Chopping Mall

Watched April 27, 2016

1986

Starring: Kelli Maroney, Barbara Crampton, Tony O'Dell, Rick Stanton

This was a happy rewatch for me. My friend Benji has been into 1980s mall and gang culture lately, and he hadn't seen Chopping Mall, so I shared it with the group. I wonder how much after hours security was a problem for malls, but this mall takes it very seriously. 

At an after hours mall meeting with the managers and owners of the shops, the security team unveils their latest technology, robots. The robots move around on tank treads and have tasers to stop criminals before they tie them up alert the police. Mary Woronov and Paul Bartell have cameos at the mall meeting as some store owners, it's a great tip off that this is going to be a fun movie. 

Alison (Kelli Maroney) works at the mall restaurant with Suzie (Barbara Crampton). Suzie sets up Alison with Ferdy(Tony O'Dell) on a date to a party at the furniture store inside the mall. It's mostly a make out party, with 4 couples total, which seems a little intense for a first date when everyone around you is having sex. The mall is closed and all the couples are either making out or having sex, except for Alison and Ferdy who are watching a sci-fi movie, but they are hitting it off.

A lightning storm hits the mall security room and zaps the four security robots, turning them into kill-bots.  The robots leave the security office to patrol the empty mall. First they kill a janitor who is just doing his job cleaning the mall. 

Beefcake Mike leaves the furniture store to do something by the pay phones, he's getting something for his bitchy girlfriend Leslie. He is stabbed by the security bots. I think the robots kill the human operator of the security room, so the override system doesn't seem to be an option. Leslie's head gets blown off when she leaves the furniture store to try to find Mike.

Now the remaining couples know something is going really wrong. Down to six, from the original eight they all try to just get out of the exit doors but the whole mall is completely locked up. The guys are girls split up, with the guys breaking into the sporting goods store to get guns. The girls go to the auto body store and make Molotov cocktails out of paint thinner. 

Suzie is killed by a robot igniting her own Molotov cocktail. They do manage to take out two robots. Greg, Suzie boyfriend is devastated by her death, so he helps set up a trap for the robot on the elevator, it doesn't work the first time but they get it to work the second time. They decide to get to the control center to try to shut down the robots from there. Greg is killed by being thrown off the third floor by the robots. The remaining four (Ferdy, Alison, Rick and Linda) head to the department store. They try to confuse the robots with mannequins, which does work. One of the robots is blinded by it's own laser ricocheting off something. But Linda is still killed by the blinded robot. Rick drives a golf cart into a robot and the electrical field kills him. It seems like Ferdy is dead after an encounter with robot. Alison goes to the paint store and empties tons of paint and paint thinner cans onto the ground. The robot gets stuck in the pain and then explodes when the paint thinner ignites. Ferdy is alive after all, he and Alison walk out of the mall together.

This movie is super fun, Alison is great plucky heroine. The kill-bots are awesome, great deaths and it all takes place in an awesome '80s mall with a killer synth soundtrack.