Summerfest 3 Bonus Film: Chopping Mall

After the 4th of July cookout elsewhere, the Cap'n and a small circle of Summerfest maniacs returned to the Apartment that Dripped Blood to watch the "final" final film of the fest as it exists in North Carolina: Chopping Mall.

As I've already reviewed Chopping Mall during last year's Summerfest, this review is going to rely strictly on things we noticed for the first time. When you've seen a movie like Chopping Mall as many times as we have, it's a pleasant surprise when you focus on obscure things like the "more butter" guy and catch background details that escaped previous viewings.

Like what, you say? How about the customers shopping behind Dick Miller when the mall is clearly supposed to be closed? Or the stores, some of which can't possibly be real (okay, some of them aren't real, like Peckinpah's gun shop, or Roger's Little Shop of Animals). But what about House of Almonds? Are there really that many types of almonds available in Los Angeles that you can open an entire store devoted to them? Or the shop that sells Toy Houses and Cuckoo Clocks? A restaurant called "Restaurant"? Yes, as you can guess, I spent a considerable period of time paying attention to the store names, but there's more.

In all the years I watched this film. I'd somehow never caught the names of Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov's characters, Mr. and Mrs. Bland, which does in fact make this a semi-spin-off of Eating Raoul. Or that Dick Miller is playing Walter Paisley, the same character he played in A Bucket of Blood (and The Howling!). I'd noticed the Roger Corman references elsewhere, but somehow missed those. And the Cap'n calls himself a film geek...

Chopping Mall is also a movie that uses "The End" title cards twice during its runtime, neither of which occur at the end of the movie. This sort of trickery must have wreaked havoc on the unsuspecting TV viewer. Or not. Incidentally, according to IMDB, the film was originally released as Killbots, but nobody wanted to see a movie called Killbots. While there is not chopping in Chopping Mall, I have to say that it's certainly the kind of title I gravitated towards in the glory days of Video Bar and Carbonated Video.

Thanks to all who attended Summerfest! The next time I cover this, it'll be from New Mexico. Madness! I'll have pictures up with the honor roll tomorrow, but for now it's time to recuperate...