Although it will never win any awards, Jim Wynorski's Chopping Mall is just about the best low-budget movie about killer robots destroying a shopping mall ever made and sure is a lot of fun. A group of horny teenagers party in a mall overnight when an electrical storm causes them to get trapped inside with a fleet of security robots gone haywire. The robots shoot lasers and cause Suzee Slaters head to explode, Barbara Crampton gets torched, and Dick Miller (in a fun cameo as a grumpy janitor) gets frazzled. The movie was shot at Sherman Oaks Galleria (where Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Commando had also been filmed), and Roger Corman helped to produce, the film has several nods to his movies such as a couple who watch Attack of the Crab Monsters on TV, and a fast food restaurant with posters for Barbarian Queen and Galaxy of Terror on the wall. The film was initially released as Killbots but did poorly at the box office, so it was re-released as Chopping Mall after a janitor suggested the title and was a hit on home video.
Review of Chopping Mall
