The Video Shelf: Chopping Mall

Chopping Mall (originally titled Killbots) is an oddball cross-genre movie from 1986, kind of a sci-fi/action premise that plays more as an action/horror piece.   The set up is pretty simple: the local shopping mall hires a security company that uses robots to patrol the premises after-hours.  Alas, a  lightening strike damages the central computers and the nearly indestructible security droids go on a killing rampage.  Sound unlikely?  Of course!

Just to ramp up that “I -can’t-see-this-happening-in-the-real-world-but-what-the-hell-it’s-an-eighties-movie” factor, a bunch of teens decide to hole up in the mall after hours, drinking and screwing.  Well, you don’t need me to tell you the bloody results.   The result is ridiculous, trashy fun.
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Interesting divergence on the posters.  The early one on the left gives you a reasonably accurate visual gloss on the movie’s subject matter.  The second poster, more frequently seen, resulted as the distributor tried to shift marketing strategy and tap into horror/exploitation audiences and bears no relationship to anything that actually happens in the movie.