Crew
Director – Jim Wynorski, Screenplay – Steve Mitchell & Jim Wynorski, Producer – Julie Corman, Photography – Tom Richmond, Music – Chuck Cirino, Optical Effects – Motion Opticals, Special Effects – Roger George, Killbots Created by Robert Short, Makeup Effects – Anthony Showe. Production Company – Concorde/Trinity Pictures.
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), Dick Miller (Walter Paisley), Paul Coufos (Dr Stan Simon), Paul Bartel (Mr Bland), Mary Woronov (Mrs Bland), Gerrit Graham (Technician Nessler), Morgan Douglas (Technician Marty), Mel Welles (Cook), Arthur Roberts (Mr Todd)
Plot
The Park Plaza mall purchases three Prosecutor robots to deal with security. Alison Parks, a new waitress at one of the mall’s food outlets, is persuaded by her co-worker Suzie Lynn to come to a party being held by several mall workers after hours in the furniture store. There she is attracted to Ferdy Meisel. However, a lightning bolt strikes the mall and affects the robots. They now come to independent life and begin stalking the mall, eliminating all those inside as intruders.
Jim Wynorski has become a prolific low-budget director working in the sf and horror field since the 1980s. (See below for Jim Wynorski’s other films as director). Chopping Mall was Wynorski’s second film. His first jobs in the industry had been writing the scripts for Roger Corman for Forbidden World (1982) and Sorceress (1982). After the success of Wynorski’s directorial debut with The Lost Empire (1983), Corman bankrolled him to make Chopping Mall.
Chopping Mall was made not long after the success of The Terminator (1984). It takes the same premise of killer robots but scales this back to killer security robots on the attack within the confines of a mall. Unlike The Terminator and its numerous copies throughout this era, this is one film where the Machines Amok are not androids but Robots and are, as far as I am aware. the first non-humaniform killer robots of this era up until Hardware (1990). Although you cannot help but think these robots are absurdly over-powered – armed with deadly lasers and claw attachments – for what is essentially mall work, which should not get any more extreme that nabbing shoplifters and purse snatchers.
The robots come to life quite convincingly on a low budget with some good mechanical effects courtesy of Robert Short, who worked on some quite high-profile films of this era including E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Beetlejuice (1998). There are some decent animated laser effects and shots with lasers splattering victims’ heads and the like. Jim Wynorski directs with a reasonable vigour once the robots start chasing people and people start shooting back. Chopping Mall is a much better film that some of Wynorski’s later films that become embarrassingly over-obsessed with large-breasted women.
Actress Kelli Maroney had gained attention in her fourth film – as the lead in Night of the Comet (1984). Here she plays a bubbly blonde with a sense of Girl Next Door innocence. Maroney went on to play in various other B movies of this era but faded away in the 1990s before making a comeback in the 2010s and has since been able to make a career out appearances in B movies. It is a surprise that she never went on to become a bigger name of this era than she ended up doing.
Perhaps because Corman is giving Wynorski his breaks, Chopping Mall comes with a lot of callbacks to other Corman films. There is also a reasonable cast of regulars from Roger Corman’s troupe including Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov listed as their characters from Eating Raoul (1982) as a couple in the opening scene; Arthur Roberts as Suzee Slater’s father; Mel Welles as the cook at the outlet where Kelli Maroney works; and Corman regular Dick Miller, who was enjoying a career revival around this time thanks to Joe Dante, playing Walter Paisley, his character from Corman’s A Bucket of Blood (1959), who has a scene as a mall janitor before being killed by the robots. And cameos from assorted other including Gerrit Graham as a computer technician; and Barbara Crampton who had gained fame in Re-Animator (1985) the year before, playing Kelli Maroney’s co-worker. John Terlesky, who plays one of the teens, later became a director of B-budget action films. There are also assorted Corman homages such as Corman’s Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) screening on the tv being watched.
Jim Wynorski’s other genre films are:- The Lost Empire (1983), Deathstalker II (1987), Not Of This Earth (1988), The Return of Swamp Thing (1989), Transylvania Twist (1989), The Haunting of Morella (1990), Sorority House Massacre II (1990), Sorority House Massacre 3/Hard to Die/Tower of Terror (1990), 976-Evil II (1991), Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991), Munchie (1992), Ghoulies IV (1993), Dinosaur Island (1994), Munchie Strikes Back (1994), Sorceress (1995), The Wasp Woman (1995), Vampirella (1996), The Pandora Project (1998), Storm Trooper (1998), The Bare Wench Project (1999), Desert Thunder (1999), Bare Wench Project 2: Scared Topless (2000), Crash Point Zero/Extreme Limits (2000), Raptor (2001), Thy Neighbor’s Wife/Poison (2001), The Bare Wench Project 3: Nymphs of Mystery Mountain (2002), Gale Force (2002), Project Viper (2002), Bare Wench Project Uncensored (2003), Cheerleader Massacre (2003), More Mercy (2003), The Curse of the Komodo (2004), Gargoyle (2004), The Thing Below (2004), Alabama Jones and the Busty Crusade (2005), Bare Wench: The Final Chapter (2005), Komodo vs Cobra (2005), Sub Zero (2005), The Witches of Breastwick (2005), The Witches of Breastwick 2 (2005), A.I. Assault/Shockwave (2006), Cry of the Winged Serpent (2006), Bone Eater (2007), The Breastford Wives (2007), House on Hooter Hill (2007), Cleavagefield (2009), Fire From Below (2009), Vampire in Vegas (2009), Monster Cruise (2010), Dinocroc vs Supergator (2010), The Hills Have Thighs (2010), Camel Spiders (2011), Gila (2012), Piranhaconda (2012), Hypnotika (2013), Scared Topless (2013), Sexually Bugged (2014), Shark Babes (2014), Water Wars (2014), Scared Topless (2015), A Doggone Christmas (2016), Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre (2016), Cobragator (2018), Attack of the 50 Foot CamGirl (2022), Bigfoot or Bust (2022), Giantess Battle Attack (2022) , Killbots (2023) and Dinogator (2024).
Trailer here
Full film available here