10 Things You Didn’t Know About Chopping Mall

Chopping Mall may be one of the most beloved movies of the video store generation. A big reason for this is the fact that Chopping Mall had a little something for everyone… you had blood and gore for the horror lovers, robots gone wild for the sci-fi fanatics, enough action to scratch the itch of the action junkies and some sex appeal as icing on the cake.

For those of you who may not have seen this movie since the night you rented it from your local video store way back in the day, you really need to do yourself a favor and pick up the special edition Blu-ray release as part of the Vestron Video Collector’s Series. One of the main reasons… the movie has never looked better than it does on the Blu-ray. But there is a shopping bag full of special features that really make this a worthwhile investment. The special features cover all aspects of the movie, from the creation of the Killbots to Chuck Cirino’s synthesized score and three audio commentaries… it is enough to blow your mind Leslie Todd style!  

I recently revisited Chopping Mall but this time with the commentary track featuring Director/co-writer Jim Wynorski, 2nd unit director/co-writer Steve Mitchell and the star of the film Kelli Maroney. The trio provided great insight and behind the scenes tales and their recollections were the source material for this edition of 10 Things You Didn’t Know…

1. The exterior shots of the “Park Plaza Mall” are actually shots of the Beverly Center in Los Angeles. The Beverly Center was going to be where the entire film was shot, but issues came up that would have put the movie over budget if they shot inside The Beverly Center, so the Sherman Oaks Galleria became the “Park Plaza Mall” instead. The Sherman Oaks Galleria was also the mall used in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Commando and Terminator 2. Sadly the Sherman Oaks Galleria movie days were over after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

2. Director Jim Wynorski provided the voice of the Killbots.

3. Gerrit Graham (who will always be Bud the Chud to me) was paid $600 for his one night of work playing Technician Nessler, one of the first victims of the Killbots. Nessler can be seen reading the book They Came from Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures. That book was actually edited by Jim Wynorski and featured an introduction written by Ray Bradbury.

4. John Terlesky improvised his character Mike Brennan’s incessant gum chewing. After Chopping Mall wrapped up, Terlesky would reunite with Jim Wynorski for Deathstalker II.

5. The song that the cast of characters is dancing to as they party in the Furniture King store after hours was actually the theme song from another Roger Corman production, Streetwalkin’.

6. Speaking of the Furniture King store, this was actually an empty store in the mall that was rented and made to look like a furniture store. The store also doubled as a place to store all the production equipment during the day while the actual mall was open for business.

7. There was an additional scene written for the Paul and Mary Bland characters (played by Paul Bartel And Mary Woronov) that appeared during the opening scene where the mall employees are being introduced to the new security robots. The additional scene was to feature Paul and Mary trying to sneak an old horse into the mall after hours with the premise being that the horse was going to be cut up and served at their restaurant. The scene was never shot because Roger Corman was not going to shell out the money to bring a horse in… so Paul and Mary avoided death by Killbot. There is actually an entire special features segment devoted to this “lost scene”.

8.  The scene where Barbara Crampton’s character Suzie is burning to death had to be cut down to avoid an X rating from the MPAA.

9. The pet store scene where Kelli Maroney’s character Alison Parks is hiding from one of the Killbots and has to remain perfectly still and quiet while tarantulas are crawling all over her and snakes are slithering around her legs was also supposed to feature scorpions. But the scorpions got nixed after Director Jim Wynorski, who in a show of solidarity had the animal handler put the tarantulas and snakes on him, took one look at the scorpions and wanted nothing to do with them.

10. Wynorski also decided to get in on some of the stunt work. After the stunt man who doubled for Nick Segal’s character Greg Williams plunges to his death from the third floor balcony down to the main floor in the movie… Wynorski wanted to give the big fall a try, but opted for the second floor balcony instead of the third. Wynorski fell on to the airbag below and ended up breaking a rib in the process. After his injury, Wynorski put the kibosh on Kelli Maroney’s idea of doing her own balcony fall stunt.