By JOEL HARLEY
They never really went away in the first place, but recent years have seen a resurgence in the popularity of film novelizations – especially those of the cult variety. While the likes of Titan Books continue to keep the contemporary screen-to-page adaptation alive with traditionalist takes on Halloween Ends and Terrifier 2, even more exciting things are going on with the indies.
Stop The Killer Games, for example, have been doing stellar business reviving the cult classics of yore, most notably with Armando Muñoz’s novelisations of My Bloody Valentine, Silent Night, Deadly Night and Black Christmas. See also: our friends at Encyclopocalypse Publications, who have been doing the same with their recent adaptations of Plan 9 From Outer Space, Splice and Circus of the Dead.
Written by Joshua Millican, their latest is CHOPPING MALL, based on the 1986 sci-fi horror film of the same name. Originally titled Killbots and re-marketed as a horror movie after test audiences failed to respond to its sillier elements, the film has picked up a cult following over the years. It still holds up well today, too.
Directed by Jim Wynorski from a screenplay co-written by Steve Mitchell, CHOPPING MALL is best remembered for its unintentionally adorable trio of robo-killers (more Short Circuit than Robocop) wreaking havoc in an 80s-era shopping mall. Well, that and its glorious poster art – which was in no way representative of the film inside. That iconic cover image returns, fronting Millican’s CHOPPING MALL, and now fully indicative of the book inside … as an adaptation of CHOPPING MALL, that is. This is pure CHOPPING MALL, through and through.
Featuring performances from a young Barbara Crampton and an always-old-and-blue-collar Dick Miller, the film was a schlocky tale of horny young things facing off against three murderous robots. When the mall’s new high-tech robo-guards suffer a bug in their programming, they turn killer – viewing anyone left inside after hours as an interloper who must be exterminated. Bad news for furniture store employees Mike, Greg and Ferdy and their waitress girlfriends Suzy (Crampton) and Allison. As the kids are picked off one by one, a desperate fight for survival ensues.
Trading in liberal amounts of sex for inventively distributed violence as the film reached its endgame, CHOPPING MALL never tried to be high art – if anything, it masqueraded as something lower than what it was, hinting at a slasher element which never really surfaced. Still, its critique of Reaganomics and the fascistic enforcement of capitalistic ideals are there, if you squint hard enough.
Running at a brisk 77 minutes (depending on which version you watch), the film makes for breezy viewing, and this novelization is no different. Millican’s adaptation of the story is faithful to both the film’s plot and playful tone – bringing a little extra depth to the characters as it follows their fight for survival. While it sticks close to the screenplay, the book still has a few surprises in store (including a never-filmed scene involving a horse!) and a bold twist on the ending.
The use of present-tense prose is a good fit for the propulsive story, and its scenes of bloodshed are evocatively written. The reader’s mind’s eye gives the film’s cheesier effects a grislier edge, making the book more successful as a horror novel than the film ever was. Although it’s a humorous read, Millican approaches with a straight face, resisting the urge to turn the screenplay’s sillier elements into out-and-out farce or poke fun at its anachronistic technology.
CHOPPING MALL: THE NOVELIZATION is available for purchase through Encyclopocalypse Publications.
