewing it, given the level of cheese the movie has to it.

My rating of director Jim Wynorski's 1986 movie "Chopping Mall" lands on a five out of ten stars.

I caught this one really late at night back in 1995, and I must say, I enjoyed it. It went under it's other name, Killbots, during that showing, and with a name like that, you know it's going to be cheesy and stupid. Cheesy it is, stupid it ain't.

Forget the misleading title or cover art on the box, this movie is very entertaining if you like b-movies. I don't know why, but for once in a long while, especially in an 80's horror flick I was actually feeling for the characters. I can't explain why, but the acting and direction were both well done, and though it's more of a horror spoof than anything, it is quite a frightening concept. Though some of the deaths are stupid and the action scenes unrealistic, I couldn't help but see the similarities between this and Dawn of the Dead. I mean, these kids, once they figure out what's going on (and witness the famous head exloding scene) they wage war with the robots...I mean they break out a freaking arsenal and lay waste to these things (yeah, like Dawn of the Dead, what kind of mall would have firearms in it? I mean, one guy has an M-16 assault rifle!), though I can't remember them ever reloading once...it's all in good b-movie fun. The major complaints I have with this one is that, like I said before, some of the deaths are 'throw away', obvious and without style (most of the movie, they are running from cheesy 80's laser effects shooting all around them, but never hitting them...of course, when they do finally make contact, you never expect it), but it is still a good movie to watch on a boring friday night with friends and a couple cases of beer. I love the quote that the robots say every time that they dispatch one of the teens. It is simply priceless. Also, watch for Barabara Crampton of Re-Animator fame as one of the horny teenagers.

Overall not bad, and when I think of the title and what this movie is, I'm surprising myself in giving it a 8/10.

"Chopping Mall" is an entertaining movie which has cool music, interesting premise, appropriate pacing, interesting characters, nice nudity (thank you Suzee Slater) and one of the coolest and cutest nerd couples in history! It is fun both for veterans and casuals and I warmly recommend it if you are looking for something entertaining and relaxing for an afternoon watch. Naturally, forget any idea of actually being scared, the killer robots we are talking about here look like 80- version of WALL-E. It's not a perfect movie and I definitely think some characters are killed to quickly and abruptly for the sake of the runtime, but other than that, I have no complaints and I think if you set your expectations right, you won't be disappointed! 7.5/10!

A group of teens(among them lovely Barbara Crampton from "Re-Animator" and "From Beyond")are terrorized in a shopping mall by a bunch of killer security robots."Chopping Mall" is a highly energetic horror film that is perfect for younger horror fans.The film is well-made,delightfully cheesy and it offers some memorable set-pieces(check out a head explosion scene!).The characters are likeable and there are some great one liners.Highly recommended.Director Jim Wynorski made also "Sorority House Massacre 2","976 Evil 2:The Astral Factor" and "Hard to Die".

Park Plaza Mall has new night security. Three robots, the Protector 101 series have been created to secure the mall after hours.

An electrical storm fries the control unit for the Protector 101 robots bringing them online. The robots, who are not supposed to be of danger to anyone, go on a killing spree of everyone that they encounter.

A group of mall employees and a few of their friends decide to have an after hours party in the mall's furniture store. With the protector bots patrolling all three levels of the mall, the friends must fight for their lives to get out of the mall.

Chopping Mall is from Jim Wynorski (Screwballs, Return of Swamp Thing). The cast features many familiar faces. Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov revisit their role as the Bands from "Eating Raoul". Also in the cast are; Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Tony O'Dell (The Karate Kid), John Terlesky (Deathstalker II), Russell Todd (Friday the 13th Part 2), Karrie Emerson, Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), Suzee Slater, Nick Segal (School Spirit) and Dick Miller (Gremlins).

The overly familiar "Friday The 13TH"-type premise (with an extra Sci-Fi note thrown in) is better executed here, but the movie still amounts to a complete waste of time after it's over. The characters are engaging enough to keep it strangely watchable (when they die, you may not be moved, but you aren't glad, either), but there are too many dumb inconsistencies in the action scenes (especially in the level of damage that the robots' weapons can induce). (*1/2)

So the plot is pretty much fluff, there's something about a group of 'teenagers' who decide to throw a sleepover party in a giant mall after closing hours, and wouldn't ya just know it they pick the one night that the mall's brand new futuristic security robots are activated by a stray bolt of lightning that messes up their programming and causes them to go murderously awry and eliminate everyone that they come across! So I've gone back and forth a bit over the years in regards to how I feel about this movie, I just hated it when I saw it as a kid and I remember being very disappointed after being taken in by some very awesome and classic vhs cover art that showed a cold killer hand of steel holding up a gruesome goodie bag of body parts and it gave the impression that the movie was some kind of slasher! When I watched it I just found it really lame and dumb and I couldn't get into it...but at some point it's grown on me and I now kind of enjoy it just because it's so much hokey fun, I like how it's very unpretentious and even earnest in what it sets out to do, just hopefully give you a good time and a few grim laughs with hapless pretty young people being chased around a mall and laser blasted by merciless killer-cans! It's a rather short movie and there's not all that much to it, but it does feel done and wrapped up by the time it's over and they tell you everything you need to know fast before getting down to the havoc and it keeps up a fun nonstop pace right until the end. I really like the silly robots, they worked well for what they were, not the brightest and most interesting evil robots ever put to film but very fun, they were like a cross between a Darlek, a bit of Robocop perhaps, and the psychotic programming of ED-209! I love the recurring gag of their backward programming having them still be polite to people even as they're eliminating them, these crazy killer-cans will blast you into oblivion, then thank you! A big plus is just how great a big mall always is for all kinds of horror mayhem and the one in this movie was put to good use! I think you may have to have a bit of an appreciation for cheese to truly love a movie like this but overall it's really not too bad if you just enjoy it on that level of silly fun, sure a lot of things could have done with some touch ups but for me the sheer magnificent eighties-ness of it all really shines through, and it was just campy, witty and gory enough to keep me interested and have a good time with it. Stupid and senseless, but also a genuinely fun and entertaining crazy old horror sci-fi movie that actually delivers once the treads get rolling! X

A mall has just been presented with a state of the art new security system—treaded, laser-beam-equipped robots. Unfortunately, during THE most unconvincing lightening storm in cinema history, the robots go crazy and begin killing off teens that sneaked in after hours to party. "Chopping Mall" (AKA "Killbots") comes from genre hack Jim Wynorski, who's other credits include the immensely trashy "The Curse of the Komodo" and "Raptor". "Chopping Mall" is by far better than most movies he's made, though it still isn't great.

There's a nice cast of familiar genre faces (including Barbara Crampton and an amusing cameo by Dick Miller as a cranky janitor), a corny electronic 80's score, and I'll admit the robot effects are actually pretty well done on a low budget (though I did find the robot design to be a little too cute to be threatening). Unfortunately, with the exception of a decent slit throat and an OK exploding head, there's a disappointing absence of gore and the majority of the cast gave bad to awful performances.

Clocking in at a brisk 77 minutes, "Chopping Mall" isn't a bad way to waste some time if you're a horror fan, though there are better killer robot flicks out there (See Terminator 2 and 3, Moontrap or even the 1997 box-office bomb, Virus).

4/10.

A group of teenagers decide to use a mall furniture store for an overnight party full of -- what else?? -- drinking and premarital sex. But they picked the wrong night for the party, because tonight the mall security robots (called "killbots") have come to life and are hunting anything that moves. The only thing on sale in this mall is death.

This film has some flaws, and I should be upfront about that. The acting is not great, the whole plot is a little silly. And the special effects are nothing impressive. If you've never heard of "Chopping Mall", you're not alone and there's a good reason. The film falls into that "so bad it's good" category that tends to get overlooked until we feel the twinge of nostalgia. (Most 80s horror films can be considered "so bad it's good", but unlike ones like "Memorial Valley Massacre", this one at least has some heart).

References to other movies are all over the place. Apparently, characters from other movies (like "A Bucket of Blood") appear, though I haven't seen the other movies to confirm this firsthand. A poster for "Lost Empire" is visible in one scene. Mysteriously, I think I heard a character say the magic words from "Army of Darkness" to one of the killbots, although this predates "Army of Darkness" by a few years -- perhaps both are referencing something else? I saw some similarities between this and "Short Circuit" (such as, obviously, robots coming to life after a lightning storm and running amok). I saw a hint of "Robocop" here, with these robots not being altogether different from Ed-209. And, of course, the film "Evolver" about a robot that is similar in appearance to these killbots, that turns violent and kills the kids... so plenty of other films seem to make sense as a "double feature" to go with this one.

Some horror veterans appear in the movie, which is always a plus for those of us who can pick out the lesser known B-list (or is it D-list?) actors. Barbara Crampton ("Re-Animator") is one of the teenage girls. And Dick Miller ("Gremlins") plays a janitor. And the writing/directing combination is absurd: a writer who has mainly worked on children's cartoons ("G.I. Joe" and "Jem") and a director who does mostly soft-core pornography ("The Bare Wench Project"). How did these two end up making a movie? Probably something to do with producer Roger Corman... who used to direct the best horror movies ever.

Some plot holes might exist if you look for them. I mean, for example, why are allegedly "non-lethal" robots armed with plastic explosives and lasers? Or why are they named killbots? But you're thinking too hard for this kind of film. Just sit back and enjoy such scenes are the "head exploding" scene... which is pretty much the only decent death scene you're going to get.

I loved this movie. I think from the very beginning the creators had the idea of having as much fun as possible (the film is called "Chopping Mall" for Pete's sake). And the silliness, over-the-top nature and strange side comments by characters (the "hecklers" or the "man eating butter") made me really love this movie. As of this writing, I hear the original negative is not being transferred to DVD due to some legal trouble, bu I do hope someday we see a fully-restored remastered special edition of this film... because it's going proudly on my mantle.

From the film's title - "Chopping Mall", I was expecting a movie along the lines of a slasher film. And, well, I was completely surprised. While "Chopping Mall" is in a way a slasher movie, it's of a different kind. The movie basically revolves around a group of eight teenagers who are hanging out in a high tech security mall after closing time. The kids are enjoying themselves, having sex and whatnot, when suddenly one couple is murdered by the mall's high-tech security robots. The steel doors to the mall slam shut, leaving the remaining teens trapped in the mall with a gang of killer robots mercilessly attacking them. The doors don't open back up until six a.m. the next morning - can they make it through the night?

This film has complete B-movie cheese written all over it. The story for this movie, for one, is creative but flat-out silly if you really think about it. The acting - well, let's not go there. I'll just say that it was pretty bad overall - bad delivery, and they were completely unbelievable. There were typical archetype characters, including the promiscuous girl, the nerdy guy, and the good girl. The film's special effects are another thing. The CGI is completely horrible, although back at the time this was made (1986), I suppose that this could have been looked at as some high-quality technology. Viewers today though will be able to see how unbelievable it really is. The robots also kind of reminded me of vacuum cleaners, but that was just me. Aside from this movie's negative points, it's got one good thing going for it - it's really entertaining, in all of it's cheesy glory. It's not scary in any way, just entertaining, and may please gore fans for some of it's murder scenes - I have to admit, the head-explosion bit was classic.

Overall, "Chopping Mall" is nothing but a corny B-movie. It's campy, the acting was far below average, the strange techno music was annoying, and the special effects are unconvincing - but despite that, it's entertaining for the most part. You'll have a fun time watching it, but it's hard to take any of it seriously at all. 4/10.

What more could you ask for in a cheesy horror film from the 1980s? This movie depicts a group of horny teenagers who are accidentally trapped in the mall overnight with three possessed security robots. Unreal circumstances, predictability, corny phrases, and partial nudity make this banal-plotted flick a true camp hit!

Even in the 80's this movie was cheezy, but it's still entertaining campy fun. So, if you like an 80's horror cheezfest, filled with 50's-style effects, teenage mindless parties with a lil titular action, & Ash-esque bravado... you should check this one out. It won't disappoint.

Very entertaining, although quite flawed- Chopping Mall is your average 80's slasher with a B-movie twist- an absurd premise at best although one that mostly works. First off, let's talk about the most important thing in this movie, that being the killer robots. I honestly love the design of them, a mix of R. O. B. And Robocop and they were very entertaining themselves. In terms of plot and formula this film goes about everywhere you would expect it to, picking off characters one by one until our main heroes are shown and save the day. Not to spoil it, but c'mon, if you didn't know that was gonna happen, what did you think you were watching? I love the setting and atmosphere of the film, and the romance between the two main leads is pretty cute even if the dialogue and character writing is rather subpar. The film fails to rise above truly any original attributes besides its robot foes, and the formula can definitely feel forced at times- although I did enjoy the fact that the women in the film were just as strong and at times even stronger than the men at times- which is a nice change of pace- especially given the decade this film resides in. In the end Chopping Mall is exactly what you would expect it to be, and that's all it has to be. Could it have been better given a bigger budget or better writers? Sure, but as it is, it's certainly very watchable- and certainly could have been much much worse.

My Rating: 5.5/10.