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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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‘Final Destination: Bloodlines’ Adds “Chucky” Actor Teo Briones and More to Lead Cast

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Chucky Actor Teo Briones
Pictured: Teo Briones in "Chucky" Season Two

The Final Destination franchise is returning to life with Final Destination: Bloodlines. With filming now underway, THR reports that three actors have joined the lead cast, including “Chucky” actor Teo Briones.

Brec Bassinger (“Stargirl”) and Kaitlyn Santa Juana (The Friendship Game) join Teo Briones, who played Junior Wheeler in season two of “Chucky,” as the leads in the sixth installment of the horror franchise.

Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein (Freaks) are directing the fresh installment that also includes Richard Harmon (“The 100”, Grave Encounters 2), Anna Lore, Owen Patrick Joyner, Max Lloyd-Jones (The Book Of Boba Fett), Rya Kihlstedt (Obi Wan Kenobi), and Tinpo Lee (The Manor) among the cast.

Production is now underway in Vancouver.

What can we expect from the upcoming Final Destination 6? Speaking with Collider, franchise creator Jeffrey Reddick offered up an intriguing (and mysterious) tease last year.

“This film dives into the film in such a unique way that it attacks it from a different angle so you don’t feel like, ‘Oh, there’s an amazing setup and then there’s gonna be one wrinkle that can potentially save you all that you have to kind of make a moral choice about or do to solve it.’ There’s an expansion of the universe that – I’m being so careful,” Reddick teased.

Reddick continued, “It kind of unearths a whole deep layer to the story that kind of, yes, makes it really, really interesting.”

Final Destination: Bloodlines is written by Lori Evans Taylor (“Wicked Wicked Games”) and Guy Busick (Scream), with Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) producing.

Producers on the new movie for New Line Cinema also include Dianne McGunigle (Cop Car) as well as Final Destination producers Craig Perry and Sheila Hanahan Taylor.

This will be the sixth installment in the hit franchise, and the first in over ten years. Each film centers on “Death” hunting down young friends who survive a mass casualty event.

The latest entry is expected in 2025, coinciding with the original film’s 25th anniversary.

 

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