Chopping Mall is a 1986 American techno-horror film co-written and directed by Jim Wynorski, produced by Julie Corman, and starring Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, John Terlesky, Russell Todd, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, and Barbara Crampton. It focuses on three high-tech security robots turning maniacal and killing teenage employees inside a shopping mall after dark.

The film was test-screened under the title Killbots by its distributor, Concorde Pictures. After it performed poorly with test audiences, the film was re-titled Chopping Mall, and approximately 19 minutes were excised.

In the years since its release, Chopping Mall has gone on to develop a cult following, and been subjected to film criticism for its perceived themes of human consumption and excess during the Reagan Era in the United States.

Park Plaza Mall has just installed a state-of-the-art security system, including shutters across all exits and three high-tech robots programmed to disable and apprehend thieves using tasers and tranquilizer guns. Allison and Suzie, co-workers at a pizzeria in the mall, join their respective boyfriends, Ferdy and Greg—along with their other friends, couples Rick and Linda, and Mike and Leslie—for an after-hours party in a furniture store where Mike, Greg, and Ferdy work. Once the mall closes for the night, the couples begin to have sex, drink, and party inside the furniture store.

Outside, a lightning storm strikes the mall several times and damages the computer controlling Protectors 1, 2 and 3, which malfunction and kill the technicians and a janitor before starting their routine patrol. When Mike goes to purchase cigarettes for Leslie at a vending machine, Protector 1 attacks him and slashes his throat. When Leslie goes to find him, she is chased by Protector 1, which kills her with a laser. The others witness Leslie's death, and barricade themselves in a stock room.

The women attempt to escape through an air vent, but Suzie panics and they exit the vent system into an automotive shop, arming themselves with gasoline and flares. Meanwhile, the men break into a sporting-goods store to arm themselves with firearms. Reunited, the group use a propane tank to seemingly destroy Protector 1. While the men set up the elevator as a booby trap, the killbots ambush the women and ignite Suzie by shooting her gasoline can, burning her alive. Greg unsuccessfully shoots them before Rick drags him away.

The teenagers regroup and rig the elevator trap on Protector 2, destroying it. They then hide in the restaurant where Allison works. Inside, Greg confronts Allison and Linda about leaving the air ducts and exhibits rage due to Suzie's death, pulling his gun on Ferdy when he intercedes on Allison and Linda's behalf. Rick tries to calm him down, and Ferdy suggests destroying the killbots' main control center in hopes of shutting them all down. The group agrees and heads to the control center on the third floor. The robot throws Greg over the railing and he falls to his death.

On the run, the four remaining survivors, Allison, Ferdy, Rick, and Linda also find the first robot recovered after its earlier defeat. They take refuge inside a department store and set up mannequins to confuse Protector 1 and Protector 3. Their plan works, as the robots fire at the dummies and one of them blinds itself with its own reflected laser. However, the blind Protector 3 kills Linda, and an enraged Rick rams a golf cart into it. A bolt of electricity kills him, but his attack succeeds in destroying the robot.

Protector 1 corners Allison, but Ferdy rescues her and shoots it point-blank, damaging its laser just before he falls unconscious. Despite an injured leg, Allison escapes into Ellis Paint Company and sets up a trap by mixing paint and chemicals. She lures Protector 1 inside, where it gets stuck, unable to get traction on the spilled paint and thinners. Allison then tosses a flare into the store, igniting the chemicals and finally destroying Protector 1. As daylight appears, Allison leaves the store and Ferdy awakens. The two remain the only survivors.

In a post-credits scene, a fourth, unknown Protector says its catchphrase "Have a nice day" one last time.

Film scholar Craig Ian Mann compares the film favorably to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978)—also set in a shopping mall—which he classifies as an "anti-capitalist parable for the Jimmy Carter years," suggesting that Chopping Mall functions in a similar way as a comment on consumption during the Reagan Era.^[1] Mann suggests that the robots in the film, even when malfunctioning, serve as mechanical enforcers of workplace discipline and capitalist interests.^[2]

Concorde Pictures gave the film a regional test market release under the title Killbots on March 21, 1986.^[10] After it fared poorly with audiences, the film was truncated and re-titled Chopping Mall, under which it was theatrically released in Pittsburgh on September 5, 1986, and in New York City on November 14, 1986.^[10]

In November 2011, Dry County Entertainment acquired the film rights and intended to remake the film with a supernatural twist. The film was set to be produced and written by Kevin Bocarde and directed by Robert Hall.^[12] Hall passed away in May 2021. As of October 2023^[update], nothing has materialized.