Chopping Mall

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.

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.

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.

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