Film

Chopping Mall

Name: Chopping Mall
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction
Released: 1986
Cast: Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, Russell Todd, Karrie Emerson, Barbara Crampton

A 1986 creature feature where mall security robots malfunction and hunt teenagers trapped inside after hours. It's a gleefully trashy B-movie that knows exactly what it is: pure Friday-night fun, full of practical effects, one-liners, and the kind of earnest camp that only happens by accident. For anyone who loves 80s horror that doesn't take itself seriously.

TMDb rating

2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy cheap-and-cheerful 80s creature features where the gore and the goofy sincerity arrive in equal measure and the whole thing moves briskly.

Skip it if you need a tight, logical plot or restrained scares, since this one trades coherence for B-movie energy and its humour can feel more like wandering than design.

What it asks of you: A brisk seventy-seven minutes with little patience for slow build-up; it sprints from set-up to mayhem and expects you to go along with its silliness.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Gremlins1984

A similar high-concept creature chaos story with practical puppet effects, dark humour, and the same blend of horror and comedy that keeps things bouncy rather than bleak.

But It's considerably more polished and less weird, so if you love Chopping Mall's rough edges, this might feel too slick.

Critters1986

Same year, same idea: small-town siege by alien creatures, cheeky tone, practical effects, and real stakes mixed with genuine laughs. It understands the assignment.

But It's set in Kansas instead of a shopping mall, which makes it rural rather than urban—less claustrophobic, more sprawling.

Night of the Comet1984

Another 80s gem about ordinary people surviving an extraordinary threat with humour and ingenuity. Smart, fun, and paced like a rocket.

But It's post-apocalyptic sci-fi rather than contained horror, so the tone drifts toward adventure instead of pure killings.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Chopping Mall

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge1989

Both films weaponise the mall itself as the primary setting and character, using its commercial familiarity to create surreal horror.

Another mall-set horror-comedy where a disfigured ghost haunts the shopping centre. It's Chopping Mall's spiritual sibling: the same location, the same era, equally committed to mixing scares with absurdity.

But It's a ghost story instead of a sci-fi nightmare, which softens the threat considerably, and the pacing is even looser.

Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge poster

The Terminator1984

Relentless killer-machines hunting humans through enclosed spaces with real suspense underneath the action. The prototype for everything Chopping Mall riffs on.

But It's deadly serious and bleak, the opposite of campy—you're watching survival, not entertainment.

Christine1983

John Carpenter directing a possessed-object horror-thriller with teen characters, practical effects, and genuine scares mixed with moments of dark fun.

But It's much more of a proper thriller than a lark, and the pacing is slower and more methodical.

Weird Science1985

Exactly the same era, tone, and sensibility: teenagers, high-tech mishaps, comedy that lands, and a genuine affection for 80s weirdness and excess.

But It's a teen comedy-fantasy, not a horror film, so there's no danger and the stakes are purely social.

The Hidden1987

A creature-horror thriller from the same period with great practical effects, a fun tone underneath the action, and genuine invention in how the threat works.

But It's more of a buddy-cop movie than a creature feature, and the tone tilts toward noir rather than camp.

Re-Animator1985

Splatter-comedy horror from the same moment: practical gore, comic book energy, an actor giving it everything, and complete confidence in its own ridiculousness.

But It's significantly gorier and more grotesque—the humour rides on graphic body horror, not killer-robot zingers.

Sorority House Massacre1986

Same year, same budget-tier earnestness: low-cost 80s horror with real tension, practical scares, and that accidental charm only genuine B-movies have.

But It's a slasher rather than sci-fi, slower-paced, and far more interested in dread than jokes.

Hardware1990

Both pit humans against unstoppable mechanical killers in tight spaces, but whereas Chopping Mall is camp, Hardware is body horror as art.

A ferocious low-budget sci-fi horror about a killing machine in a confined space, made by Richard Stanley. Punk energy, real practical effects, and genuine nightmare fuel without abandoning style.

But It's relentlessly bleak and violent with no comedic relief—where Chopping Mall is fun, this is genuinely disturbing.

Stalker1979

Both explore what happens when technology or circumstance traps people in a space where normal rules collapse and survival becomes psychological rather than just physical.

Andrei Tarkovsky's meditative sci-fi masterpiece about people traversing a forbidden zone. Completely opposite in tone and pacing, but shares Chopping Mall's obsession with how humans behave when the rules break down.

But It's 163 minutes of philosophical contemplation with no plot in the conventional sense—the opposite of B-movie propulsion.