Chopping Mall (1986)

[5]

Six young people decide to have a clandestine sex party in a shopping mall that’s just deployed three robots to patrol the storefronts overnight. But after an electrical storm interferes with the robots’ programming, the horny youths find themselves being murdered one by one by the lethal machines. Chopping Mall knows how goofy it is, with the tone set perfectly by campy cameo appearances from Mary Woronov and Paul Bartel before the opening credits roll. It’s never as funny again, unfortunately, but it does deliver modestly in the requisite areas of sex and violence.

Despite the title, there’s not really any chopping going on. Except for a nice exploding head, most of the kill scenes are off-camera or gore-less. The mall suffers more visceral damage than the characters. While I’d love to see a more amped up, gorier, sexier version of this movie, it’s not without its own adolescent charm. Everyone looks good in their skivvies, the electronic score is a fun highlight, and any movie gets bonus points for throwing beloved character actor Dick Miller into the mix.

With Kelli Maroney, Barbara Crampton, Tony O’Dell, Russell Todd, Karrie Emerson, Nick Segal, and John Terlesky. Co-written and directed by Jim Wynorski.