Chopping Mall

Lore & Background

The film was co-written by Jim Wynorski and Steve Mitchell, who met at EC Comics conventions in the 1970s. They wrote the story in 24 hours and sent it to Julie Corman, with Vestron approving within a week despite lacking a script. Julie Corman had a deal with Vestron to make a horror film that took place in a mall. Wynorski was inspired by the 1954 film Gog, and claims he never saw the 1973 TV film Trapped, which some believe inspired Chopping Mall. The script was full of in-jokes, writing in characters from A Bucket of Blood and Eating Raoul, and the writers got the actors from the respective films: Dick Miller, Mary Woronov, and Paul Bartel. Wynorski provided the voices of the Killbots. The film was intended to be shot at the Beverly Center, but the production could not afford the fee; instead, most filming took place at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, where Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Commando had also been shot. The Beverly Center was used for exterior shots only. Filming took approximately 20 days at the Galleria and two days at Corman's studios.

Reader's Guide

Chopping Mall was given a regional test market release under the title Killbots on March 21, 1986. After it fared poorly with audiences, the film was truncated and re-titled Chopping Mall, under which it was theatrically released in Pittsburgh on September 5, 1986, and in New York City on November 14, 1986. On Rotten Tomatoes, 58% of 12 critics' reviews are positive; Metacritic assigned a score of 22 out of 100 based on four critics, indicating 'generally unfavorable' reviews. Despite this, the film has developed a cult following. Film scholar Craig Ian Mann compares the film favorably to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), also set in a shopping mall, which he classifies as an 'anti-capitalist parable for the Jimmy Carter years,' suggesting that Chopping Mall functions similarly as a comment on consumption during the Reagan Era. Mann suggests that the robots in the film, even when malfunctioning, serve as mechanical enforcers of workplace discipline and capitalist interests. At least two different versions of the film exist, with the TV cut containing extra footage such as a small homage to Attack of the Crab Monsters.

Did You Know?

• The film was originally test-screened under the title Killbots before being re-titled Chopping Mall.
• Approximately 19 minutes were excised from the film after poor test audience performance.
• Wynorski says he cast Kelli Maroney because he wanted to date her.
• The film was shot primarily at the Sherman Oaks Galleria, which also appeared in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Commando.

Creative Genesis & Production

The project originated from a commercial arrangement between producer Julie Corman and the studio Vestron, which required a horror picture set inside a shopping mall. Director Jim Wynorski accepted the assignment on the condition that he would helm the camera himself, and he partnered with longtime friend Steve Mitchell—a connection forged through 1970s EC Comics conventions—to craft the screenplay. The duo envisioned what Mitchell described as a "phantom of the mall" scenario, with Wynorski championing the inclusion of robotic antagonists. He cited the 1954 sci-fi picture Gog as a key influence, though he insisted he had never seen the 1973 television film Trapped, which some observers have linked to the project. Remarkably, the pair outlined the entire story in a single day and forwarded it to Corman; Vestron green-lit the production within a week, even though no finished script yet existed. The full screenplay then required roughly four to five additional weeks to complete. Wynorski recalled that Roger Corman remained enthusiastic throughout, expressing genuine excitement about the concept from the very first pitch.

Narrative Architecture & Survival

The story unfolds at Park Plaza Mall after closing hours, when a group of teenage employees and their friends gather for an impromptu party inside a furniture store. Three newly installed security robots—Protectors 1, 2, and 3—designed to subdue shoplifters with tasers and tranquilizer rounds, are thrown into chaos by repeated lightning strikes that corrupt their central computer. What begins as a malfunction quickly escalates into a systematic killing spree as the machines resume their patrol routines with lethal intent. The film tracks the group's desperate, piecemeal attempts to survive: they barricade themselves in a stock room, arm with gasoline and flares in an automotive shop, and raid a sporting-goods store for firearms. Each robot is destroyed through increasingly creative traps—a propane tank, a rigged elevator, a golf-cart ramming, and finally a chemical-and-paint explosion in a paint shop. The toll is devastating: of the original eight, only Allison and Ferdy emerge alive as dawn breaks. A brief post-credits moment reveals a fourth, previously unseen Protector delivering its cheerful sign-off, "Have a nice day."

Cultural Commentary & Critical Legacy

Although Chopping Mall was a modest independent release in 1986, it has accumulated a devoted cult audience in the decades since. A significant strand of film criticism has read the picture as a pointed allegory for American consumer culture under the Reagan administration. Film scholar Craig Ian Mann draws a direct parallel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which he characterizes as an anti-capitalist parable rooted in the Jimmy Carter era. By that logic, Chopping Mall functions as its Reagan-era counterpart, interrogating the excesses of a society saturated by shopping and material acquisition. Mann argues that the three robots, even in their corrupted state, operate as extensions of corporate authority—mechanical enforcers of workplace discipline and the interests of the mall's ownership. Their programmed catchphrase and their relentless patrol of the retail space underscore how the architecture of consumption itself becomes the threat. This interpretive framework has given the film a life well beyond its initial box-office performance, anchoring it in ongoing conversations about how horror cinema encodes political and economic anxieties.

Casting Anecdotes & Distribution Hiccups

Behind the polished final cut lies a tangle of personal motivations and last-minute substitutions. Wynorski has openly admitted that Kelli Maroney landed the lead role of Allison largely because he was attracted to her and figured a shared production would create the opportunity; she replaced Dana Kimmell, whose prior work on Lone Wolf McQuade had initially drawn attention, but who declined any material with sexual content. The script also teemed with insider references, weaving in characters from the cult classics A Bucket of Blood and Eating Raoul, and the writers secured Dick Miller, Mary Woronov, and Paul Bartel from those respective films to play supporting roles. On the distribution side, the picture was test-screened under the working title Killbots by Concorde Pictures. Audience reception was disappointing, prompting a retitle to Chopping Mall and the excision of roughly nineteen minutes of footage before the film reached theaters.