Add Chopping Mall: The Novelization to your bookshelf

A madcap '80s classic will finally get the novelization treatment thanks to a deal between Encyclopocalypse Publications and Shout! Factory. The two companies have come together with writer Brian G. Berry to produce Chopping Mall: The Novelization.

Chopping Mall was a Julie Corman production for her father Roger's Concorde Pictures. In the 1987 film, a group of young people (some come off as teenagers, others college students and two are married, so who knows?) find themselves hanging out in a shopping center on the very night that the state-of-the-art security robots got struck by lightning and start killing everyone they see. Chopping Mall features shining stars Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, Jakob's Wife) and Kelli Maroney (Night Of The Comet) and features Corman regulars like Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, Gerrit Graham and Dick Miller.

“As a kid, I watched tons of horror movies. But none of them ever gave me that ‘creeped out’ feeling I was seeking until I saw the cover of the Chopping Mall VHS cassette sitting on the shelf of my local video store, ” Berry told Bloody Disgusting. “From that point on, Chopping Mall had a special place in my heart. Fast forward thirty years, and here I am, honored to be writing the novelization for the first horror movie that ever creeped me out based on the cover alone.”

Berry has penned a number of titles for the publisher including House Squatch, House Shark, Motorboat and Amityvlle Death Toilet. His novelization is based on the original script from Jim Wynorski and Steve Mitchell. Mitchell went on to work on classic '80s animated series' like Transformers, G.I. Joe and Jem. Chopping Mall was Wynorski's second feature film as a director, though he went on to have a long and varied career. The original name of the film might be one of the best unused titles of all time: Killbots.

Chopping Mall: The Novelization can currently be pre-ordered in a variety of formats. The standard paperback version comes with the cover featuring the robot arm holding the torn shopping bag revealing a head. The mass market paperback has a similar image with a few differences including the eyeball at the top of the bag. Both come with the digital version, which can also be purchased on its own. Bloody Disgusting also reports that Joe Hempel will read the audiobook version.

Novelizations used to be a regular part of the horror world. In the 1970s and 1980s especially these books offered an easier way to revisit your favorite movies in the days before home video. They also gave a portion of the audience the opportunity to experience these tales that they may not have been able to experience otherwise. Oftentimes, the books differed from the finished film because the author worked from an early version of the script. Like many of the other horror paperbacks from this era, they have become collectors' items, some of which are highly sought after. Encyclopocalypse has carried on this tradition with films ranging from Fright Night to Re-Animator to Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Chopping Mall: The Novelization can bee pre-ordered now and will release on November 19, 2024.