Chopping Mall (Vestron Collector's Series) Blu-ray Review

Truth be told, there were probably few people as excited about a Blu-ray release of this 1986 obscurity as I was. Vestron Video, now owned by Lionsgate, has decided to start releasing its older catalogue titles on special edition Blu-rays and I for one think that is a fantastic idea. While I may have stated previously that this film is an obscure title from the '80's slasher era, that does not at all mean that this film should not be seen. Chopping Mall is a fun movie that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's a great watch during the Halloween season or even on a night off. Most people may have seen this film on numerous DVD multi-feature releases. The reason is that it's not exactly a masterpiece and it has its problems, even for an '80's film. I once owned a proper DVD release of this film, but it was either sold or lost at some point in my adulthood, unfortunately. The DVD video quality was always problematic for me; it was always gauzy, dull, and pock marked with print damage. Is the Blu-ray release by Vestron any better? It is! In fact, I was so impressed by the video quality of this release that I had to watch it twice back to back because I couldn't believe the clarity, especially for a film of this low caliber. One should note that the title of this film is a sort of misnomer as it leads us to believe that it is a slasher movie, which it really is not. This is a science-fiction horror film, not a slasher. No, there are no aliens, but a bunch of robots becoming sentient and killing people sounds more sci-fi than slasher to me.
Alright, so the video. Vestron releases this version of Chopping Mall to Blu-ray with a 1080p AVC encode with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, which is almost the theatrical aspect ratio of the film, but not quite. However, it is close enough that it would not be likely that anyone would be able to notice the difference. The video quality is fantastic, especially in comparison to all other home video releases of the film. There are still problems, however, but I believe they are inherent to the original print rather than Vestron's presentation. We need to remember that this film is a low budget, 1980's incarnation and as such, it's bound to have problems that cannot be fixed. That being said, the color pallet is a bit on the washed out side, but I find that adds to the quality of the movie. Still, the color has never looked better. As far as sharpness and light and dark levels go, this release is pretty solid. The only real issue I saw was near the end when the camera begins to pan out away from our main characters and things begin to get a little grainy. This could be inherent to the different camera used for that particular panning shot, similar to the different camera used in the rotation shot in Cujo that caused some grain and video noise. This can't be helped and so I won't take any points off for this particular issue. Of the whole, I'd say that this release has a solid video encode and I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5 rating.
Let's move onto the sound aspect of the film. Chopping Mall is released to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track. This film has never seen a 5.1 audio release, and likely never will. That being said, this mono track seems faithful to the source with clear and audible dialogue throughout. The film's soundtrack shines here, which is very much a product of its time. I have always loved the strange and exciting synthesizer soundtrack of this film and the Blu-ray release offers a solid audio track that compliments it very well. I'd give the audio a 5 out of 5 rating.
Finally, there are enough special features on this Blu-ray disc to make any lover of this film very happy. There are seven featurettes to choose from, some showing the creating of the film while others are short interviews with cast and film crew. There is also a theatrical trailer and three audio commentaries. This is far more than most people would expect this small independent release to get and the special features get a 5 out of 5 rating from me.
Of the whole, I'd say that this Blu-ray release delivers the goods! If you're a fan of this film, or of the 1980's horror era in general, I'd say that this is a must own! Highly recommended with a 4.8 out of 5 rating from me.