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‘Chopping Mall’ Could Be Returning To Theaters!

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On March 21st, 1986, a film was released by legendary producer Roger Corman that today still is recognized as a genre classic. Chopping Mall, produced by Julie Corman and helmed by exploitation wunderkind Jim Wynorski, was released during the VHS/home video explosion and would change the way the business perceived the place of genre titles within this emerging marketplace.

The film tells the story of killer security robots taking over a shopping mall and systematically murdering a group of trespassing teenagers who have broken into the mall for an all-night party. Four couples decide to have a party in one of the furniture stores where three of them work. They all stay after hours at the mall, drinking, partying, and making out, while the fourth couple watch old science fiction films on TV.

Outside, a lightning storm strikes the mall several times and damages the computer controlling the security robots. The robots kill two technicians and a janitor before going on regular patrol in the now empty mall. Two of the teens leave the furniture store and are subsequently killed by the robots. The surviving teens witness the robots kill a girl in via a still talked about head explosion, and the men and women are forced to separate, the men into the mall and the women into the air ducts, when the robots begin their final attack.

Directed by Wynorski, who co-wrote with longtime friend Steve Mitchell, Chopping Mall was filmed primarily at the infamous Sherman Oaks Galleria, famous for appearing in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The movie stars Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, “Ryan’s Hope”) and Tony O’Dell. B-movie icons Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, and Dick Miller, fixtures in the Corman stable, have cameos in the film.

While the film did moderate theatrical business, where it really made an impact was in the burgeoning home video marketplace. Released through Lightning Video, the B-movie label owned by Vestron, Chopping Mall was equipped with compelling box art created by artist Corey Wolfe. It proved to rental outlets that B-movies coupled with great box art could easily outperform mainstream studio-produced fare and could have longer shelf lives. The title’s artwork screamed, “Rent me!” to America’s VHS-hungry public, and they consumed it hungrily. It could be argued that lying within the success of Chopping Mall laid the foundation for the next decade’s video rental industry.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel

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28 Days Later, Ralph Fiennes in the Menu
Pictured: Ralph Fiennes in 'The Menu'

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (AnnihilationMen), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).

The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.

No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.

28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.

Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.

The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.

Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

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