Chopping Mall

Slasher Trash with Panache?

Review: JA Kerswell

Dana Kimmell and Linda Blair were originally set to star in this sci-fi tweaking of the teen slasher formula. As for what it became, nothing, absolutely nothing, could look more mid-1980s than Jim Wynorski’s CHOPPING MALL. From empty-headed neon-soaked consumerism to empty-headed teenagers—not to mention empty-headed teenage exploding heads—this robots-run-amok-in-the-mall romp replaces a machete-wielding killer with laser-blasting dustbins on rollerskates—and it is G-L-O-R-I-U-S!  

It is little surprise that the mall has been a setting for many an 80s slasher/horror movie, as it is a honeypot for teenagers​—and teenagers are a honeypot for your local mad slasher. In this case, in a riff off the 1973 TV movie TRAPPED—where James Brolin finds himself locked in overnight in a mall with six overexcited Doberman guard dogs - partying teens have their illicit party broken up by three malfunctioning robots gone bad due to an electrical storm. Add in a smidge of WESTWORLD (1973), a pinch of fellow mall set teen slasher THE INITIATION (1983) and a furtive glance at THE TERMINATOR (1984), and you essentially have the irresistible recipe for CHOPPING MALL. 

Alison (Kelli Maroney) is seemingly blissfully happy working a Mc-Job with her best friend Suzie (Barbara Crampton) at the mall cafeteria - which is decked out in unlikely but undeniably cool posters from fellow Roger Corman productions such as THE SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE (1982) and Jim Wynorski’s first film THE LOST EMPIRE (1984). Suzie is keen to set Alison up with another mall worker, the nerdy but handsome Ferdy (Tony O’Dell). The perfect place is the absolutely unsanctioned overnight party due to take place in one of the mall stores to which all the other youngsters have been invited.  

Despite the mall’s latest security measures being three security robots, the workers are reassured that the laser shooting tin buckets will let them carry on their beer-guzzling and light frottage as long as they show their staff ID. However, multiple lightning strikes have turned these amped-up zoombas into veritable murderbots with a no-nosense approach to tasering teenagers and worse …  

Can CHOPPING MALL really be described as a slasher movie? Probably not, but it is, at the very least, slasher-adjacent. Despite its flashy laser beams and neon red robot visors, it is still very much a one-by-one kids-get-dead movie—something that more than one critic pointed out. Wynorski is clearly having a blast with this—as is his cast. For the millionth time, Wes Craven’s and Kevin Williamson’s SCREAM (1996) didn’t invent the slasher movie pastiche. Hell, the slasher movie was pastiching itself at the height of its popularity in 1981 with the likes of STUDENT BODIES. However, Wynorski peppers CHOPPING MALL with witty visual jokes and amusing cameos. The mall’s gun shop is called Peckinpah’s (after the director of violent Westerns Sam Peckinpah), and the animal store has a hoarding saying ‘Roger’s Little Shop of Pets’—a witty reference to Roger Corman’s THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) and the fact that this movie was produced by Corman’s wife, Julie. There’s also the playful cameos: with Dick Miller (himself a Corman veteran) and Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel recreating their poisonous characters from the notorious black comedy EATING RAOUL (1982). 

The film also opens with a typically mid-80s madcap montage of mall life - which both celebrates its status in Americana whilst also mercilessly poking fun at it. Wisely, Wynorski doesn’t tip the film into a zany pastiche. There is still some light suspense to be had with the cast trying to escape from the killer robots—and that is all part of the fun. Whilst it does feel like anyone could tip the security robots over if they were quick on their feet, they do the job of offing the over-sexed teens. And, in the film’s probably most rewatched moment, their lasers explode a minx’s head in a manner so seamless and impressive that a million VCR rewind and pause buttons were utilised on its original video release. The unfortunate teenager was played by actress Suzee Slater—who later blamed her appearance in CHOPPING MALL for typecasting her in ‘scream queen’ roles (despite only appearing in one other horror film: the same year’s LAS VEGAS SERIAL KILLER by Ray Dennis Steckler). 

As I mentioned at the top of the review, both Dana Kimmell and Linda Blair were originally attached to the project when it was known as KILL-BOTS. A syndicated news piece in May 1985 announced Blair's involvement while teasing that 7-foot-4-inch Houston Rockets star Akeen Olajuwon was also to appear as a security guard. The piece said that production would start in August of that year. According to Steve Michell, one of the film's writers, Kimmell was eventually replaced in the role of the lead by Kelli Maroney because she didn’t want to do any nudity and didn’t like the violent aspects of the script (she had famously boasted of getting the producers of FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (1982) to tone down the exploitative elements of that movie). However, it is unlikely that the makers of CHOPPING MALL would have gone to the expense of hiring Linda Blair for a supporting role. It is more likely that Kimmell was earmarked for the role of Linda - as the brunette Karrie Emerson is something of a dead ringer for her and showed some skin (unlike Maroney’s character). Incidentally, the always welcome Russell Todd - another FRIDAY THE 13TH veteran - played Emerson’s knocking thirty teenage boyfriend. However, why Blair didn’t end up in the film remains a mystery (she didn’t appear in any movies released in 1986). 

The film’s production was delayed until October 1985 but was seemingly as sports star-hungry as ever. The press noted Akeen was out, and Kansas City pitcher Bret Saberhagen was now due to appear (although that didn’t happen either). The film was eventually shot over 22 days for $800,000 on location, and mostly at night, at the Sherman Oaks Galleria under the proviso it could open at 9am sharp every day. Roger Corman boasted that the film—now known as simply KILLBOTS (without the hyphenation)—was ready to go to markets in March of 1986. 

It also seems that KILLBOTS played in test markets in Texas in March 1986, according to cinema listings (and the existing 1-sheets under that name). Although there were no press reviews, the film reportedly underperformed because the potential target audience presumed it was a kid's movie. By May 1986, the title was changed to CHOPPING MALL and around 19 minutes was cut from the film’s already fat-free running time (this longer cut is seemingly still MIA). 

Despite its new title, there is no chopping in the film. However, new artwork—showing a human-shaped robot hand holding a shopping bag—perhaps suggested that the publicists were targeting those who would seek out a slasher movie. It was released to theatres under its new title later that year—with the reviews, as to be expected, mixed.  

Candice Russell, in November 1986, in South Florida Sun Sentinel, gave the film half a star; sneering and off-the-mark she said: “Just short of total worthlessness, Chopping Mall is a mean-spirited savage horror film about robots run amok.” She continued: “… Wynorski can be credited with a modicum of suspense as the robots speed up to the next victim for instant annihilation. But Chopping Mall is a one-note Samba.” Andrew Jefchak in The Grand Rapids Press opened with “Cut-and-slash turns to hi-tech”. He dismissed it as: “Almost as if they were related to the ministers of perverse violence in cut and slash features, the robots zero in dauntlessly on the pleasure seekers.” He sarcastically said the best acting was from “chinny youth” who managed to chew gum whilst kissing his girlfriend (I’m sure actor John Terlesky would have been delighted with his notices!). However, Mike Mayo - in The Roanoke Times - said that CHOPPING MALL was “pretty good” and stood up well in comparison to the latest ELM STREET and FRIDAY THE 13TH offerings. However, Bill Cosford in The Miami Herald, in his one-star review, said: “Chopping Mall has a great title and a premise nearly as good. … However, the conflict is merely an excuse for a repeat of the kids vs slasher formula.” Bob Ross (no not that one) said in the Tampa Tribune: “… this absurd story about terrified teens shows unexpected flashes of wit". Scott Cain in The Atlanta Journal agreed: “.. a horror yarn with a better-developed sense of humor than most.” 

Kelli Maroney is perfect as the film’s main character—spunky, empathetic and resourceful. It wasn’t Maroney’s first brush with sci-fi horror, having already been in NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984). Barbara Crampton had already made waves with RE-ANIMATOR (1985) and, the same year, played the decidedly more mature role as a scientist in another H.P. Lovecraft adaptation FROM BEYOND. Both Maroney and Crampton still act regularly in the genre today. Despite its somewhat magpie tendencies, CHOPPING MALL anticipated other similar films. Paul Verhoven’s big-budget ROBOCOP followed the next year and shared the traits of the robots gone haywire—not to mention their ironic politeness in light of their violence. Although the kid's movie SHORT CIRCUIT came out after CHOPPING MALL, it is possible that advance promotion for that film—and the similarities in the designs of the robots—may have had a part in confusing audiences when it was titled KILLBOTS. 

The plot—what there is of it—is wafer-thin. However, CHOPPING MALL is an irresistible blast of neon laster and Hard Rock hairspray. Four stars for the sheer fun of it all. 

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