B to Z Movies: Chopping Mall (1986)

You wouldn't expect a low-budget flick about killer robots attacking a group of teenagers in a shopping mall, directed by Jim Wynorski, no less, to actually be decent, let alone good. I certainly wouldn't have. But, as we know, life is full of surprises. I first learned of Chopping Mall from The Horror Movie Survival Guide, with the Killbots getting a profile in the "robots" section of the chapter on Creations. There were no images of them, and the profile didn't tell me much other than why they were created, a description of what they looked like, how they go haywire, and how deadly they are. Exactly how they killed people wasn't specified, so, because of the movie's title, I was picturing them chopping people up and stabbing them. I never saw any clips until I watched the documentary on Wynorski, Popatopolis, which my friend Jeff Burr gave me a DVD-R of back in 2011. Though I had heard of and even seen some of his movies, that was actually where I first learned of Wynorski himself, and saw what a colorful person he is, to say the least. Chopping Mall was mentioned during the section where they talked with his mom, Theresa, whom Wynorski had often advised not to see his movies. However, she did say that she enjoyed this one (although she didn't care for the nudity, which is par for the course in one of her son's movies), and it did look pretty interesting, with these robots rolling around, shooting lasers at people, and blowing one woman's head apart. While it did have a couple of DVD releases over the years, including in one of those Lionsgate multi-movie sets, I myself didn't see it until Vestron put it out on Blu-Ray. And upon watching it, I could say that I agreed with the consensus that this is, more than likely, Wynorski's best movie. At only 76 minutes long, it's very to the point, doesn't take a long time to get going, and, once it does, doesn't stop until the end. The characters, while hardly multi-dimensional, are actually better-written and more likable than you might expect, the shopping mall makes for a nice setting, the Killbots themselves are surprisingly well-designed and executed for such a low budget, and the movie is full of references to past B-movies that, while noticeable to any hardcore, are not completely in your face or confusing to those who aren't. But more than anything else, it has a nice sense of humor and fun about itself, making it impossible to dislike, at least in my opinion.

Following a presentation that includes a promotional film for their new line of high-tech security robots, the Protector 101 series, Dr. Stan Simon, the head of development for Secure-Tronics Unlimited, unveils a trio of the bots that will be installed within the Park Plaza Mall in one week. Simon explains that each Protector will be assigned to a different floor and they are programmed to detain rather than kill any intruders. The main computer behind the new security system will also lock down the mall completely late at night, and won't reopen until 6:00 in the morning. The following week, with the system now in place, a group of teens are planning to get together for a party in the mall's furniture stores. Among them are Allison Parks and Suzie Lynn, two waitresses at a pizzeria; Ferdy Meisel, Greg Williams, and Mike Brennan, who work in the furniture store, operated by Ferdy's uncle; Leslie Todd, who works in a clothing store run by her father; and Rick and Linda Stanton, a young, married couple who work as auto mechanics. However, unbeknownst to them or anyone else, a passing storm strikes the building, damaging the computer system and causing the Protectors to become lethal in performing their duties. While the teens have a fun evening that involves booze, dancing, and sex in the furniture store (save for the more demure Ferdy and Alison, who opt to watch TV instead), the Protectors kill the two technicians looking after them, as well as grumpy janitor Walter Paisley, and begin their nightly patrols. It isn't long before the couples run afoul of the deadly machines, one of which promptly kills both Mike and Leslie. Now, with the mall locked down until morning, the remaining six must try to survive the night and, if they can, destroy the marauding robots and the system controlling them.

Originally titled R.O.B.O.T., Chopping Mall came about when Roger Corman's wife, Julie, herself a film producer, got a deal with Vestron Pictures to make sort of horror movie about a killer in a mall. And since Jim Wynorski had gotten his start by working for her husband in the late 70's, doing publicity and writing screenplays, one of which became 1982's Forbidden World, she approached him about putting the idea on paper. Having just directed his first film, the fantasy film The Lost Empire (which I 

have seen, as Jeff once lent me that one), Wynorski agreed to write the screenplay if he could direct it as well, which Corman agreed to. Wynorski wrote the film with his friend, Steve Mitchell, who would also act as second unit director, and says he came up with the idea for the villains to be killer robots after remembering the 1954 movie, Gog. While he's not credited, Roger Corman himself was also involved in the film, as his post-New World Pictures production company, Concorde, was one of the financiers and also distributed it. According to Wynorski, Corman gave him a film school crash course over lunch one afternoon before shooting, telling him what to do and what not to, rules that he says he now lives by. Mitchell says that he and Wynorski were initially nervous about making Corman happy, but that their fears were alleviated very early on, as he complimented them on the job they were doing. Speaking of Mitchell, his filmography isn't nearly as extensive as Wynorski's, although he does have some writing credits for the G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons on his resume (as well as on Gila!, which we looked at not too long ago). He's also worked as a second unit or assistant director on other films of Wynorski's, like Transylvania Twist and Munchie, and has produced and directed a number of home media special features, including those for Chopping Mall (which are excellent, I might add).

As I said in my review of Gila!, I'm not exactly a connoisseur of Wynorski's movies (at this point, I could probably count those that I have seen on one hand), but still, I don't think it's that much of a hot take to call this his best. Rather than doing it just so he could make a buck, add one more title to his resume, or be around a bunch of gorgeous women who are going to be naked a lot, the latter of which often feels like the case later in his career, Chopping Mall feels like he really wanted to make something that was actually good or, at the very least, entertaining. And sure enough, his quirky sensibilities, goofy sense of humor, and skill at low budget filmmaking all came together very nicely here, resulting in something that's fast-paced, funny, and clever. I know that not everything you do can be a winner, especially when you're working on a tight schedule with very little money, but I really wish he would try a little harder and put more sincere effort like this into some of his other flicks.

The cast of Chopping Mall is made up of a good number of familiar genre faces, mostly from the 80's. While the main cast is an ensemble, our ostensible lead, Alison Parks, is played by Kelli Maroney, who'd just recently appeared in Night of the Comet (as well as Fast Times at Ridgemont High), and actually replaced Dana Kimmell from Friday the 13th Part 3 in the role. (Scott Mitchell has said that Kimmell was replaced because she refused to do anything sexual, while Maroney claims on the Blu-Ray special features that Kimmell didn't want to swear... neither of which Alison does in the movie, by the way.) Working at the mall's pizzeria, where she proves to be rather clumsy and often gets shouted at by the stereotypical Italian cook, Alison isn't so keen on attending the after hours party that her friends have planned. She's also not enthused about her friend and coworker, Suzie, fixing her up with Ferdy, whom she's never met before. But, when the two of them meet up in the furniture store, while they're not all over each other like the other couples, they do hit it off. So much so that, even when Ferdy offers to take her home an hour before the mall is locked down for the night, she opts to stay for a while longer. But, within that hour, the Killbots begin their rampage, taking out Mike and Leslie, before going after the others. Throughout the night, Alison is one of the group who manages to keep her wits about her, and comes up with several nice courses of action. She also proves to be a real crack shot, explaining that her father's a Marine. And by the end of the movie, she's seemingly the last one standing, and manages to destroy the last Killbot, despite having injured her leg in a bad fall.

Like Alison, Ferdy Meisel (Tony O'Dell) isn't thrilled about the after hours party that everyone else has planned, especially since his uncle runs the furniture store where they're going to have it. But, he's pressured into going along with it and, despite the two of them initially being a bit awkward, he and Alison do hit it off. Instead of immediately having sex, the two of them watch an old B-movie on TV, and he even offers to take Alison home at one point, but she opts to stay. When the Killbots start attacking, Ferdy, while not as good with a gun, and also prone to losing his nerve at times, still fares better than some of the other members of the group. Like Alison, he comes up with some nice ideas about what to do, including going for the computer system that's controlling the robots (too bad that plan gets foiled). By the end, he and Alison are the only ones left, and he seems to die himself while saving her from the last remaining Killbot. But, at the very end, it's revealed he was only knocked unconscious, and he and Alison reunite and prepare to leave the mall.

Barbara Crampton, who'd already worked with Stuart Gordon on both Re-Animator and From Beyond, plays Alison's friend Suzie Lynn, who talks her into attending the party, insisting that she deserves some fun after the rough first week she's had at the pizzeria. After she introduces her to Ferdy, Suzie, like many of the other women, spends much of the party banging her boyfriend, Greg Williams (Nick Segal), one of Ferdy's coworkers. Like Suzie did with Alison, Greg is the one who convinces Ferdy to attend the party, 

although he proves to be a bit more responsible than their other coworker, Mike, knowing that Ferdy's uncle will can all three of them if they make a mess of the store. Something else that Greg and Suzie have in common is that they fall apart under the stress of the situation and die as a result. Suzie starts crying and freaking out almost immediately after the Killbots attack, and they realize they've been locked inside the mall until 6:00 in the morning. While she, Alison, and Linda are crawling through the air ducts to reach the parking area, only for the guys to get separated from them, Suzie starts panicking, thinking that Greg could be in danger (she also gets really snippy towards Linda whenever she tries to calm her down or get her to think straight, which is especially irritating). She forces the other girls to follow her down into an automotive shop, where they stock up on makeshift weapons to fight the robots. But when they get attacked out in the mall, Suzie gets blasted in the back of the leg, then set on fire when one of the Killbots shoots the gas can she's carrying with its laser. Seeing this causes Greg to snap and futilely attempt to destroy the robot with his gun. Later, while they're hiding out in the pizzeria, he starts to lose his nerve (it doesn't help that he's guzzling some beer), and angrily asks Alison why they left the air duct. He then says they should've stopped Suzie from leaving the duct, and even trains his gun on Ferdy when he sticks up for Alison. He becomes so frantic that, even though he decides to go along with Ferdy's plan to shut down the computer system, he runs ahead of everyone else to get there quickly and falls prey to one of the Killbots.

Rick (Russell Todd) and Linda Stanton (Karrie Emerson) are unique, not only among the group but in these kinds of teen horror and slasher movies in general, in that they're a young married couple. While they don't have that much to them, it's clear that they're very happy together, running their own auto-mechanic service, R & L Automotive (whose tagline is, "We got a way with wheels,"), when they're not tuning each other up. Rick isn't too keen on the idea of partying in the furniture store, but Linda is easily able to convince him, otherwise. The two of them are also among the best-looking members of the main group. Not only is Rick the one who looks and feels the most like a jock, with the most chiseled face, but when Linda walks out in nothing but a set of bra and panties at one point... whew! During the third act, when she, Rick, Alison, and Ferdy are the only ones left, Linda starts to lose it a little bit, panicking when Ferdy keeps impressing upon them that any hiding place is only temporary and that splitting up, as Alison suggests, is also a bad idea. After freaking out, she has this gem of a line as she slumps down to the floor: "I guess I'm just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots." As corny as that line may seem when you read it, and as hard as I'm sure it was for Karrie Emerson to say with a straight face, she, somehow, manages to make it work. Rick also comes off as the most level-headed among the guys, managing to snap Linda out of her panic, and proves to be really brave when the situation calls for it. Sadly, not long after Linda's moment of panic, both of them get killed during an attempt to destroy one of the two remaining robots.

Another couple who join in the party, but don't last long past it, are Mike Brennan (John Terlesky) and Leslie Todd (Suzee Slater). Another coworker of Ferdy and Greg's, Mike is as, Greg describes him, "A real candidate for prickhood." In fact, I'd say he already won the election, as he's a total douche from start to finish. He gives Ferdy crap for fretting about his job and how his uncle will react if they mess up the furniture store, and also mocks him when Greg says that Suzie is putting together a blind date for him with Alison. He also not only constantly chews gum, but tends to chew it loudly, which is something that personally aggravates me (Terlesky said he came up with that as way of making Mike obnoxious enough to where people would want to punch him, and he succeeded). All Mike cares about is banging Leslie, who works in a clothing store run by her father. While not as unlikable as him, she's still a total bimbo, and comes off as very demanding. For instance, she's snobbish about the brand of cigarettes she smokes, refusing to go with anything but Virgin Lights, forcing Mike to go out into the mall and buy a pack, instead of just getting her the Camels that were left behind in the store. This leads to him falling victim to the Killbots, and when Leslie goes looking for him, she gets chased down by the robot, which then proceeds to blow her head apart!

Among the well-known genre actors who appear in the film is good old Dick Miller. He's in one scene as a janitor named Walter Paisley, the name of various characters he played;s in a number of movies dating back to 1959's A Bucket of Blood. Here, he's a cranky janitor who's mopping up some sort of nasty, slimy stain on the floor, threatening to kill whoever caused it. He gets mocked by two other janitors who are on their way out, and then, one of the Killbots knocks over his bucket. He calls it a "clumsy son of a bitch" and threatens to turn it into scrap metal, when it asks to see his identification. Aggravated, he's about to whack it with his mop, when it fires a wire that lands in the water that spilled at his feet. Just as he's about to finally start whaling on it, it fires an electrical charge through the wire, electrocuting him to death.

Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov appear at the beginning of the movie as a couple among the audience for the Protector series demonstration. Like Miller, they're sort of playing characters they've played before, as they're credited as Paul and Mary Bland, the names of their roles in Eating Raoul. When the robots are first introduced, Mary comments that they look like the Three Stooges, to which Paul comments, "I don't know, Mary. The one in the middle has an unpleasantly ethnic quality." As Dr.

Stan Simon describes how the robots work and what they do, Paul comments, "Maybe we could use one at the restaurant, get rid of people we don't like." He later adds, "They remind me of your mother. It's the laser eyes." And they both roll their eyes when Simon declares that the robots will make Park Plaza, "The safest mall in the state," as if they instinctively know this is not going to go well. (There was another scene with them in the script, where they attempt to sneak a horse into the mall in order to chop it up and serve the 

meat at their restaurant, but it was never filmed.) Speaking of the opening, Rodney Eastman, who would go on to play Joey in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and 4, appears as a very obvious shoplifter during the opening credits sequence. And Gerrit Graham, who most people may know from Phantom of the Paradise and Star Trek, but I know him best from Child's Play 2 and TerrorVision, pops up as Nessler, a constantly eating technician who takes over for another whom the robots have already killed; naturally, he becomes their second victim. A couple 

of other characters who appear briefly but definitely leave an impression are the pizzeria cook (Mel Welles), a very greasy, heavyset guy who speaks in a stereotypical Italian accent and is irked by Alison's clumsiness, and this fat glutton (Robert Greenberg) who's eating there and asks for, "More butter." According to Suzie, he's also a bit of a pervert.

For a long time, the only way you could see Chopping Mall on home video was in a version taken from a VHS transfer, so the picture quality was rather crumby. Thankfully, the Vestron Blu-Ray fixed that issue, and it's a good thing, too, because the film has a very appealing look to it. The color palette is very rich, a result of the often colorful design of the mall itself, the characters' clothing, the Killbots' colorful laser blasts, and the nice assortment of different types of lighting, mostly blue and pink, for the interiors when the mall has closed for the night. Obviously,

you should never go into a Jim Wynorski movie expecting it to actually be scary, but the Killbots are, if nothing else, often shot in a manner that makes them come off as menacing, including a second unit shot that Steve Mitchell captured of one's shadow up against a wall as one of the security doors closes. The opening credits sequence is a simple and efficient way of establishing the mall itself, as well as what goes on there, with a bit of fast-motion used for one moment involving a kid with an ice-cream cone in a

crowded elevator, and use of the music score rather than any ambient sound (there are some obvious scratches on the film in a couple of shots here). And the second half, where all hell breaks loose, is a testament to both good direction and editing, as the kinetic pace is maintained throughout, stopping for only a few minutes at a time so both the characters and the audience can catch their breath, and the action and chase scenes are very well shot and put together. For me, it's the best example of low budget, on the fly filmmaking that you could ask for.

Since the entire movie is literally set at the Park Plaza Mall, it was important that the filmmakers found a shooting location that was memorable and, fortunately, they did. This place, the interiors of which were, in reality, the Sherman Oaks Galleria (where both Fast Times at Ridgemont High and a sequence in Commando were shot), has a look about it that's vaguely futuristic, in regards to the exterior architecture (which was actually the Beverly Center, where they'd originally planned to film), as well as the design of the elevator in the center of the mall. 

But it's also so wonderfully 80's in how colorful it is, with the neon lights and signs around the stores, the flags hanging down around the second floor, and the paint job on the store exteriors, the game cabinets in the arcade, and so on. And while places like the furniture store, the pizzeria, the back storage area, and the mall's main plaza make for unique places to set action and horror scenes, there are some claustrophobic spots, like some corridors and dark storerooms on the third level, that are more 

traditionally spooky and unnerving. You also have the prerequisite air ducts that are big enough for people to crawl through, a la Alien, and the massive steel security doors that lock the mall down after midnight. And the control room, where the robots are also initially kept, screams cheesy sci-fi so much that you just have to love it. Finally, going back to the 80's vibe, some of the shops, like the sporting goods store, which is full of weapons that the guys load up with,

and the automotive shop where the girls grab gasoline cans and road flares, are stuff you would never see in a mall nowadays, especially the former. The same also goes for the cigarette vending machine that Mike goes to for Leslie.

Also indicative of the 80's are the fashion and hairstyles, the arcades and video games of the time, this one kid who's riding a skateboard during the opening credits, and the sense of "mall culture" you get during said opening. In that regard, it's inevitable to compare Chopping Mall to Dawn of the Dead, and while the satire on consumerism and capitalism isn't as overt here, you can still pick up on it. It is most notable during that opening, where you see people roaming around the mall with their shopping bags and purses, a bunch of them crowding into an elevator and

getting this poor kid's ice cream cone all over him, that shoplifter who thinks he's being slick but couldn't be more obvious unless he wrote "shoplifter" on his shirt, an adult pulling his kid away from one of the arcade cabinets, only to start playing it himself (leading the kid to then pull him away, only for another man to jump in), and some sexy supermodels walking around in bikinis, advertising the mall, as well as shots of all the different stores and merchandise. Also like in Dawn of the Dead, this

consumer paradise where you should, theoretically, have everything you could ever want, initially becomes a temporary living space, but then proves to be an inescapable deathtrap during the movie's second half. By extension, there's a dig at big corporations, in how their idea of an "efficient" and "safe" security system proves to be anything but thanks to the lightning strike. Thus, it's also kind of a precursor to the satire you'd see in RoboCop the following year; seriously, couldn't you just see OCP making 

something like this?). And finally, I've heard of one bit of analysis, by scholar Craig Ian Mann, that the Killbots themselves could be seen as severe enforcers of "workplace discipline and capitalist interests," which is an interesting way to view them.

Like Joe Dante often does in his movies, Jim Wynorski put a number of references to other stuff, particularly past B-movies, in here, and does them in a way to where those who get them appreciate it, but they're, for the most part, not so overwrought that they're show-stoppers. Besides the casting of certain actors, among the most obvious references are the posters in the pizzeria, which are for Roger Corman-produced flicks like Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World, and The Slumber Party Massacre, as well as Wynorski's own The Lost Empire. During the party,

while everyone else is having sex, Alison and Ferdy are watching Attack of the Crab Monsters on TV. And there are two stores whose respective names are very appropriate: the store where the guys get the guns and ammo is Peckinpah's Sporting Goods, and the pet store that Alison hides in during the climax is Roger's Little Shop of Pets. Some of the lines are pretty blatant, like how, once he and the guys are heavily armed, Rick declares, "Let's go send those fuckers a Rambogram," and, when he's asked if he knows how to use a gun, Ferdy says, "I saw Dirty Harry 24 

times," (he also happens to be wielding Harry's signature gun, a .44 Magnum). And they come out of the store in a pose straight out of a western, with Chuck Cirino playing a piece of music that's a take on Ennio Morricone's spaghetti western themes. Going back to the dialogue, while we get one nod to The Day The Earth Stood Still when Mike says to the one Killbot, "Klaatu Barada Nikto," I myself really like the references to The Thing from Another World. The man who first asks a question about the robots at the

opening presentation is named Dr. Carrington, and Ferdy and Rick recite some exchanged bits of dialogue from that movie at one point: "What if these things can read our minds?" "Then they're gonna be awful mad when they get to me." (The line about Dirty Harry is also something of a modified callback to a moment in The Thing, as someone is asked if they know how to use a gun and he says he saw Gary Cooper use it in Sergeant York.) Finally, 

there are some nods that are very subtle. Nessler is reading the book, They Came from Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures, which Wynorski edited, and which featured the story that Corman's production of Death Race 2000 was based on. The sound of the Killbots' lasers is the same as the Martian war machines' lasers in The War of the Worlds. And when Ferdy is looking at himself in the mirror before he meets Alison, on the left side of the screen is a mostly obscured poster for Screwballs, which Wynorski co-wrote and was produced by New World Pictures.

What also makes Chopping Mall so enjoyable is that it has such a sense of fun about itself and doesn't take itself seriously. First off, I find its sense of humor to be really appealing and funny. Normally, I can be tough when it comes to comedy, especially comedy that tries to be over-the-top, unnecessarily crass, or just plain stupid (which is one of the reasons why I'm not a fan of Troma). While the setting and many of the characters are rather exaggerated, and there are some instances of raunchy comedy during the first half (again, you just come to expect this from 

Wynorski), it never gets to the point where it turns me off. I really like the instances of visual humor and gags that you see during the opening credits, like the kid with the ice cream in the crowded elevator, a moment where a woman is carrying a tray of food back to her table and everybody seems to be trying to cause her to crash, which she eventually does right when she reaches her table (something I think we can all relate to), and a young couple making out on a bench in the plaza, prompting an old couple to start doing the same, rather than disapproving of them, as 

you'd expect. I also laugh at some of the lines, such as those I've just mentioned, Greg telling Ferdy, "Oh, fuck the fuchsia! It's Friday! Tell the old bag to wait!", and when he tells Suzie, when they're about to get it on, that she smells like pepperoni, which initially offends her, only for him to clarify, "I like pepperoni." That latter bit is so off-beat, but I still found it funny. Another is when, while they're hiding out in the pizzeria, Linda and Rick have this back and forth: "According to my calculations, provided we survive 

the night, of course, we're gonna be in hock to this place for the next 85 years." "How many tuneups is that?" "Just a sec... 2,900,431." "Maybe we should raise our rates." I even like the lines that are both corny and ironic, like, "Trust me, absolutely nothing can go wrong," and, "Why do I have the feeling I'm gonna regret this in the morning?", as they're done so earnestly and keep with the tone. Speaking of said tone, while we are watching a number of characters whom we grow to like getting picked off, the movie 

never takes a turn and becomes full-on somber or morose. By the same token, its overall light-hearted nature doesn't clash with those moments, as they're never overly bloody or mean-spirited. That makes the silly roll call style main cast credits at the end, akin to those of The Last House on the Left, feel way more appropriate than they did there. (That's then followed by a post-credits scene where one of the Killbots comes right up to the camera and says their repeated line of, "Thank you. Have a nice day," but with a 

touch more of a malicious tone than ever before.) And even more so than Dawn of the Dead, which is still pretty grim, despite its comic book, comedic style, Chopping Mall is meant to be nothing more than tongue-in-cheek fun, and it works brilliantly as such.

One of the most impressive technical aspects of the movie, considering the budget (around $800,000), are the Killbots themselves. For one thing, they look really cool, with their short, squat designs, tread-wheels, grasping hands and claws, and rotating heads with red visors, and their voices, provided by Wynorski himself, come off as both technically proficient and sophisticated, yet also gruff and menacing. Second, it's really awesome to hear that they were not only mostly radio-controlled but basically always did what they were supposed to do, 

when they were supposed to do it. Third, they do a good job of making these things come off as real threats, despite their small size and relatively slow movements. Not only are they armed with a formidable arsenal, but they can also easily smash or blow their way through obstacles, like storefront windows and security doors, and prove to be quite difficult to destroy, able to come back after taking a lot of punishment. You basically have to blow them up in some way to put them out of commission. Speaking of their arsenal, even though they were 

supposedly designed to capture and detain intruders without lethal force, using tranquilizer darts and taser electrodes, when they go haywire, they're suddenly armed with much more dangerous weapons. Besides laser-beams that they fire to gradually cut through debris, which Protector 1 uses to cut through a door to get after the group at one point, they also fire deadly laser blasts (each robot's lasers have a specific color: Protector 1 shoots pink, 2 shoots blue, and 3 shoots green), use bits of plastic explosive to blow away 

obstacles, and have an extra pair of arms, which they use them to tear people's throats out, lift them up and throw them to their deaths, or toss projectiles at them. They even use their non-lethal armaments to incapacitate someone so they can kill them. Plus, they're not supposed to go after anybody with an ID card, which they can scan, but even that doesn't deter them in this state. It seems like that lightning bolt unleashed something that the robots were already programmed and equipped with from the get-go. And 

finally, while they don't have the flashiest personalities, there are moments where you can see the Killbots communicating with each other, both audibly and when they exchange looks, and also strategizing how to engage and neutralize their targets. Sometimes, they target something near them that could prove dangerous when exploded, and other times, they split up to try to flank the characters. And in a repeated bit bit of black humor, they say, "Thank you. Have a nice day," every time they kill someone, making them akin to snarky slasher villains.

Speaking of which, not only is this not a slasher movie, despite what the title may have you think, but it's not particularly gory, either. Though it was eventually cut down from a 90-minute version to the 76-minute one we now have, following a test screening that didn't go so well (which is also when the title was changed from Killbots, as it was called during shooting, to Chopping Mall), and there are some extra scenes put into a now seemingly lost TV version, it seems as though it was never that bloody. In fact, some of the deaths, like Nessler, Walter

Paisley, and Linda, are virtually bloodless, while others, like Marty, the first technician, Mike, Greg, and Rick are slightly bloody but certainly not gruesome. The most graphic death is Leslie, as she gets her head blown apart by a laser blast, and some blood splatters on the furniture store window, but that's nothing compared to the exploding head from Scanners or the one in the theatrical version of Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. And while Suzie gets blasted in the back of the leg and is

then set on fire, it's definitely the most prolonged death scene, but I wouldn't call it particularly disturbing. Visual effects wise, we've got a lot of old-fashioned rotoscoping and animation effects with the lasers, the electrocution deaths, and the bolts of lightning during the storm early on. Dated, yes, but they have a charm to them that I enjoy.

I mentioned that the film's satire is akin to that of RoboCop; the opening, meanwhile, is akin to that of RoboCop 2. A burglar smashes a jewelry store window, steals a bunch of valuables, like pearl necklaces and other pieces of jewelry, then heads down a corridor and into the main plaza of the mall. However, unbeknownst to him, he's being followed, and turns around at the sound of a mechanized voice telling him, "Stop right there." He whips his gun out, then sees that it's a Protector 101 series robot. The

robot tells him to surrender his weapon, but he just opens fire on it, only to find that it's bulletproof. He runs for it, with the robot right behind him, snapping one of its claws as it rolls after him. He keeps turning back and firing at it, but when he rounds a corner, it deploys its taser weapon, getting him in the back. He goes down instantly and the robot rolls up next to him, as it's then revealed that this was a promotional film from Secure-Tronics for the machine. Following that, Dr. Stan Simon unveils the robots to the crowd gathered at Park Plaza Mall for the presentation, describing how they work, as well as how they're programmed to scan an employee's ID card so as not to attack them.

Following the opening credits montage, and our introduction to Alison and Suzie at the pizzeria, an exterior shot of the mall shows that a violent lightning storm is raging right above it. Marty, the technician in the control room, hears the sound of the crackling thunder up above, unaware that the lightning has repeatedly struck the building, damaging the computer system. He soon realizes that something is wrong when, after several more strikes, an alarm goes off, with the light flashing and periodically turning 

red, and smoke billowing from the back of the control panel. He frantically presses buttons, trying to get things back under control, when the alarm stops and the red light quits flashing. With that, he relaxes and, instead of continuing the crossword puzzle he was working before, decides to look at a naughty centerfold. Because of this, he doesn't see one of the Protector robots across from him activate on its own. After looking to its left, at one of the other bots, it turns back around towards Marty and tears right 

through the centerfold with its claw. It grabs him by the throat and wrenches him back, killing him instantly, as blood oozes from his mouth. Later, another technician, Nessler, comes in to relieve Marty of his shift, only to find he's not in there. Not thinking much of it, and "cleaning up" Marty's mess by eating what was left of his doughnut, he sits down in the chair and starts reading his book. Behind him, the main robot activates again and switches on the one to its right. They both then switch off their visors and Nessler, sensing that something's wrong, looks 

behind him. Seeing nothing, he goes back to his book. Then, he hears one of the robots snap its claw, which gives him an eerie feeling and prompts him to rub the back of his head. The robot prepares to fire one of its weapons, when the phone rings and Nessler gets up to answers it. When he does, he exclaims, "What do you mean, 'Who is this?' You called me! No, Marty's not here right n..." The caller hangs up and Nessler, grumbling, "Jerk," slams down the receiver and sits back down in his chair. Again hearing the main robot 

behind him activate, he turns and looks at it, and then quickly glances back at it a few times before, again, going back to his book. Finally, the robot makes its move, blasting Nessler in the back of the head and yanking him back hard enough to kill him instantly.

While the group of teens party in the furniture store, the three Protectors begin their rounds on their respective floors. Protector 1 stops right outside of the store, but not only does nobody notice it, it also doesn't detect them when it does a scan. Later, while the teens are getting down to more intimate matters, Protector 1 encounters Walter Paisley while he's mopping up the food court, and electrocutes him to death when he gets fed up and tries to attack it. Following that, Mike goes to get Leslie some Virgin

Lights from a vending machine outside in the mall. As expected, when he reaches the machine, he's being stalked, which he doesn't sense. Initially, he thinks it's Leslie messing with him, only to be startled when a payphone rings behind him. Answering it, he tells someone named Jamal that there aren't any messages for him, and hangs up. He then looks at the vending machine, and fixes his hair by using his reflection in the glass, when he turns and sees Protector 1 behind him. It asks to see his ID badge but, even when he takes it out and the robot scans it, it comes at him in a

threatening manner, raising one of its pairs of arms. It corners Mike, as he finds he can't go through the locked pair of doors behind, and is then shot by one of its tranquilizer darts. He loses consciousness almost immediately, and after he falls to the floor, Protector 1 reaches for his jugular with its claw.

Tired of waiting for him, Leslie goes out into the mall, wearing only a T-shirt and panties, to look for Mike (the camera lingers on a close-up of her butt as she's walking). Reaching the vending machine and calling for Mike, she thinks he went out the double doors and angrily heads towards them. She nearly trips over a pair of legs sticking out from the vending machine's side and finds Mike slumped up against the wall. At first, she thinks he's asleep and tries to wake him up. It's only when she pulls him into the light that

she sees his neck has basically been severed. Protector 1 then flings open the doors and rolls after Suzie. It chases her back to the furniture store, firing its pink-colored laser blasts at her. It manages to zap her in the back a few times, as well as gets her on her rear end, when the others hear her screams. Looking out the storefront window, they see Protector 1 blow her head apart with its lasers, horrifying them. After saying, "Thank you. Have a nice day," the robot detects the others and arms itself in order to "detain"

them. Worse, it's joined by Protector 2, and the two of them head right for the door. Greg gets the others to follow him into the storeroom in the back, as the robots blast through the glass with their lasers. All hell breaks loose as they unleash a torrent of lasers, blowing up and shattering various pieces of furniture, from the couch and beds to the television set, as the teens either dodge the lasers or run for cover, grabbing their clothes at the same time. They run through the big metal doors leading into the 

storeroom and close them, with the men then locking and barricading them with boxes of stuff contained back there. They realize this isn't going to keep the robots out for very long and Ferdy tries to call for help, when they then hear the sound of the big, heavy security doors closing and locking them in for the night. Ferdy also tells them that the phone's dead, when Alison sees a panel leading into the air duct. Realizing they can get out if they use it to reach the parking area, they opt to go for it. The men help the women climb into the ducts first, while outside, 

Protector 1 prepares to blow the door open with plastic explosives. At the same time, Protector 2 heads out of the store, in search of a different entry point in order to cut them off. Just as the women are up in the air ducts, Protector 1 blows open the storeroom door and chases the men out into the mall. And as the woman crawl through the air ducts, they note that it's awfully warm in there for an "air conditioning" duct. It gets hotter to the point where they can't touch the bottom of the duct and have to 

wrap their arms and hands with anything they can, like their shirt sleeves. Suzie, who's wear a tank-top, starts to freak out, thinking the robots are deliberately trying to cook them, and wants to get out of the duct as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the guys break into Peckinpah's Sporting Goods and grab any weapon they can find, as well as plenty of ammo and a propane tank. Upon leaving the store, Rick fires his assault rifle into the air to attract one of the robots, and within seconds, Protector 1 comes rolling in. They open fire on it and it, in turn, lets loose its laser blasts. They take cover and continue firing, and when the robot gets close enough, Ferdy rolls the propane tank towards its base. Rick proceeds to shoot the tank, blowing it and apparently

destroying the robot. Just for good measure, they fire upon it again when it makes a sudden whirring noise. Satisfied that it's been totaled, they go back for some more tanks, as Rick says he has an idea. At the same time, Suzie has left the air duct and drops down into an automotive shop, with Alison and Linda following after her. While they load up with anything they can find in the shop, Protector 2, while patrolling the second floor, backs itself into an alcove and hides there. The guys, carrying two more propane tanks,

run to the nearest elevator and force the door open, while the women grab some gas cans and stuff them with handkerchiefs. Alison also grabs a road flare and, with no pockets, stuffs it in her blouse for later. Elsewhere, Protector 1 manages to right itself and continue its patrol. And just as the guys are setting up their trap on the elevator, Protector 2 surprises the women when it comes out of its hiding spot and chases them through the plaza. The three of them take cover, and Alison lights one of the gas cans and throws it right in front of the robot. Not only does this

not damage Protector 2, it doesn't even deter it, as it rolls right through the flames. The guys come running upon hearing Suzie's panicked screams, while the girls flee from the robot, as it fires its lasers at them. One of them hits Suzie in the back of the leg, causing her to fall, while Alison and Linda take cover nearby. As Protector 2 closes in on Suzie, the other women try to figure out how to help her, when the robot blasts the gas can she's holding. The explosion immediately sets her on fire, and Alison and Linda watch as she flails around, screaming in pain. The

guys arrive just as Suzie expires and Greg, enraged at this, unloads his shotgun at Protector 2, as do the other guys. Rick has Ferdy get Alison and Linda to safety, then joins Greg in shooting at the robot. However, it's clear that their weapons aren't going to stop it, and Rick has to pull Greg away and they run for it.

Ferdy, Alison, and Linda run towards the elevator and then head up the deactivated escalator nearby, with Greg and Rick trailing behind them, firing back at Protector 2 as it chases them. The two of them reach the elevator, with Rick running inside and climbing up on top of it through a hatch in the roof, while Greg runs upstairs to join the others. Protector 2 promptly reaches the elevator, blasts the door open, and rolls inside. The doors close behind it, while up on top, Rick prepares the two propane tanks they stored up 

there. He yells to the others that he's done and manages to jump from the elevator over to the floor across from it, tumbling along it. The others open fire, trying to hit the propane tanks, but when they keep missing, Alison takes Ferdy's .44 Magnum and manages to score a direct hit. The tanks explode, sending the elevator plummeting down and crashing at the bottom with another explosion, destroying Protector 2. After they that, they lay low in the pizzeria, when Ferdy suggests they try to take out the 

computer system controlling the robots. Greg, who's drunk and starting to crack due to Suzie's death, is up for it. But when they head upstairs to do it, he gets ahead of them, refusing to slow down or stop, and runs up to the third floor. He yells for the others to come on, when Protector 3 appears behind him, grabs him by the small of his back, and throws him over the railing. He falls to his death down the three stories, and Protector 3 then heads down the escalator after the others. They try to head back down to the first level, when Protector 1 shows up at the bottom of the 

other escalator and comes up after them. With both robots chasing them, the group runs to a closed store and attempt to get through the metal door blocking the entrance. Ferdy and Rick manage to lift it up enough to where the girls can slip under it and close it behind them. For good measure, Rick jams something through the wheel that opens it to make it harder for the robots to follow. They head on through the store, which is a clothing store, while outside, Protector 1 tries to get in through the door, while Protector 3 heads up to Level 3 to get in through the top 

entrance. This is where the group heads, but they stop at the door leading back out into the mall, not sure if they should stay put for the time being or go on out, given that one of them might be outside, waiting. Like they did before in the pizzeria, they decide to hunker down for the time being.

Eventually, Protector 1 manages to cut its way completely through the door and bursts through. The group hear it upstairs, but before they run out the entrance up there, Rick stops them. Like Ferdy did earlier, he figures the other robot might be waiting to ambush them outside. Alison then decides to give the robots something to shoot at, motioning towards the store mannequins. When they then raise the security door, Protector 3 is, indeed, waiting for them out there. But when it turns around to face them, it finds them standing amid a row of mannequins. Not 

knowing which figures to blast, it just starts shooting randomly, as Ferdy and Rick fire back. Ferdy then tells the girls to run for it, and when Protector 3 gets close enough, the guys pull away some blankets covering a set of full-body mirrors behind the mannequins. This causes one of its lasers to bounce off the glass, right back at it. Malfunctioning, the robot goes berserk, turning around in place and firing its lasers aimlessly. While Ferdy runs to and meets up with the girls, Rick takes cover across from them. 

Linda, concerned for Rick's safety, makes the mistake of standing out in the open and is hit by one of the lasers, killing her instantly. Like Greg before him, Rick is enraged at this and, getting atop a nearby motorbike, rushes at Protector 3, firing at it with his assault rifle. When he bumps its side, the electrical charge arcing through the robot zaps him to the floor, killing him as well. However, Protector 3 explodes, putting it out of commission. With only him and Alison left, Ferdy again opts that they go find the computer and destroy it.

While Protector 1 rolls through the store they were hiding in earlier, Ferdy and Alison split up, trying to find the room where the computer is housed. They each head through a door leading into a corridor, with Alison getting startled by some loose cables dangling from the ceiling, and then by a slowly opening door that turns out to be a supply closet bursting at the seams with junk. She then searches a storeroom, armed with a lead pipe, while Ferdy heads down his own tight corridor to a door that has a chain wrapped around its handles. While he doesn't find anything, 

Protector 1 pops out at Alison and corners her. She screams for Ferdy, who comes running to her rescue. Bursting through the storeroom door, he runs right up to the robot and shoots it in the visor. This causes its laser to malfunction, but it still chases him back out into the mall. Ferdy shoots it repeatedly but it does no good, and when he runs out of bullets, he throws the gun at the robot. Alison comes running out and Ferdy tells her to run, as he grabs a fire extinguisher off the wall and throws it at Protector 1. Again, this does nothing, and the robot, in turn, grabs the extinguisher 

and throws it back at Ferdy, knocking him off his feet and causing him to hit the floor hard. With blood leaking out of the back of his head, he's seemingly been eliminated, and Protector 1 sets its sights back on Alison. It chases her across the mall's top floor, until she comes across a pet store and smashes its window with an ashcan. It doesn't take long for Protector 1 to catch up to her, and as it enters the store, she hides in a space underneath some animal tanks, using a bag of dog-food as additional cover. 

As the robot searches the store for her, it knocks over some tanks housing creatures such as spiders and snakes, which crawl along the floor and head right towards Alison's hiding spot, with the snakes slithering across her legs and the spiders crawling up her arm and back. Alison tries to keep from freaking out, as Protector 1 stands there in the middle of the store, scanning its surroundings, for an agonizingly long time before finally heading back out. Once it's 

gone, Alison crawls out of her hiding spot and slowly makes her way back to the front of the store. However, an animal jumps out of her, causing her to yell, which Protector 1 hears nearby. She runs out of the store and back into the mall, only to find the robot chasing her again.

She runs until she comes to the edge of the level and opts to hang off from the railing to keep the robot from finding her. It rolls in and searches for her in that general spot, as she climbs along the railing until she's right above a tent on the plaza floor below. She does try to pull herself back up, but has to keep ducking out of sight from the robot. Eventually, she loses her grip and falls, but the tent does keep her from hurting herself too badly. However, she did injure her leg, as she crawls along the floor. At first, it doesn't seem as though Protector 1 realized what just

happened, but then, it heads down the escalator to the plaza floor. Seeing that the store across from her is a paint store, and removing the road flare from her blouse, she crawls towards it. Managing to get to her feet, she uses her sweater to shield her face as she crashes through the window, and hobbles into the center of the store. Grabbing a screwdriver, she uses it to open the lids of various cans of paint and pours the contents onto the floor. She also adds some cans of primer reducer for good measure and tosses them onto the floor with the paint. Then, hearing Protector

1 approaching, she yells, "Come on, you little bastard!" She hides out of sight, as the robot approaches and then barrels through the storefront window. Once it reaches the center of the store, it spins around in place on the paint, unable to get any traction. Alison quickly hobbles back through the window, slightly slipping on the paint herself, then turns around and yells at Protector 1. It turns itself around to face her and tries to rush at her but, again, it can't get any traction. Alison, lighting the road flare, 

yells, "Have a nice day!", and tosses it, just as the robot manages to rush forward. The entire store immediately goes up in a massive explosion, and after it dies down, Alison is shown lying on the floor across from it. Looking back, she sees that Protector 1 has been destroyed, and then finds a piece of one of its claws lying next to her. Tossing it aside, she crawls along the floor and manages to get to her feet. She's about to hobble out of the mall, when she gets a pleasant surprise and sees Ferdy watching her from

one of the top floors. Holding a roll of toilet paper to his bleeding head wound, he tells her, "Nice shot," like he did before. She happily smiles up at him, and the movie ends with the two of them reuniting on the plaza floor.

Another frequent collaborator of Jim Wynorski's, composer Chuck Cirino's music for Chopping Mall is an awesome electronic score that fits the movie like a glove. It's fast-paced and energetic when it needs to be, but also highlights how this flick is not to be taken seriously, with the best example being the main theme, which plays over both the opening and ending credits. This theme manages to start out menacing, then becomes fast-paced and exciting, and transitions into just being silly, all without coming off as jarring or contradicting itself. It also has some nice, soft music for the scenes between Alison and Ferdy, as well as some sultry music for the sexier scenes, and like I said, there's spaghetti western sound to the scene where Ferdy, Greg, and Rick come out of Peckinpah's, armed to the teeth. All in all, while not a timeless classic of a score, it's definitely one that you'll have playing in your head afterward, particularly the main theme. There's also an obscure song called Streetwalkin' by Sylvia St. James that's playing on the radio during the first scene at the party.

Chopping Mall is not only one of the most entertaining movies we've looked at this month but, while still most definitely a B-movie, it also has genuine quality to it. The characters and performances may not be very three-dimensional or amazing, but they're a lot better than you might expect; the visual style is colorful and appealing, and the mall itself makes for a great setting; the Killbots have really cool designs, and are also constructed and operated very well for such a low budget; the movie is smarter than you might think, with some good satire, as well as plenty of nice references to other movies of this ilk, and also acts as a great time capsule of the 80's; the special effects are dated but charming; the electronic music score is really cool and memorable; and the movie is short, to the point, with a fun tone that never takes itself too seriously, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. It's probably the best movie that Jim Wynorski will ever make, and I do wish he would put this kind of effort into some of the other stuff he does, especially later in his career, but I guess we can always be glad that we had this to begin with. Nothing else I can say other than this little flick is most certainly worth your time.