CHOPPING MALL aka KILLBOTS (US - 1986) Directed by Jim Wynorski. Written by Jim Wynorski and Steve Mitchell. Cast: Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, John Terlesky, Russell Todd, Karrie Emerson, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Dick Miller, Gerrit Graham, Mel Welles, Barbara Crampton, Suzee Slater, Nick Segal, Paul Coufos, Angela Aames, Arthur Roberts, Ace Mask, Lenny Juliano, Lawrence Guy (Angus Scrimm), Toni Naples, Robert Greenberg. (R, 76 mins) The premiere release of Lionsgate's new Vestron Video nostalgia line (along with Jackie Kong's inexplicably loved and absolutely unwatchable BLOOD DINER), the Roger Corman-produced CHOPPING MALL seemed primed to be a cult classic based solely on its goofy title. Corman's Concorde Pictures released the film in a few markets in early 1986 under its original title KILLBOTS, but it was quickly withdrawn and rechristened later in the year with the much more catchy CHOPPING MALL. It still didn't play anywhere for more than a week, but it was an attention-getting box on video store shelves several months later. Directed and co-written by Corman jack-of-all-trades Jim Wynorski, who started in the advertising department (SCREAMERS) and worked his way up to becoming one of Corman's go-to guys well into the '90s (DEATHSTALKER II, BIG BAD MAMA II, NOT OF THIS EARTH, BODY CHEMISTRY 3: POINT OF SEDUCTION), CHOPPING MALL puts a sci-fi slant on the shopworn slasher genre. Set at the Park Plaza Mall (played by the Sherman Oaks Galleria, memorably mentioned in the Frank and Moon Unit Zappa hit "Valley Girl"), the film finds a group of teenagers--played by actors in their early-to-mid-20s--partying in a furniture store after hours only to be killed off one-by-one by a newly-launched series of "Protector 101" robot security guards. "Absolutely nothing can go wrong," mall personnel is told by designer Dr. Simon (Paul Coufos). Of course something can go wrong, or there'd be no movie.
The Protector 101s are designed to incapacitate any intruders, but when a lightning strike hits the server on the mall's roof, the robots reprogram and reboot themselves as lethal killing machines. After locking down all the mall entrances and closing off the emergency exits, the robots slaughter the security technician on duty (Gerrit Graham!) and night janitor Walter Paisley (Dick Miller!), then start pursuing the six teenagers, offing them in a variety of gory ways. Leslie (Suzee Slater) gets one of the more memorable post-SCANNERS head explosions, and each kill is capped off with a robotic, monotone "Thank you. Have a nice day." That's about as complicated as CHOPPING MALL gets, with no time to slow down during its scant 76-minute running time, and with plenty of inside jokes for Corman fans and movie buffs. Nice final girl Alison (NIGHT OF THE COMET's Kelli Maroney) and Suzie (RE-ANIMATOR's Barbara Crampton) work in the mall's greasy spoon (run by LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS' Mel Welles!) which, like all of the stores at Park Plaza, inexplicably has posters for other '80s Corman movies all over the place (the furniture store revelers are also rocking out to the theme song from 1985's STREETWALKIN'); Miller reprises his BUCKET OF BLOOD Walter Paisley character for the umpteenth time; PHANTASM's Angus Scrimm (credited under his real name, Lawrence Guy) has a bit part in the opening scene, along with Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov dropping by as EATING RAOUL's Paul and Mary Bland.
As far as horror movies set in malls go, CHOPPING MALL is no DAWN OF THE DEAD, but it's better than, say, PHANTOM OF THE MALL: ERIC'S REVENGE. Wynorski dishes out the requisite amount of gore, humor, and T&A, and the cast is likable, a standout being the always-amusing John Terlesky as horndog stud Mike, the actor quickly becoming Corman and Wynorski's first choice when they needed someone to play a smirking douchebag. Slater's topless shots are amazing, and HEAD OF THE CLASS' Tony O'Dell sufficiently handles the requisite "uptight dweeb" character (named "Ferdy Meisel") and is actually allowed to be somewhat heroic and respected by his player buddies instead of existing as a punchline. Maroney is very appealing as the shy Alison, who quickly shows what she's made of, toughening up on her way to being the last woman standing and getting to use the robots' catchphrase against them in true Roy Scheider fashion. Lionsgate's new Blu-ray offers extensive bonus features, including three (!) commentary tracks and several interviews and featurettes. The company's "Vestron Collector's Series" combs through the library of '80s video store staple Vestron Video (though CHOPPING MALL was technically handled by Vestron offshoot Lightning Video), whose iconic logo kicked off many a trashy VHS discovery back in the day. Carving its own niche as a Criterion of B-movie trash, the Vestron line also includes the unrated RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3 (released by Vidmark, now owned by Lionsgate, but certainly "Vestron"-ian in spirit) and a double feature of Anthony Hickox's WAXWORK and WAXWORK II: LOST IN TIME. Future releases include the thoroughly unnecessary C.H.U.D II: BUD THE C.H.U.D., Bob Balaban's brilliant horror satire PARENTS, and Ken Russell's surreal THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM.
PHANTASM: RAVAGER (US - 2016) Directed by David Hartman. Written by Don Coscarelli and David Hartman. Cast: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm, Bill Thornbury, Kat Lester, Gloria Lynne Henry, Dawn Cody, Stephen Jutras, Daniel Roebuck, Daniel Schweiger. (Unrated, 85 mins) Released in conjunction with PHANTASM: REMASTERED, a J.J. Abrams-funded 4K restoration of the 1979 original, PHANTASM: RAVAGER is the fifth and supposedly final entry in this beloved cult horror franchise, and the first since 1998's awful PHANTASM: OBLIVION. It's also the first not directed by series mastermind Don Coscarelli, who remains onboard as a producer and co-writer, with directing duties instead handled by veteran animator David Hartman, whose TV credits include episodes of TRANSFORMERS PRIME and the Disney Channel's MY FRIENDS TIGGER & POOH. Hartman also contributed some animated bits to Coscarelli's 2012 film JOHN DIES AT THE END and initially conceived for Coscarelli a series of short PHANTASM "webisodes" with stars Reggie Bannister and A. Michael Baldwin that were to air online. These were shot over 2012 and 2013 after numerous attempts by Coscarelli to get a fifth film rolling in the early 2000s never materialized, even after the significant critical acclaim and instant cult classic status of his 2003 film BUBBA HO-TEP. Hartman filmed enough PHANTASM webisodes that he and Coscarelli ultimately decided to piece them together into a feature-length film.
It's not exactly some kind of dubious chicanery since they were always upfront about the origin of PHANTASM: RAVAGER, but it also never manages to overcome the fact that it's a bunch of shoddy-looking, quickie vignettes that really don't hang together all that well. The focus is on Bannister's Reggie, who's first seen wandering around in the desert, taking back his beloved '71 Plymouth 'Cuda from the poor schmuck who stole it before he has the first of many run-ins with the lethal, flying silver spheres, the weapons of choice for diabolical villain The Tall Man (the late, great Angus Scrimm, who died nine months before the film's release). Reggie then finds himself in an old folks home, visited by Mike (Baldwin), who informs him that he's been diagnosed with dementia. Then Reggie's in a cabin in the woods that belongs to sexy hitchhiker Dawn (Dawn Cody), who's attacked by the spheres, and so on. Coscarelli and Hartman try to construct a story out of the tenuously-connected "webisodes" in which The Tall Man is manipulating Reggie and Mike over multiple timelines, dimensions, and often intersecting planes of existence. Mike tells Reggie of The Tall Man unleashing an "alien virus" as giant versions of the spheres hover over skylines of major cities, causing INDEPENDENCE DAY-type destruction.
Angus Scrimm (1926-2016)
If anything, the ideas that Coscarelli and Hartman put forth represent levels of ambition that are entirely too far beyond the reach of their budget. It looks exactly like a stitched-together series of cheap webisodes, and once Reggie and Mike find themselves in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (probably an idea held over from a discarded late '90s script by PULP FICTION co-writer Roger Avary, who was briefly attached to the never-filmed PHANTASM'S END) following The Tall Man's unleashing of the alien virus, the amateurish visual effects are only a notch or two above BIRDEMIC, with some embarrassing CGI fire that looked like shit when Albert Pyun was using it in the late '90s. PHANTASM: RAVAGER gets by for a while just on pure sentiment and nostalgia: Kathy Lester (now billed as "Kat Lester") returns as the Lady in Lavender from the 1979 original, Gloria Lynne Henry reprises her role from 1994's PHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD, and even the most jaded cynic will smile at the first appearance of Bill Thornbury as Mike's older brother Jody. And there's the always-engaging Bannister and his four-barreled shotgun, and the emotional impact of seeing Scrimm, albeit far too briefly, reprise his iconic role one last time. But sentiment and nostalgia can only carry RAVAGER so far, especially when it starts feeling less like a fifth PHANTASM movie and more like a film student's adventures in PHANTASM fan fiction. Look, we all respect Don Coscarelli, a unique voice in genre cinema who shouldn't have to schlep this hard to get a green light. We all love Reggie Bannister and we all mourn the passing of Angus Scrimm, But we can respect and appreciate these cult movie legends without pretending PHANTASM: RAVAGER is good.
