WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Chopping Mall 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:10.080 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.639 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. My name is Rob Lamb. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.520 And I'm Joe McCormick. And oh boy, we got a 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.960 treat for you this week. Rob, your pick was Chopping Mall. 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:27.440 That's right, because we're in the midst of the holiday 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.680 shopping season here in America, so it just absolutely made 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.639 sense to watch Chopping Mall. Shopping Mall is not a 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:38.800 holiday horror movie or a holiday movie at all, but 0:00:39.400 --> 0:00:44.200 it concerns the shopping mall, you know, the original cathedrals 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:49.000 of consumerism, giant interior spaces where you could eat, shop, 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.880 hang out when permitted by security, and of course, during 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:57.160 the holidays, meet Santa Claus himself or some representative of 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.480 Santa Claus within this giant, enclosed space. 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.360 Now, when I was a teenager, there was a brief 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:06.720 time when I actually did hang out at the shopping mall, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:09.440 just like in the movies, because it's very convenient when 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.480 you're like fourteen, you don't have your own car. You 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:14.319 want to hang out with your friends at a place 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.759 where you're not like at somebody's house with their parents, 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.720 but you don't really have anywhere else to go. You 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.160 can get dropped off at the mall and hang out there. 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.000 But right at the time that I was like getting 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.160 into a groove of hangouts at the mall, our local 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.679 mall I think banned unaccompanied miners because some of us 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:33.600 were getting into trouble. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.959 Apparently, Yeah, yeah, that was That was frequently the issue, 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.759 wasn't it. I don't remember. I don't think I ever 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:42.319 went to the mall frequently enough to run a foul 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.120 of security. But I remember it being an ideal destination 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:49.880 as like a junior high kid and as a teenager 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.200 a bit, you know, because you go there, you got 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.600 the food, you got the arcade, You've got the you know, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.560 the Spencer's gift stores and the like the rock band 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:03.440 T shirt store. You know, it feels like you're you're 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.240 entering into a wider world of adult responsibility and possibilities 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:09.400 when you go into the mall. 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:12.320 And extreme alienation and religious significance. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:18.959 Yeah. So yes. Chopping Mall is a nineteen eighty six film, 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:21.760 and just the fact that it came out in eighty 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.040 six is pretty amazing, because nineteen eighty six is an 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.800 amazing year for genre cinema, but the genre that I 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:30.720 am yeah, oh yeah, that's try You came out in 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.880 eighty six, so you and this movie are basically siblings. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.120 Of course. The other big horror movie that's filmed in 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.480 the mall is George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:42.440 is I guess you could say, you know. Donn of 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:47.200 the Dead is more of a intentional satire of consumerism 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:52.880 and the American use of malls, where characters end up 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:55.880 going there during a zombie apocalypse and encountering all of 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.960 these zombified humans that are just sort of wandering about 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.240 the mall. Chopping Mall is a little lighter on the satire, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.560 but is is still a heck of a lot of fun. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.200 Well, I say, no, Chopping Mall is heavy on the satire, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.320 but the tone of the satire is lighter. Yes, it's 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:12.919 like when when when Dona the I mean, I love 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.840 Donna the Dead, but but when it decides to say something, 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.040 it's going to like sort of grab you by the 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.720 collar and say something at you. It's it's very heavy handed. 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.160 Chopping Mall has a I mean, let's let's be clear, 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:31.560 Chopping Mall is is just sleezy eighty slasher trash, but 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:35.640 it's a kind of transcendent sleezy eighty slasher trash because 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.800 it has a real spirit of fun and it's like 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.960 sour cream and onion flavored. It's just really spunky. 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.640 Yeah, it's when it has something to say about malls 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.600 and consumers and it's it's it's more of a snicker 0:03:48.600 --> 0:03:52.520 as opposed to a loud proclamation to your point. And uh, 0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:55.720 and I will say, well, you could argue that there's 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.280 some sleezy aspects to the plot. A lot of the 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.560 sleazier aspects feel like like they're thirteen year old sleezy 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.640 as opposed to like, you know, thirty year old sleezy. 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:08.280 I guess they're not night killer sleazy. Yeah, you're not 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:09.920 going to the real dark side. 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.080 Yeah, I mean it's radied r, but you know it's 0:04:14.160 --> 0:04:15.880 not gonna haunt your memories or anything. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.839 Well, I guess we get into weird territory because I realized, 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.240 like I just assumed from the beginning that the listeners 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.760 would always realize the movies we're talking about on Weird 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.520 House are almost never for kids. But we did recently 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:31.040 talk about an Ewok adventure, so there may be some 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:35.279 mixed signals going on now unless we say otherwise, the 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:37.479 movies we talk about on Weird House Cinema are not 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:38.560 for children. 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.320 Correct, So I think the first place to start with 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.160 this one is just is to talk about the title 0:04:44.160 --> 0:04:46.560 of the picture and the posters that came out the 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:52.680 VHS cover art as well promoting this film, because it's excellent, 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:56.760 but it's also really misleading. Like I remember seeing the 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:58.520 poster or box art when I was a kid, and 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:02.280 it says shopping mall, and depending on the copy, it's 0:05:02.279 --> 0:05:06.160 either in like blood font or like dripping chrome font, 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.560 and in either case, the centerpiece is a red paper 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.360 shopping bag that is torn and to varying degrees, loaded 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.760 with body parts like somebody's just chop some people up 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.080 put them in a shopping bag, and then there is 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.400 some sort of monstrous hand holding the bag. On one 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.640 poster it looks pretty much like like a big medieval gauntlet, 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.480 and on the other poster it looks like a slightly 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:33.039 cybernetic goblin hand. 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:35.800 Yeah, so what these bags definitely have in common is 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:40.400 the contents, which are body parts ahead the title chopping mall, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:44.560 but the hand. The difference in the hand is fascinating 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:47.240 and confusing and strange. What were they trying to say 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:51.440 about this film that in one version it's the Rollerball glove, 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.359 and then the other one it is a robot monster. 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.760 Yeah. The robot monster hand too, looks a whole lot 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.039 like the disembodied hand from the poster for the American 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.000 Haunted House movie House that came out the year before, 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.360 which is of course a very signature poster as well. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.640 This disembodied hand, I think putting a key in a 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:11.160 door lock. 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.560 Yeah, that's right. But the rollerball glove is interesting too. 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.480 It's got like the studs and the razors on the knuckles. 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.520 I don't know if you've ever seen the I must 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.520 confess I've actually never seen the James Kahn movie Rollerball, 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:27.400 but I'm to understand it's about some kind of dystopian 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.760 future death sport that where the characters wear these leather 0:06:30.839 --> 0:06:33.360 gloves that have metal studs on all the knuckles. 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.719 Yeah, and the poster vhs RT for Rollerball prominently features 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:39.599 that spiked fist of James Khan. 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.600 So which came out first Rollerball or Chopping mall O 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:43.680 Rollerball for sure? 0:06:44.160 --> 0:06:47.080 Oh okay, yeah, so I think one of the things 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.040 that explains all of this is the fact that this 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.200 movie chopping mall the Corman camp because this is ultimately 0:06:55.200 --> 0:06:59.839 a Roger Corman production. I think Julie Corman, his wife, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.880 is actually the producer, but it's a Corman property. They 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.160 tried to put it out with the name Kilbots, prominently 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.000 featuring one of the killer robots that's in the film 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:12.239 on the poster, and apparently it didn't do as well. 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.960 So Corman did a trick that he had done previously, 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.400 and that is take the film, repackage it, give it 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.760 a new title, new poster, arc put it out again, 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:23.240 and strike gold. 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:24.480 It's a whole new thing. 0:07:24.880 --> 0:07:28.040 Yeah. They'd done something similar with the nineteen seventy nine 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:32.760 film Screamers, which was an American release of the Italian 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.520 film Island of the Fishmen, and they put it out 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.080 as something Weights in the Dark. Didn't work, so they 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:41.840 took it back and Corman actually got this guy, Jim 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.360 wy Norski to produce some new opening footage for it. 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.880 They gave it a new title, Screamers, and then it 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:48.640 did pretty well. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.760 This is the one about the people who shipwreck on 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.720 an island and there's like a mad scientist there who 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.680 has created human fish hybrids. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:08:00.280 Yeah. Yeah, it's fabulous and I would love to back 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:04.160 and discuss it in a future episode, but I bring 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.000 it up here. Is just an example of the kind 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.240 of stuff that the Corman camp would do to figure 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:11.280 out just a sweet spot for promoting a film, and 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.400 in this case that what they seem to get was, well, 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.800 the audience isn't really interested in a killer robot movie 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.840 with this kind of like old fashioned, clunky robot, but 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.440 if we sell it as a slasher picture, then we 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:23.960 got them. 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:27.360 I mean, it's a huge difference. The poster for Chopping Mall. 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.080 I see that and I'm like, oh, I'm in the 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.320 poster for Killbots. I don't know. It looks like I've 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:32.880 seen this before and I had not. 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.959 Yeah, I remember seeing the box or the post art 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.840 for Chopping Mall as a kid and being too afraid 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:41.520 to look at the back of the box. But in 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:43.640 my mind I knew that it had to be a 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.520 film about a crazy guy in a big metal glove 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:48.960 who kills people in a shopping mall. Like that was 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.840 the whole plot I've formed in my head, And that's 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:54.040 pretty far from the truth. Yeah, this is a killer 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:54.840 robot movie. 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.120 Yeah, you would have imagined this was like a slasher 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.960 movie that involved I don't know, weapons lifted from KB 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:05.880 Toys or something. Yeah, or what was the oh Man? 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:11.400 The was it Camelot? The mall music store? Yeah, and 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.600 the I remember everything there was always really expensive, Like 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:17.080 the CDs were twenty two dollars and I was like, 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:18.240 how can you buy that? 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:21.360 Yeah, that was an age when when trying out new 0:09:21.440 --> 0:09:24.880 music it was a totally different scenario. Like today, you 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:27.800 try out multiple albums per day if you want via 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.120 you know, pretty much any paid subscription or even not 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.840 paying just going on YouTube and stuff. But back then, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.040 it was like, all right, I'm going to drop twenty 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:38.079 bucks on this new album. I don't know what it's 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:39.959 going to be, like, I haven't heard it. It might 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.040 be terrible, I might have I'm just going to listen 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:43.640 to it over and over again, though, and it at 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.240 least forced myself to like one song because this is 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.040 what I'm listening to this month, right. 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:50.840 I mean, it was a very different time because of 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.880 the monetary and time investment involved in discovering new music. 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.920 It seems like once you found something, you really liked 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:02.959 it was more special. Yeah, maybe that's just idealizing the past. 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.000 No, no, but you know, this is all really getting it. 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.200 I think one of the key things about Chopping Mall 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.920 that's so lovable is that Chopping Mall is an historic document, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.840 you know, Like so much of my appreciation of the 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:17.480 film is the fact that, yeah, they filmed it in 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.200 a real mall, an enormous mall. I'm all with three floors, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.960 and you see all these authentic stores in the background, 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.199 and it just it feels like some sort of a 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:34.800 testament to this this lost or fading tradition of American commercialism. 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:38.480 It also very much reminds me of the mall in 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:41.640 which scenes are shot in the movie Commando, and I 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.520 wonder if it is literally the same mall that they used. 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:47.280 To Well, let's go ahead and hit the elevator pitch 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:47.840 for this one. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:49.800 Okay, give it to me, Okay. 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:53.560 Part Plaza Mall has just updated its security system with 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:58.240 state of the art lockdown systems and three kill bots. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.760 I don't think they call them killbots, but they're protectors, 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:05.640 protectors to patrol throughout the mall. So obviously this is 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.400 a perfect time for several couples several teen couples to 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.800 have a lockdown party inside one of the stores, inside 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:15.960 of a furniture store. What could possibly go wrong? 0:11:16.360 --> 0:11:19.960 It's great, It's like, I mean, one of the funny 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.800 things is the presumption and actually I can believe this 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:26.880 thinking about it now, that the party teens would not 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:30.600 be made aware of the fact that there are lethal 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.800 robots rolling around in the mall at night, even though 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.200 they work there. It's just like the need to know basis, 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:38.640 you work here, but you don't need to know. 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.439 Yeah, they didn't put out a mimo or anything. 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.280 Yeah, should we hit some trailer audio? 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.760 Yeah, let's listen to some of this fabulous trailer. 0:11:47.640 --> 0:11:50.439 They broke into the mall or the wildest all night 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.120 party of their lives. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.600 And technique. 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.040 But you're never alone. 0:11:59.200 --> 0:12:00.160 In the chumping. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:10.360 What's that robots? 0:12:12.920 --> 0:12:19.280 Jumping hall? We're shopping costs you an arm and a leg? 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:26.040 All right? 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:27.160 Where'd this thing come from? 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:30.920 All right? Well, we mentioned the director and writer already, 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:35.280 and that is jim Y Norski, who again was part 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.360 of the Roger Corman camp there. He was born in 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:40.920 nineteen fifty, still alive today as of this recording, and 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.040 is just a career b cinema guy. This was only 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.600 his second film. It was a follow up to nineteen 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.560 eighty four's Lost Empire, which apparently was a fantasy film. 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:53.360 I have not seen it, but I did read that 0:12:54.920 --> 0:12:58.960 Jim later said that Roger Corman hated the movie, but 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:01.000 he thought that he quote put the camera in some 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:03.760 interesting places and the girls were pretty, so that was 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:06.360 enough to get him sort of pull him into the 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.760 orbit of Roger Korman. But I did notice that Alan 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:13.520 Howarth did the music for it and has Angus Scrim 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.080 in it, So how bad could it possibly be? 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.120 Wait? Was Angus scrim in this movie? 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:22.480 He is? Yes, yeah, yeah, I'll go ahead and point out. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.400 Angus scrim the tall Man of the Phantasm movies has 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:30.280 a very brief cameo. It's not even a cameo because 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.160 he's not He's under an assumed name and you never 0:13:33.200 --> 0:13:35.880 see his face. But he's an individual who stands up 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.960 and asks a question at the Kilbot press conference in 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:40.160 the early stage of the movie. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:41.920 Oh okay, that was him. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.440 Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, unless you're looking for it, 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.720 you'll totally miss it. So anyway, yeah, Jim Wainorski, here 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.200 he goes on from this film to direct Death Stalker two. 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:57.480 He directed The Return Swamp Thing. He has one hundred 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.959 and four director credits on IMDb, including a fair amount 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.480 of exploitation films, some late night Cinemax style films thrown 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.920 in there, but also family films, some kind of cringey 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.120 looking parody films from recent years, but just a lot 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.840 of stuff all over the map, Yeah, all over the map. Like, 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.000 some of it looks very interesting, some of it you 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.320 want to skip on. But but yeah, he's had quite 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:21.720 a career. 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.240 It's hard to believe that this was made by the 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.400 same person who made Death Stalker two, because Death Stalker 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:31.640 two is just a sand sandwich. It's just awful. Then 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.760 this is, I mean, comparatively, this movie is I mean again, 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.680 it is trash, but it's very it's pretty like light 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:39.000 fun trash. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.800 Yeah, yeah it is. It's it's more fast food, you know. 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:45.720 And and it also this is something worth pointing out. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.760 It knows it's fast food, but in a way that 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.000 oddly works. It's very rare to find that in a 0:14:52.040 --> 0:14:56.440 film today. You know, so many self aware b movies 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.040 are just difficult to tolerate. But this and somehow it 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:03.120 would it walks that line and does a good job 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:03.440 with it. 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.640 We were just talking about this recently off mic about 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:14.120 how there are so few intentionally bad, successfully funny movies 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.880 and TV shows, and now you know, obviously we're doing 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.920 this show, so we clearly love bad movies. But but like, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.080 it's hard to think of people who do it on 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.560 purpose and it works. We thought of Garth Marenghi's Dark 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.360 Place bad on purpose, very funny. This movie, I think 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.120 fits that category, but it's really quite rare. Most of 0:15:33.160 --> 0:15:34.480 the time, it just hurts. 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:37.600 Yeah, And one of the things that I was saying 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.760 about Garth Marenghi's Dark Place is that, well, it works 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:44.320 because it has this kind of dry sensibility. But Chopping 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.480 Mall does not have a dry sensibility. So you know, 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.320 my reasoning there doesn't really apply to this film. 0:15:50.760 --> 0:15:52.160 Yeah, I wonder all. 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.880 Right, So, as we mentioned Chopping Mall concerns, I think 0:15:55.960 --> 0:16:00.600 four different couples, and they are difficult to keep track 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.480 of until they start dying because they all basically look alike. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:07.840 As I was discussing the film with my wife last night, 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.120 I think this film's idea of diversity is casting one 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:15.000 non blonde female in the whole picture, so it's easy 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:16.600 to lose track of who's who. We're not going to 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:20.680 mention all of the teen players here, but we'll mention 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:24.440 a few of them. Top billing goes to Kelly Moroney. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.280 She was also the star of Night of the Comment 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:28.080 in eighty four. 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:30.680 Oh, that's another great one. We shall come back to that. 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:37.000 The real standout team is Mike, the beefy one, the 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:43.440 gum Shower, and he's played by John Terleski. Very memorable 0:16:43.440 --> 0:16:45.600 part of this film. But he's one of these guys 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.120 that goes on to have quite a career. Well, first 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:49.800 of all, he goes on to play the death Stalker 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:52.680 in Death Stalker two, but he went on to act 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:54.880 in a bunch of stuff and directed quite a bit, 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.400 including just a ton of steady mainstream TV work in 0:16:58.440 --> 0:17:03.200 recent years, sixpisodes of the Blacklist, twenty six episodes of Castle, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:04.800 and then in two thousand and five, he wrote and 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:06.040 directed a movie about. 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:07.840 Cerberus from Greek mythology. 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.960 Yeah, well, I mean I haven't seen it. I've only 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:15.159 seen the trailer. I can't imagine. It's too versed in 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:16.840 Greek mythology, but it exists. 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.560 I mean, this guy is an amazing specimen. So we're 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.200 gonna talk. I guess once we get into the full 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.760 plot breakdown, I'll mention some of the main teens. But 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:29.000 this guy is just a peak specimen of the like 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:34.639 eighties jock Bully character, and he's so good. He's just 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:38.760 a can of Dentte Moore. He's this knuckleneck guy with 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.800 the smirks. It's fabulous. 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.600 Yeah, he's shirtless most of the film. It's wonderful, or 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:47.920 most of the film during which he's alive. Because obviously 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.119 he's the character that's introduced. You're like, oh, this guy's 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:52.399 this guy's biding it. This guy's getting killed by a 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:53.200 robot for sure. 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:53.880 Yeah. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:58.879 Now, the film also features the legendary Barbara Crampton as Susie, 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.400 one of the the teens were discussing here. Now. She's 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:05.960 a true screen queen and genre staple, especially in Stuart 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.160 Gordon films. She got her start in Brian de Palmer's 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.960 Body Double, but then she went on to act in Reanimator, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:18.359 from Beyond, Puppet Master, Transfers to Robot Wars, Castle Freaks, 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.719 Space Truckers. Yeah, she's been in a ton of stuff. 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.639 Oh, that's Robot Wars. But I thought for a second 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:27.600 you were talking about Robot Jocks, which is I think 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:29.080 also a Stuart Gordon movie. 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.800 Yeah, robot Jocks is really Good's that's one that's kind 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:35.360 of in my short list to scout out to see 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:37.040 if that's one we need to discuss here. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:38.440 Oh oh it's coming. 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:43.760 Yeah. Now, another cult icon that's in this film, though 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:49.399 very briefly, is Mary warrenov plays. She plays a character 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.080 that we're told is Mary Bland alongside Paul Bland played 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.159 by Paul Bartell. I'll get to in just a second 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.359 there at present only briefly in the film, at that 0:18:58.520 --> 0:19:01.840 Kilbot press conference that it occurs. 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:03.400 Early on in the film. 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.080 Now, she's very interesting. She started out as a Warhol 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:12.919 superstar in the eighties, one of Andy Warhol's followers and 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.720 celebrity people. But then she acted in a ton of 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:18.560 B movies, especially Corman films. She did a lot of 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.440 TV and stage work, and she's one of these people 0:19:21.480 --> 0:19:23.919 that I always smile when she shows up in a 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.680 film because she's always an absolute delight. And the cool 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.680 thing is you often find her alongside this guy Paul Bartell, 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:36.360 who again is playing the bearded gentleman setting next to her. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.879 And this is interesting because he's most famous for writing 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:45.639 and directing the horror comedy Eating Rahul in nineteen eighty two, 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:48.679 about a pair of restaurant tours who turned to murder. 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:53.720 And he plays Paul Bland in that, and Mary plays 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.800 Mary Bland in that. So in Chopping Mall, they are 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:58.000 reprising these. 0:19:57.880 --> 0:20:01.240 Roles the core cinematic universe. 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.240 Yeah, exactly, And so there you know, it's all just 0:20:04.280 --> 0:20:07.760 a big wink to this other movie now and within 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:13.160 the Corman universe. Bartel also directed Corman's Death Race two thousand, 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:14.880 among a slew of other films. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.960 Oh that's interesting, another bad one. Man. We are just 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.840 rattling off the list of rabbit holes to go down today. 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:25.920 I should mention before we move on from Mary, warnoff 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.840 that she is also fantastic in a more recent horror movie, 0:20:29.640 --> 0:20:34.159 The actually quite scary and extremely disturbing, extremely good House 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.160 of the Devil, directed by Ty West. 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.520 Oh cool. I haven't seen that yet, but if she's 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:39.760 in it, I'm interested. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:42.960 Yeah, she's great. And it's also got Tom Noonan in it, 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.880 who's oh creepy as he always is. But I don't 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:49.720 know I don't want to write it off as just like, well, 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:51.919 those are his character traits. I mean, tom Noonan is 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.560 a great actor, but also just like eh. 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:58.160 He plays a great, great creep for sure. Yeah, all right, 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:00.760 I mean there's just some again, like you said, so 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.000 many rabbit holes in the cast of this film, because 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:04.800 it also has Dick Miller. Oh. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.000 Dick Miller is also a classic Corman player, going all 0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:10.600 the way back. 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:10.919 He was. 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.760 He starred in some sixties Coorman movies, Not of This Earth. 0:21:14.800 --> 0:21:18.560 He's got a great small role in that. He's just wonderful. 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.240 Yeah, a lot of you will probably remember him from 0:21:21.280 --> 0:21:25.720 Grimlins Grimlins two. He was in the Howling piranha little Shop, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:29.239 the Little Shop of Ours, Night of the Creeps, and 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.440 then one of the scenes that I really love him in. Again, 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:34.520 he's often in the little small parts and things, but 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.240 he was in the Terminator. He was the gun shop clerk. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:40.000 Do you remember that scene, Joe, of course. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.240 Yeah, one of these weapons is ideal for home defense. 0:21:43.680 --> 0:21:47.320 Yeah, it's that great. In exchange for the terminators rattling 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:50.200 off this list of weapons and he says saves plasma 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:52.320 rifle and the forty watt rage and Miller says, Hey, 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:54.280 just what you see pal right, it's great. 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.000 I have to think that maybe there's a little bit 0:21:57.000 --> 0:21:59.879 of subtle political commentary in that scene. Was this mur 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.880 robot from the future is just listing this giant catalog 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.479 of weapons that he needs to murder people with, and 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:08.000 the guy's like, yeah, defend your home. 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.600 Yeah. So Dick Miller plays you know, I guess you 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:16.760 know he had headed a type. He plays his kind 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.800 of snappy every man, you know, and that's what he 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:22.159 plays in this He's a janitor who dares to stand 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.239 up to the killer robot and gets electrocuted for it. 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:28.399 Oh man, the cameos just don't stop. Though. There is 0:22:28.440 --> 0:22:32.920 another amazing character actor in this movie, Garrett Graham, who's 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:34.960 in He's in this movie for like two minutes. He 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:37.000 just plays like a guy in a lab coat who 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.439 gets murdered. But I love Garrett Graham, and this is 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:43.960 main I mean, I love everything I've seen him in. Well, 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:45.199 I don't know if I love all the movies, but 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:48.240 always love him. Yeah, And he is absolutely one of 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.080 the highlights of the Phantom of the Paradise, a great 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:55.359 Brian De Palma movie, where he plays the the I 0:22:55.359 --> 0:22:58.200 don't even know how to describe him. This like Frankenstein 0:22:58.359 --> 0:22:59.800 rock star named Beef. 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:06.119 Yeah, yeah, I think that's accurate. He has these eyes, 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:10.119 these very expressive, kind of like bugged out eyes some people. 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.520 Some people may recognize him as Bud the Chud from 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:15.080 Chud to Bud the Chud. 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.320 Yeah, but there's the titular Budd the Judge. 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:22.959 He is he is. I really loved him in the 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.359 movie Terror Vision, which also came out in eighty six 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:30.200 and also had Mary Warrenov in it. That's a film 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:32.800 I absolutely adore, and we may have to come back 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:33.719 to that one in the future. 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.680 This movie is like a trawler nets just sucking in 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.520 like every great weird character actor and Corman player. 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.320 Yeah, now we already mentioned Angus scrim Barely shows up 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:49.639 apparently was credited as Lawrence Guy on this one. And 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:52.600 then oh and then as a cameo, Julie Corman, the producer, 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:56.440 shows up as a mall shopper with a baby. Again. 0:23:57.240 --> 0:24:00.280 Corman is Roger Corman's wife. And as far as other 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:02.840 folks involved in the film, I mean, I didn't follow 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.280 every rabbit hole, but I did notice that Carol Clements 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:08.879 was the art director who also worked on the nineteen 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:12.520 eighty six film Vamp, an excellent vampire film starring Grace 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:16.399 Jones and Billy Drago, which also has kind of a 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:17.480 snazzy look to it. 0:24:17.840 --> 0:24:19.679 Oh wait a second, is that the one about like 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.720 the college kids who go to the vampire town that's 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:24.760 got all the very expressionist sets. 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:28.880 Yeah, and Grace Jones is like this vampire dancer. Okay, 0:24:29.280 --> 0:24:32.359 and it has a great cast of b players as well, 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:35.960 but it also has like a definite style, at least 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:36.800 in some of the scenes. 0:24:37.080 --> 0:24:39.280 It's been a long time, but I remember really liking 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:49.200 that one. Yeah, okay, well is it time to get 0:24:49.240 --> 0:24:51.919 into the full plot breakdown? I mean to the extent 0:24:51.960 --> 0:24:52.720 that this movie has. 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:55.000 One yeah, yeah, this one. This is a This is 0:24:55.800 --> 0:24:58.879 a movie that knows once it has your attention, it 0:24:58.960 --> 0:25:01.960 needs to keep going. I think the version I watched anyway, 0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:04.600 is like seventy seven minutes, so there's only so much 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:06.399 plot here, but it's all well done. 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:09.199 I always respect that. Actually, and in a movie that 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:11.639 knows its trash and is like, look, we're going to 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:13.359 get to the point. It's going to be really short. 0:25:13.400 --> 0:25:15.399 I've said this a million times now about Attack of 0:25:15.440 --> 0:25:18.040 the crab Monsters. It's like a sixty two minute movie. 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:20.040 I mean, how can you beat it? It's just amazing. 0:25:20.520 --> 0:25:23.440 Why drag it out for another twenty minutes? Yeah, and 0:25:24.080 --> 0:25:26.480 I would say that Chopping Mall is of the same philosophy. 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:29.360 It's something like seventy seven minutes long including the credits. 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:32.320 But so what happens at the very beginning. We begin 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:34.879 with the scene of a robbery. You've got one of 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:39.200 these eighties movie punks. He's this sallow leather jacket punk 0:25:39.560 --> 0:25:43.320 who breaks the glass of a jewelry store and snatches 0:25:43.320 --> 0:25:46.040 a bunch of precious jewels out of the window in 0:25:46.040 --> 0:25:50.160 an otherwise apparently just deserted mall. And so you think 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:52.160 he's going to get away with the jewels, but then 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:56.359 there's a robot. He is pursued by a robot who 0:25:56.720 --> 0:25:58.920 I was wondering how you were going to describe the 0:25:58.960 --> 0:26:02.639 look of the kill bots in this movie. My feeling 0:26:02.720 --> 0:26:05.520 was that they look like Alpha five from The Power 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:09.680 Rangers on the head portion but with tank treads. 0:26:10.280 --> 0:26:13.639 Yeah. Yeah, they're kind of like you have to kind 0:26:13.680 --> 0:26:16.680 of define it by referencing other robots. There's a little 0:26:16.680 --> 0:26:18.600 bit of Johnny five in there. There's a little bit 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:23.119 of Dayek in there. I'm not sure what else to 0:26:23.160 --> 0:26:26.560 compare it. Definitely that Power Rangers bot you mentioned. He 0:26:26.680 --> 0:26:28.680 does have a head like that, kind of a big 0:26:29.240 --> 0:26:30.359 flying saucer head. 0:26:30.600 --> 0:26:33.359 The Dalak point is a good one. Alpha five dalk 0:26:33.400 --> 0:26:36.199 I would say, yeah, that's pretty much perfect. So the 0:26:36.240 --> 0:26:40.280 Alpha five Dalek is is running after the robber, rolling 0:26:40.280 --> 0:26:43.000 after the robber, and the robbers starts shooting at it 0:26:43.040 --> 0:26:45.760 with his revolver. Surely I can stop this metal robot 0:26:45.800 --> 0:26:50.000 with with this little gun. Somebody out there needs to 0:26:50.000 --> 0:26:54.160 make a feature length documentary film that is just about 0:26:54.320 --> 0:26:57.280 the shot where some meat head in a movie is 0:26:57.320 --> 0:27:00.119 shooting a gun at a killer robot and they see 0:27:00.160 --> 0:27:03.240 the puny bullets bouncing off and doing nassing, and then 0:27:03.280 --> 0:27:06.720 they go w and the terror comes over their face 0:27:06.760 --> 0:27:09.040 and then they either drop the gun or throw the gun. 0:27:09.760 --> 0:27:12.440 Alpha five does not react to these gunshots at all. 0:27:12.520 --> 0:27:16.360 It does not even give you an AIII. He tases 0:27:16.400 --> 0:27:19.159 the crook and then we get a the end title, 0:27:19.240 --> 0:27:22.159 which was a very nice little gag. But then it 0:27:22.200 --> 0:27:24.800 turns out this is a film within a film, and 0:27:24.880 --> 0:27:28.120 we're getting a demonstration of the latest in cutting edge 0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:33.280 security technology, the Protector one oh one series robots, and 0:27:33.359 --> 0:27:35.960 of course, as you mentioned, then we pull back we 0:27:36.000 --> 0:27:40.160 see an audience there observing this film. Hype Man's about 0:27:40.160 --> 0:27:42.440 to show up, and we see paulp. Bartel and Mary 0:27:42.480 --> 0:27:45.040 Warren of and the audience wearing their name tags, so 0:27:45.080 --> 0:27:47.920 we know that they're actually playing the same characters they 0:27:47.920 --> 0:27:51.040 were in the other movies we've already seen. And I 0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:52.760 love what we get. This guy who runs up, who's 0:27:52.800 --> 0:27:57.000 this like Royce McCutcheon type hype man, you know, bring 0:27:57.040 --> 0:28:00.000 me some of that moon money, and he assures us 0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:03.240 that the Protectors do not kill. But Paul Bartel is 0:28:03.320 --> 0:28:06.200 not buying it. He's like, I don't know, he looked 0:28:06.240 --> 0:28:10.400 pretty dead to me. But Royce McCutcheon assures the audience 0:28:10.440 --> 0:28:13.800 that the punk is merely neutralized until he can be 0:28:13.920 --> 0:28:18.200 located by law enforcement. And then he does this survey 0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:20.640 of all their weapons, which is great. He talks about 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:25.119 how they've got sleep darts and they have lasers positioned 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:27.920 here that can cut through any sort of debris, which 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:30.040 sounds very useful in a security robot. 0:28:30.320 --> 0:28:32.159 Yeah, like what kind of debris are they supposed to 0:28:32.160 --> 0:28:33.800 be cutting through in the mall. And as for the 0:28:33.840 --> 0:28:36.520 sleep darts, that sounds good, but I can't remember do 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:38.720 we see any sleep darts deployed in this film. 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:42.040 I don't remember any sleep darts. I remember the robots. 0:28:42.040 --> 0:28:44.600 So they use their little pincer things to like slash 0:28:44.600 --> 0:28:47.960 people's necks, and they use their lasers to blow up 0:28:48.000 --> 0:28:48.680 people's heads. 0:28:48.920 --> 0:28:51.240 Yeah, they use those lasers. 0:28:51.800 --> 0:28:54.480 And they're like Imperial storm troopers, like they can't aim 0:28:54.600 --> 0:28:56.040 at all, but. 0:28:56.040 --> 0:28:58.920 They get coverage. They get coverage with the spray. 0:28:59.240 --> 0:29:01.520 That's right, they're laying down suppressing fire. 0:29:03.560 --> 0:29:07.680 I have to say the killbots here, they look pretty good, 0:29:07.760 --> 0:29:09.840 you know. I mean you look at the overall design 0:29:10.120 --> 0:29:14.200 and it's what doesn't look thrown together. You know, it's 0:29:14.240 --> 0:29:18.280 not humanoid at all. It has like four arms that 0:29:18.320 --> 0:29:19.880 are very much like the arms of some sort of 0:29:19.880 --> 0:29:24.400 like a lunar probe or something. So it's a bit 0:29:24.480 --> 0:29:27.040 shocking if you go into it expecting that metal claw, 0:29:27.160 --> 0:29:30.720 metal hand from the poster or the box art. But 0:29:31.120 --> 0:29:32.640 I think the end result looks pretty good. 0:29:32.880 --> 0:29:38.320 Oh yeah, I mean they're lovable deubery killer robots. Yeah, 0:29:39.040 --> 0:29:41.640 and so oh yeah, and we get this one of 0:29:41.680 --> 0:29:43.600 the things I wanted to flag that we already talked 0:29:43.600 --> 0:29:46.560 about this a bit, is that they're called protectors, because 0:29:46.600 --> 0:29:49.320 that just seems like that is actually, I think, pretty 0:29:49.360 --> 0:29:54.120 perfect satire in a very contained little capsule, because they 0:29:54.120 --> 0:29:57.280 don't seem to be designed for protecting anything that's alive. 0:29:57.360 --> 0:29:59.240 I don't know, maybe the pets in the pet store, 0:29:59.560 --> 0:30:03.280 but the goal appears to be to quote neutralize shoplifters, 0:30:04.160 --> 0:30:07.240 and yet they're called protectors. So I think the branding 0:30:07.320 --> 0:30:09.000 satire is very on point. 0:30:09.280 --> 0:30:14.000 Yeah, like they they want to protect merchandise from perceived thieves, 0:30:14.440 --> 0:30:18.000 even if it means absolutely destroying a store to do it, 0:30:18.640 --> 0:30:21.080 cutting through it with those lasers, rolling through it like 0:30:21.160 --> 0:30:22.680 a tank, whatever, it takes. 0:30:23.200 --> 0:30:26.560 Warning warning, like they see a guy in a mohawk 0:30:26.760 --> 0:30:29.520 just walking by the pet store and their eyes glow red. 0:30:31.040 --> 0:30:32.640 But one of the other things I really like in 0:30:32.720 --> 0:30:36.040 this hype speech is that we get McCutcheon starts laying 0:30:36.080 --> 0:30:39.719 out like Chekhov's rules. So he says there are steel 0:30:39.760 --> 0:30:42.440 security doors that lock the mall at night so that 0:30:42.480 --> 0:30:44.760 no one can get in. Of course, the implication is 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:49.960 or out. You also get the the you get to 0:30:49.960 --> 0:30:52.800 get a divulged that the robots protect the mall itself 0:30:52.840 --> 0:30:56.200 but cannot enter the individual stores, which holds up for 0:30:56.240 --> 0:30:59.200 a bit in the movie. But you can guess this 0:30:59.240 --> 0:31:01.800 will lead to at least a temporary game of mal 0:31:01.920 --> 0:31:04.560 is Lava where you have to hop from store to store. 0:31:05.040 --> 0:31:07.280 Yeah, which is is again kind of reminiscent of Donna 0:31:07.320 --> 0:31:09.600 the Dad, where there was this idea of like getting 0:31:09.600 --> 0:31:11.080 from one store to the next, and if the store 0:31:11.160 --> 0:31:12.680 was locked out, the zombies couldn't get in. 0:31:13.080 --> 0:31:16.320 Yeah. And then also they will supposedly not harm anyone 0:31:16.320 --> 0:31:18.360 who has a security badge. So I will say it 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:20.520 sets up both of these rules, and they hold for 0:31:20.600 --> 0:31:22.800 about a third of the movie, and then do not. 0:31:23.080 --> 0:31:26.120 Hold right, and there's yeah, there's not. Well, there is 0:31:26.160 --> 0:31:28.280 one reason for why it doesn't work, but there's not 0:31:28.280 --> 0:31:30.200 not a lot of time is given to really explaining 0:31:30.280 --> 0:31:31.160 what went wrong here. 0:31:31.200 --> 0:31:32.600 Oh yeah, we got to get to that. But then, 0:31:32.640 --> 0:31:36.200 of course Royce McCutcheon tells us, trust me, absolutely nothing 0:31:36.320 --> 0:31:39.640 can go wrong. Then we cut to an opening credit 0:31:39.720 --> 0:31:43.480 sequence that is dynamite, So you got this synth sequence 0:31:43.560 --> 0:31:47.720 or terminator music, and just vignettes from the galleria. We 0:31:48.200 --> 0:31:51.760 witness this lady navigating a crowded food court full of 0:31:51.840 --> 0:31:54.600 rude people pushing around, and she's got a tray full 0:31:54.640 --> 0:31:59.440 of meatball subs and these gallon sized Coca Cola cups. Yeah, 0:31:59.480 --> 0:32:02.240 and then go to an arcade in which adult men 0:32:02.320 --> 0:32:04.440 are shoving children out of the way for a turn 0:32:04.480 --> 0:32:07.880 at the Defender cabinet. There are a bunch of beauty 0:32:07.920 --> 0:32:11.920 pageant contestants in bikinis just going up and down the escalators. 0:32:12.560 --> 0:32:15.400 We see a makeout sash happening on one of the 0:32:15.440 --> 0:32:19.200 benches down on the lower level that seems actually kind 0:32:19.200 --> 0:32:22.600 of sweet, and then it's, I don't know, the whole 0:32:22.600 --> 0:32:23.680 thing's very glorious. 0:32:24.000 --> 0:32:28.160 Yeah, it is like the dream of Mall America presented 0:32:28.200 --> 0:32:31.800 to you, like the idea, the ideal mall experience. 0:32:32.240 --> 0:32:34.520 But eventually, of course we're going to meet some youths 0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:37.200 who work in the mall, and I think these are 0:32:37.240 --> 0:32:41.320 basically our main character is as you alluded to earlier, 0:32:41.600 --> 0:32:44.440 it really is not even worth trying to distinguish them 0:32:44.440 --> 0:32:47.640 all that much, and they're just like they're teens who 0:32:47.680 --> 0:32:49.160 are up to no good. There are a couple of 0:32:49.160 --> 0:32:51.680 girls who work in a pizza parlor. There are some 0:32:51.800 --> 0:32:54.920 bad boys who work in a furniture store, or maybe 0:32:54.960 --> 0:32:56.600 it's a department store. I don't know. It's just got 0:32:56.640 --> 0:32:59.240 a lot of stuff in it, but mainly furniture. In 0:32:59.280 --> 0:33:02.080 the furniture are planning a party. They are going to 0:33:02.120 --> 0:33:04.600 get some beer and then they're gonna get up to 0:33:04.680 --> 0:33:07.360 no good in the store after hours. And there's a 0:33:07.360 --> 0:33:11.320 great scene where one of the main three guys you 0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:13.920 meet at first is like, you've got your low confidence nerd, 0:33:14.400 --> 0:33:17.760 and then you've got this preppy izod chipmunk guy who 0:33:17.800 --> 0:33:20.840 looks like he's gonna go pledge Delta house. And then 0:33:20.960 --> 0:33:24.760 you've got the knuckleneck jock bully, the terleski guy who 0:33:24.800 --> 0:33:28.360 is just exquisite. And there's a great part where they're 0:33:28.400 --> 0:33:31.920 trying to talk the nerd into partying, and eventually they 0:33:32.000 --> 0:33:35.080 win him over and he's like, okay, okay, let's party. 0:33:36.840 --> 0:33:39.880 Yeah. So I mean, basically, true to form, you know 0:33:40.000 --> 0:33:43.440 that the nerdiest guy and the nerdiest girl are going 0:33:43.520 --> 0:33:46.440 to be the ones that survive. And really this is 0:33:46.480 --> 0:33:51.600 cemented when as the party progresses, everybody else is making 0:33:51.640 --> 0:33:55.080 out and whatnot, but these two are settled in on 0:33:55.160 --> 0:33:58.520 a couch in the furniture store and what are they 0:33:58.560 --> 0:33:59.360 watching on the TV? 0:33:59.760 --> 0:34:02.200 Oh? Man, it's Attack of the Crab Monsters. This was 0:34:02.240 --> 0:34:06.040 one of my favorite moments in the movie. Wait, what 0:34:06.040 --> 0:34:07.440 did you think about this when you saw it? 0:34:07.720 --> 0:34:10.200 I loved it. I was like, yep, I mean part 0:34:10.239 --> 0:34:11.920 of it, I think is knowing that it's your one 0:34:11.920 --> 0:34:14.879 of your favorite films and yeah, and also that it's 0:34:14.920 --> 0:34:18.239 just there's something about this being a Corman production, and 0:34:18.320 --> 0:34:21.520 like the worship of Corman cinema within the film feels Yeah, 0:34:21.560 --> 0:34:22.320 it feels perfect. 0:34:22.800 --> 0:34:25.160 Yeah. So they're watching Attack of the Crab Monster is 0:34:25.160 --> 0:34:29.600 a late fifties Corman classic drive in movie classic. I 0:34:29.600 --> 0:34:31.960 think I mentioned it already earlier on. It's like sixty 0:34:32.040 --> 0:34:35.600 minutes long. It's about giant psychic crabs that are created 0:34:35.640 --> 0:34:38.640 by atomic radiation. And they're not just watching the movie, 0:34:38.680 --> 0:34:41.520 they're also watching the best scene in the movie, which 0:34:41.560 --> 0:34:43.680 is the part right at the end after the heroes 0:34:43.760 --> 0:34:47.200 blow off one of the crab's giant claws. The psychic 0:34:47.280 --> 0:34:50.520 crab taunts them by saying, so you have wounded me 0:34:50.920 --> 0:34:54.000 very well. I will grow a new claw, but will 0:34:54.040 --> 0:34:57.080 you grow new lives when I have taken yours from you? 0:34:58.640 --> 0:35:01.800 That my friends is Corn and screenwriter Charles B. Griffith 0:35:01.920 --> 0:35:05.920 at his finest. And I don't know, it's hard to 0:35:05.960 --> 0:35:08.480 explain exactly why I love it so much, But I 0:35:08.480 --> 0:35:11.040 think also Charles B. Griffith, if he had wanted to, 0:35:11.440 --> 0:35:14.160 could have written an amazing shopping mall killbot movie. 0:35:14.440 --> 0:35:15.600 Yeah. 0:35:15.680 --> 0:35:17.720 Oh, but I guess we should comment on what exactly 0:35:17.760 --> 0:35:20.040 the inciting incident of the plot is. So we've got 0:35:20.040 --> 0:35:22.120 teens up to no good. They're getting into trouble in 0:35:22.160 --> 0:35:25.560 the furniture store, and then lightning strikes the mall. 0:35:25.640 --> 0:35:27.960 Literally, this is the same thing that happened last week. 0:35:28.000 --> 0:35:30.920 And yes, exactly the coast in the machine, the exact 0:35:30.960 --> 0:35:34.880 same plot device. There's a lightning storm, there's a power surge, 0:35:35.080 --> 0:35:37.960 and then machines go nuts and start killing people. And 0:35:37.960 --> 0:35:41.040 that's exactly what happens here. Lightning strikes the mall. We 0:35:41.040 --> 0:35:42.719 didn't plan it this way, did we. I think it 0:35:42.840 --> 0:35:44.000 just total lightning. 0:35:44.040 --> 0:35:45.440 It somehow struck twice. 0:35:45.760 --> 0:35:50.960 Yeah, And so lightning strikes the protectors start killing. They 0:35:52.080 --> 0:35:54.960 start with the mall security technician who is examining a 0:35:54.960 --> 0:35:58.400 Playboy magazine so intensely that he does not notice that 0:35:58.440 --> 0:36:01.239 the bots have started going biserve and you know they've 0:36:01.280 --> 0:36:04.440 gone into kill mode and so they stab him with 0:36:04.480 --> 0:36:07.799 their pincers. At some point around here, we also meet 0:36:07.840 --> 0:36:10.000 a nice couple who are having car trouble and they're 0:36:10.040 --> 0:36:13.200 going to end up at the party later. But they're 0:36:13.200 --> 0:36:16.160 not Mall employees. I guess that doesn't really matter. That's 0:36:16.280 --> 0:36:19.239 just yeah, But at this point, you've got basically all 0:36:19.280 --> 0:36:21.000 your pieces on the board. You've got a bunch of 0:36:21.040 --> 0:36:24.480 rowdy youths they're up to after hours misbehavior. You've got 0:36:24.480 --> 0:36:27.960 security robots gone berserk, and the plot is pretty simple 0:36:28.000 --> 0:36:30.839 after that, like you can imagine exactly what happens. It's 0:36:30.880 --> 0:36:34.680 your standard slasher trash in basic content, but as I said, 0:36:34.760 --> 0:36:38.000 this really does transcend most other slasher trash of its 0:36:38.120 --> 0:36:41.480 kind just by having a superior sense of humor and 0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:44.920 self awareness. And I think I described it already as 0:36:44.920 --> 0:36:47.520 sour cream and onion flavored. It might even be salt 0:36:47.560 --> 0:36:48.560 and vinegar. I don't know. 0:36:50.800 --> 0:36:52.919 But to your point, like, basically what's going to happen 0:36:53.000 --> 0:36:55.440 is you're gonna have kill after kill, with the kill 0:36:55.480 --> 0:36:59.520 circle ever closing around our main characters, and then they're 0:36:59.520 --> 0:37:01.440 gonna have to back right. 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:05.600 U though the main characters are kind of resourceful in 0:37:05.640 --> 0:37:08.040 this movie compared to the I mean, in a lot 0:37:08.080 --> 0:37:10.520 of slasher movies, the kids are just kind of bumbling 0:37:10.560 --> 0:37:14.040 around and then they're like, oh what, oh, it's Jason Lack. 0:37:14.800 --> 0:37:17.800 But in this movie, they're they're proactive. They set traps, 0:37:17.840 --> 0:37:20.480 they try to do clever things to defeat the robots, 0:37:20.480 --> 0:37:21.720 and they sometimes succeed. 0:37:22.320 --> 0:37:24.319 Yeah. I mean, for instance, that one of the first 0:37:24.320 --> 0:37:27.160 things they do is they go to the gun store 0:37:27.520 --> 0:37:28.719 in the mall and. 0:37:28.680 --> 0:37:32.800 They just called it's called Pecan Pause and it's a 0:37:32.840 --> 0:37:34.440 wall to wall firearms. 0:37:35.160 --> 0:37:37.600 That's well, that's that's that's actually kind of clever pecking pods. 0:37:37.880 --> 0:37:41.880 But but yeah, they they just they really arm themselves 0:37:42.040 --> 0:37:44.680 and and set out like, yeah, we're gonna wage war 0:37:44.800 --> 0:37:47.800 against these uh, against these robots. 0:37:48.640 --> 0:37:51.520 One detail I like is that after the furniture boys 0:37:51.560 --> 0:37:54.680 collect their guns, you can see they've also put some 0:37:54.760 --> 0:37:58.560 kind of putty into their outer ear canals. And I 0:37:58.560 --> 0:38:00.959 don't know if that's actually advisable in this scenario, because 0:38:00.960 --> 0:38:02.719 it might make it easier for a killbot to sort 0:38:02.719 --> 0:38:05.560 of roll up on you from behind. But it's interesting. 0:38:05.600 --> 0:38:07.680 This is one of the only movies I've ever seen 0:38:07.719 --> 0:38:11.720 where characters are preparing to use firearms and they decide 0:38:11.760 --> 0:38:13.160 to go for ear protection. 0:38:13.719 --> 0:38:16.719 It's interesting. It's pretty much the only example of responsible 0:38:16.719 --> 0:38:19.920 firearm use. Only well, I take that back, it's the 0:38:19.960 --> 0:38:24.239 only thing responsible even remotely related to a firearm that 0:38:24.320 --> 0:38:27.040 happens in this movie. But it is notable. 0:38:27.320 --> 0:38:29.319 I don't know why that details in there, but I 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:33.840 really appreciated it. But yeah, what are some other highlights 0:38:33.880 --> 0:38:36.640 once the carnage starts. Well, obviously there is the Dick 0:38:36.680 --> 0:38:39.560 Miller scene. So we mentioned earlier this actor who's been 0:38:39.560 --> 0:38:43.960 in Corman movie since the sixties. Dick Miller plays a 0:38:44.080 --> 0:38:46.640 janitor in this movie. He's just got one scene, but 0:38:46.880 --> 0:38:51.240 he's pretty great. He's an ornery, disgruntled janitor who's cleaning 0:38:51.320 --> 0:38:53.120 up I don't know what it is. It's like vomit 0:38:53.239 --> 0:38:57.040 or something, and the robot rolls up on him and 0:38:57.160 --> 0:39:00.160 he gets he gets fresh with the robot and the 0:39:00.239 --> 0:39:01.800 robot electrocutes him. 0:39:02.040 --> 0:39:03.680 Yeah, I mean the robot kind of picked a fight 0:39:03.719 --> 0:39:06.480 with him. It like knocks over a bucket. It's a 0:39:06.520 --> 0:39:10.800 weird scene. Yeah. So yeah, that's one of the early kills. 0:39:10.880 --> 0:39:13.960 Just to get things rolling and of course, throughout this, 0:39:14.080 --> 0:39:16.920 we're still in the mall, and one of my favorite 0:39:16.920 --> 0:39:19.280 things is just trying to read the names of stores 0:39:19.320 --> 0:39:24.240 in the background, one of which is House of Almonds. 0:39:25.080 --> 0:39:26.920 Like the first time you see you're not sure. You're like, 0:39:27.000 --> 0:39:29.120 is that House of Almonds? And then you see it 0:39:29.160 --> 0:39:32.360 several times more and you're like, yes, there's there. Apparently 0:39:32.480 --> 0:39:35.480 was a store called House of Almonds. I tried to 0:39:35.520 --> 0:39:39.040 find some hard details about it. I couldn't, but I 0:39:39.120 --> 0:39:41.480 guess this was a real store. I guess they only 0:39:41.520 --> 0:39:45.800 sold almonds and almond derivative products and like almond based 0:39:45.840 --> 0:39:47.200 candies or something. 0:39:47.360 --> 0:39:49.400 That's kind of store where you get cyanide poisoning. 0:39:49.760 --> 0:39:50.720 Yeah, I guess. 0:39:51.560 --> 0:39:56.080 No, Wait, so they're used to That's just hard to imagine. 0:39:56.120 --> 0:39:59.640 That's too specific to be a real business model, you'd think. 0:39:59.680 --> 0:40:01.680 But I mean, like I say, I wasn't able to 0:40:01.680 --> 0:40:04.479 find any hard details about this. Perhaps listeners can write 0:40:04.520 --> 0:40:07.040 in about this, did you ever work at a House 0:40:07.080 --> 0:40:09.120 of Almonds? Did you own House of Almonds? 0:40:09.200 --> 0:40:11.400 But tell us about the fall of the House of Almonds. 0:40:12.280 --> 0:40:15.200 I did see some photos online of what looked like 0:40:15.239 --> 0:40:18.240 the interiors and in one case exterior of a store 0:40:18.560 --> 0:40:21.239 with the name House of Almonds, and it looks like 0:40:21.320 --> 0:40:24.480 it was like almond candies and stuff. So I don't know. 0:40:25.040 --> 0:40:26.239 I mean, it sounds nuts but. 0:40:30.600 --> 0:40:33.120 So unintentional or okay, I don't know. 0:40:33.160 --> 0:40:37.839 It's it seems appropriate given given shopping mall. Again, this 0:40:37.920 --> 0:40:40.200 is where where shopping will cost you an arm and 0:40:40.200 --> 0:40:50.640 a leg. Remember right again, I'd say I mentioned earlier 0:40:50.719 --> 0:40:53.040 that the mall in this case, and I forget where 0:40:53.040 --> 0:40:55.480 they actually filmed. This is an actual mall obviously, but 0:40:56.000 --> 0:40:59.840 it's three stories of mall and it has some gorgeous 0:41:00.760 --> 0:41:04.279 and some walkways, so of course it has some some 0:41:04.360 --> 0:41:07.680 stunts where people fall and do these big, big, enormous 0:41:07.719 --> 0:41:09.479 falls through the center of the mall. 0:41:09.960 --> 0:41:12.319 Yeah. Eyad boy at one point gets knocked over the 0:41:12.360 --> 0:41:15.600 railing and goes splatt you know three floors below. That's 0:41:15.600 --> 0:41:16.080 pretty good. 0:41:16.400 --> 0:41:19.280 Yeah. Yeah. And I think I read that the director 0:41:19.560 --> 0:41:22.799 Jim he like test drove one of the stunts, like 0:41:23.040 --> 0:41:25.800 to prove that it was safe or something, and I 0:41:25.840 --> 0:41:27.719 think he ended up like breaking a rib in it. 0:41:27.800 --> 0:41:33.480 So oh, but the stunts look good, uh, and they 0:41:33.520 --> 0:41:36.440 make good use of the space, apparently they This is 0:41:36.440 --> 0:41:37.840 one of those films where yeh. They filmed it in 0:41:37.840 --> 0:41:40.640 the actual mall at night when nobody else was there. 0:41:41.000 --> 0:41:43.320 And yeah, they're firing off guns, they're setting portions of 0:41:43.360 --> 0:41:46.959 the floor on fire. They're using and lean a couple 0:41:46.960 --> 0:41:49.759 of cases at least they're using I guess phony storefronts 0:41:49.800 --> 0:41:52.960 turned into fake stores and then driving robots through them. 0:41:53.160 --> 0:41:54.280 It's it's pretty great. 0:41:54.400 --> 0:41:56.680 Well, I wish we'd figured out before we started recording. 0:41:56.680 --> 0:41:58.680 But we should look up after this which mall it 0:41:58.840 --> 0:42:02.480 was and figure out if it's the same mall as Commando, 0:42:02.600 --> 0:42:05.040 because if so, I definitely want to receive the Eagle 0:42:05.080 --> 0:42:06.040 Eye Prize for the week. 0:42:06.400 --> 0:42:08.200 Well, I can tell you now, Joe thinks of the 0:42:08.200 --> 0:42:10.600 power of the Internet. It was filmed at Sherman Oaks 0:42:10.640 --> 0:42:13.080 Galleria in Los Angeles, California. 0:42:13.440 --> 0:42:17.160 Wait a second, and it was used in multiple films. 0:42:17.200 --> 0:42:19.400 So night of the comment Commando. 0:42:19.280 --> 0:42:23.279 Command Yes, yes, yes, what do I win? What do 0:42:23.400 --> 0:42:25.279 I win? Tell them Barbara. 0:42:27.560 --> 0:42:29.719 Well, you get to learn that it was also where 0:42:29.719 --> 0:42:34.360 they spill filmed Innerspace parts of Innerspace Fast Times at 0:42:34.400 --> 0:42:38.160 Ridgemont High multiple films. So apparently it's just an easy 0:42:38.160 --> 0:42:40.240 place to film Back in the day. 0:42:40.400 --> 0:42:43.239 I had such a strong feeling. Man, I feel vindicated. 0:42:43.280 --> 0:42:45.120 I'm going to be this is going to be coursing 0:42:45.160 --> 0:42:46.640 through my veins rest of the day. 0:42:47.160 --> 0:42:48.520 Let's see what else do they do to make use 0:42:48.560 --> 0:42:51.120 of the space. There's use of the elevator. They make 0:42:51.160 --> 0:42:55.799 an elaborate robot trap using the elevator. They have kilbots 0:42:55.880 --> 0:42:57.840 using the escalators. 0:42:57.920 --> 0:42:58.960 Yeah, that's great. 0:42:59.160 --> 0:43:01.440 Which is a great scene because you know from earlier, 0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:03.879 you know about the size of the robot's torso there's 0:43:03.880 --> 0:43:06.759 no way that that thing's fitting on an escalator. But 0:43:07.280 --> 0:43:09.680 through the magic of cinema, it manages. 0:43:09.960 --> 0:43:13.160 M hmm. There's one part after they blow up one 0:43:13.160 --> 0:43:15.719 of the robots in an elevator trap, which which is 0:43:15.760 --> 0:43:18.480 a great sequence, I thought. And they're they're laying low 0:43:18.520 --> 0:43:20.480 in a hideout. I think maybe they've gone back to 0:43:20.760 --> 0:43:23.399 I don't know, the pizza parlor or something, and they're 0:43:23.400 --> 0:43:27.239 sitting around drinking diet coke and it looks like one 0:43:27.280 --> 0:43:30.120 of them is drinking Tabasco sauce, just because there are 0:43:30.200 --> 0:43:33.160 drink cans and bottles on the table and then right 0:43:33.200 --> 0:43:35.480 among them is a bottle of Tabasco sauce. That was 0:43:35.520 --> 0:43:36.120 funny to me. 0:43:38.040 --> 0:43:40.759 Let's say so yeah, basically, they regroup, they put the 0:43:40.800 --> 0:43:44.520 fight to the robots, they set robot traps, and just 0:43:44.560 --> 0:43:46.640 when you're thinking that all of the shooting at robots 0:43:46.719 --> 0:43:49.600 is going absolutely nowhere, one of them does manage to 0:43:49.719 --> 0:43:53.640 disable the killer lasers on one of the killbots with 0:43:53.840 --> 0:43:56.880 their gun, So you have to give them credit for that. 0:43:58.320 --> 0:44:00.640 Did we mention that there's a great headed explosion in 0:44:00.680 --> 0:44:03.400 this one of the female victims of her head explodes 0:44:03.400 --> 0:44:04.520 when she's shot with the laser. 0:44:04.680 --> 0:44:09.120 Oh yeah, Terleski's girlfriend here. Her head explodes when she 0:44:09.120 --> 0:44:10.120 gets shot with a laser. 0:44:10.560 --> 0:44:13.719 Yeah, which is It's good. It's not too grizzly. It's 0:44:13.760 --> 0:44:17.360 not like Scanner's level head burst. It's well. 0:44:17.400 --> 0:44:19.600 Also, at the in the end credits, when they're like 0:44:19.640 --> 0:44:22.160 showing all the actors goofing around and then showing the 0:44:22.480 --> 0:44:25.239 actor's name and the character they play, the clip they 0:44:25.239 --> 0:44:27.120 pick for everybody else is just kind of like, hey, 0:44:27.160 --> 0:44:29.560 what's up hanging out on set? But the clip they 0:44:29.600 --> 0:44:34.240 show for her is her head exploding. There is another 0:44:34.280 --> 0:44:38.040 thing that I really enjoyed, which is that toward the 0:44:38.200 --> 0:44:41.240 end we get down to our final girl of the movie, 0:44:41.280 --> 0:44:44.000 who is the nice girl from early on who worked 0:44:44.000 --> 0:44:46.640 at the pizza parlor, the one who was watching attack 0:44:46.680 --> 0:44:49.480 at the Crab Monsters with the nerdy boy. But it 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:51.799 turns out she's a very good shot. She explains that 0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:54.239 her dad was a marine and she's in fact a 0:44:54.280 --> 0:44:58.319 real Annie Oakley with that revolver, and so she's been 0:44:58.360 --> 0:45:00.520 running around shooting at the robot. At one point, she 0:45:00.560 --> 0:45:04.759 gets chased into a pet store and just snakes and 0:45:04.840 --> 0:45:09.000 tarantulas are spilled all over her while she's trying to hide. 0:45:09.080 --> 0:45:11.279 It's a little implausible, but I like it. 0:45:11.880 --> 0:45:14.600 Yeah, it feels kind of perfect. I was thinking about 0:45:14.600 --> 0:45:16.319 this earlier. When I think back on some of the 0:45:16.360 --> 0:45:18.279 kids who like to hang out in the mall, I 0:45:18.280 --> 0:45:20.279 feel like, yeah, these are the kids that would have 0:45:20.280 --> 0:45:22.880 wanted to own snakes and tarantula. So it makes sense, 0:45:22.920 --> 0:45:25.359 you know, hang out of the metal store, buy your 0:45:25.960 --> 0:45:29.279 metal t shirts, and then go over and buy a tarantula. 0:45:29.800 --> 0:45:34.600 Right. I just bought a twenty four dollars copy of 0:45:34.640 --> 0:45:38.560 The Fragile by nine inch Nails and Camelot Music, and 0:45:39.480 --> 0:45:41.880 now it's time to go get some food for my tarantula. 0:45:42.320 --> 0:45:46.480 Yes, so ultimately they're able to overcome the robots. They 0:45:46.480 --> 0:45:48.239 blow up the last of the robots. So there is 0:45:48.280 --> 0:45:50.839 a stinger at the end where a robot comes up 0:45:51.160 --> 0:45:53.880 and says have a nice day or something to that effect, 0:45:54.440 --> 0:45:58.120 which I guess keeps the dream alive. And for my part, 0:45:58.160 --> 0:46:00.680 I can't help but wonder what could have been. You know, 0:46:00.680 --> 0:46:02.719 if they'd made a sequel to this, there's so many 0:46:02.719 --> 0:46:04.719 directions they could have gone in. They could have gone 0:46:04.760 --> 0:46:06.840 in a Christmas direction. Wouldn't that have been perfect to 0:46:06.920 --> 0:46:12.080 have a holiday chopping mall picture where it's I don't know, 0:46:12.120 --> 0:46:13.879 maybe it's the same mall, maybe it's a different mall, 0:46:13.920 --> 0:46:16.000 but you have the kill bots. Maybe you have a 0:46:16.120 --> 0:46:19.080 killer robot. Santa got a Santa hat? Yes, yeah, it 0:46:19.160 --> 0:46:20.719 put a sand hat on it. There's so much you 0:46:20.760 --> 0:46:21.080 could do. 0:46:21.760 --> 0:46:22.960 I totally agree. 0:46:23.480 --> 0:46:27.040 Crossover with Donna the Dead perhaps where you have zombies 0:46:27.080 --> 0:46:27.920 and kill bots. 0:46:28.080 --> 0:46:30.120 I don't know, but you can pit them against each other. 0:46:30.480 --> 0:46:32.040 That's smart. That's a good idea. 0:46:32.560 --> 0:46:34.880 But I mean, sadly it never came to be. This 0:46:35.360 --> 0:46:38.719 is the chopping mall we have, and it works well. 0:46:38.760 --> 0:46:42.040 It's a very enjoyable, brisk seventy seven minutes. 0:46:42.880 --> 0:46:45.040 You know, there is nothing about this film that's really 0:46:45.040 --> 0:46:47.680 all that deep or thoughtful, but I would still say, 0:46:47.680 --> 0:46:50.160 even at a very shallow level, it makes a pretty 0:46:50.160 --> 0:46:53.040 compelling case against autonomous lethal robots. 0:46:53.600 --> 0:46:54.520 Yeah. 0:46:54.719 --> 0:46:57.960 Yeah, I sort of so highlighting some of the inherent 0:46:58.040 --> 0:47:02.080 dangers there. You don't really wants something that I don't 0:47:02.120 --> 0:47:05.440 know has lethal capabilities and could malfunction, and there's not 0:47:05.600 --> 0:47:08.240 like a human operator in the middle to take responsibility 0:47:08.239 --> 0:47:08.879 for what it does. 0:47:09.480 --> 0:47:11.840 Yeah, though there is early on. I mean, certainly that 0:47:11.880 --> 0:47:14.800 guy reading the Playboy and with the half eaten doughnut, 0:47:15.800 --> 0:47:17.319 you know, he is the what they I think they 0:47:17.400 --> 0:47:19.719 still referred to as the man in the loop on 0:47:19.760 --> 0:47:21.799 a semi apanomous system. You know, he's the one that's 0:47:21.840 --> 0:47:24.520 supposed to be keeping track, you know, checking in at 0:47:24.640 --> 0:47:26.799 least every thirty minutes to see if the bots have 0:47:26.960 --> 0:47:31.680 killed anybody. But then, of course all that gets thrown 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:33.960 out the window when the bots get all juiced up 0:47:33.960 --> 0:47:35.120 on lightning and take him out. 0:47:35.520 --> 0:47:39.360 I mean, I can't honestly say my feelings about autonomous 0:47:39.400 --> 0:47:42.440 lethal robots have really changed due to this movie, but 0:47:42.800 --> 0:47:45.120 I'm vibing with it basically. 0:47:45.840 --> 0:47:49.640 Yeah, Like I said, I feel like the strongest thing 0:47:50.040 --> 0:47:53.040 the things that resonate about this movie are mostly nostalgic, 0:47:53.719 --> 0:47:57.040 making one think about the mall and what the place 0:47:57.080 --> 0:48:02.080 that the mall had in the American experience of the time, 0:48:02.120 --> 0:48:04.600 certainly in the eighties and nineties, and I guess there's 0:48:04.640 --> 0:48:06.880 less of it today. But though there are malls still around, 0:48:06.960 --> 0:48:10.160 people still go to them, or at least they did 0:48:10.280 --> 0:48:14.800 so they yeah, I mean they still sometimes film movies 0:48:14.840 --> 0:48:18.719 and TV shows in them, so they exist, and they're 0:48:18.719 --> 0:48:23.359 really just begging for there to be another chopping mall 0:48:23.440 --> 0:48:26.239 movie filmed there. I think the sky is the limit. 0:48:26.760 --> 0:48:29.680 Okay, if the moist air of the real life galleria 0:48:29.800 --> 0:48:33.680 evaporates and forms a mist, that is vapor wave. But 0:48:33.800 --> 0:48:37.160 then that mist condenses on a window pane and rolls 0:48:37.239 --> 0:48:40.279 down and makes a puddle on the window sill, that 0:48:40.719 --> 0:48:43.120 newly liquidized water is chopping mall. 0:48:45.960 --> 0:48:49.359 Yeah, so it's it's a good one. And let's see 0:48:49.360 --> 0:48:50.960 if you want to check this one out for yourself. 0:48:51.160 --> 0:48:53.279 This is one of those you can find pretty much 0:48:53.280 --> 0:48:57.239 anywhere you get your your digital media these days. I 0:48:57.280 --> 0:48:59.440 watched it on Amazon Prime. In fact, I watch it 0:48:59.520 --> 0:49:03.959 on Amazon Prime with a handful of listeners to the show. 0:49:04.040 --> 0:49:07.200 So if you were on that particular viewing. Thanks. Maybe 0:49:07.239 --> 0:49:08.760 we'll try and do one of those again in the future. 0:49:08.880 --> 0:49:12.279 Was pretty fun. But there's also a Blu ray of 0:49:12.320 --> 0:49:15.719 this one, I believe from Vestron Video, and I've not 0:49:15.960 --> 0:49:18.000 tried it out for myself, but it's really packed. It 0:49:18.040 --> 0:49:20.880 has like three different audio commentaries on it and a 0:49:20.880 --> 0:49:23.240 ton of extra features. So if you want to really 0:49:23.280 --> 0:49:25.799 go in deep on shopping mall, well that's what you 0:49:25.800 --> 0:49:27.000 got to put on your Christmas list. 0:49:27.400 --> 0:49:29.759 Oh that's interesting just looking it up. I would have 0:49:29.840 --> 0:49:32.839 assumed that Scream Factory would get their hands on this, 0:49:33.120 --> 0:49:34.920 but it looks like not. 0:49:35.760 --> 0:49:39.440 Yeah. Now, as long as we're talking about where to 0:49:39.480 --> 0:49:43.520 get movies and also things like shopping malls that you 0:49:43.920 --> 0:49:46.040 may not encounter as much anymore, we should we should 0:49:46.040 --> 0:49:49.240 take another moment to talk about video rental stores because 0:49:49.280 --> 0:49:51.960 on the show before we have mentioned we have plugged 0:49:52.200 --> 0:49:55.919 Atlanta's only video rental store, video Drome, and I would 0:49:56.000 --> 0:49:59.000 like to do so again because not only for any 0:49:59.040 --> 0:50:01.800 of our Atlanta listeners who want to actually rent a 0:50:01.880 --> 0:50:05.600 DVD or a Blu ray of a film and under 0:50:05.640 --> 0:50:08.960 certain circumstances, actually walk the halls, the hallowed halls of 0:50:09.040 --> 0:50:11.319 video Drum. I want to also point out that if 0:50:11.360 --> 0:50:15.240 you are not an Atlanta area human, you can still 0:50:15.400 --> 0:50:19.320 check out their merch store, which is at videodrome dot tv. 0:50:19.800 --> 0:50:24.759 Their main website is videodromeatl dot com, but videodrome dot 0:50:24.840 --> 0:50:26.320 tv is a place where you can get like a 0:50:26.360 --> 0:50:30.280 shirt with their logo on it, stuff like that, stickers, patches. 0:50:30.680 --> 0:50:31.399 It's pretty fun. 0:50:31.719 --> 0:50:33.960 Videodrome is like a store that would be in the 0:50:33.960 --> 0:50:35.399 background in Chopping Mall. 0:50:35.960 --> 0:50:38.440 Yeah, yeah, I would think so, you know, and you 0:50:38.480 --> 0:50:40.120 do feel like you're kind of going back in time 0:50:40.160 --> 0:50:43.719 when you go to Videodrome. I hope to go there 0:50:43.760 --> 0:50:47.040 again soon, in part because some of the movies we 0:50:47.120 --> 0:50:49.520 discussed in Weird Howse Cinema like that's where we have 0:50:49.560 --> 0:50:52.320 to go to find them. Not everything can be obtained 0:50:52.360 --> 0:50:55.200 online and digital streaming form these days, and it's nice 0:50:55.280 --> 0:50:58.399 to have that physical experience of the store. All right, 0:50:58.440 --> 0:51:01.080 we're gonna go ahead and close out on Shopping Mall 0:51:01.160 --> 0:51:03.880 here today, but obviously we would love to hear from everybody. 0:51:04.520 --> 0:51:07.040 What did you think about shopping Mall? Did you watch 0:51:07.080 --> 0:51:09.200 Chopping Mall back in the day. Do you have memories 0:51:09.239 --> 0:51:15.080 of roaming the various malls during your younger years. We'd 0:51:15.120 --> 0:51:18.080 love to hear from everybody on that. Just a reminder 0:51:18.080 --> 0:51:21.480 that Weird House Cinema publishes every Friday in the Stuff 0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:24.400 to Blow Your Mind. Feed Core episodes of Stuff to 0:51:24.400 --> 0:51:27.480 Blow Your Mind continue to publish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 0:51:27.520 --> 0:51:31.000 Those are our core science and culture episodes, but Friday, 0:51:31.040 --> 0:51:35.480 Weirdhouse Cinema is our chance to unwind and get into 0:51:35.520 --> 0:51:38.319 a weird film instead Huge things. 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:41.600 As always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. 0:51:41.880 --> 0:51:43.359 If you would like to get in touch with us 0:51:43.360 --> 0:51:45.920 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 0:51:45.920 --> 0:51:48.040 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 0:51:48.160 --> 0:51:51.160 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 0:51:51.160 --> 0:51:59.480 your Mind dot com. 0:52:00.120 --> 0:52:02.880 To Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more 0:52:02.920 --> 0:52:06.719 podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:52:06.719 --> 0:52:08.440 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.