MAN-MADE MONSTERS #22: Deadly Friend (1986) & Chopping Mall (1986)
The Evolution of Horror
Mike Muncer
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 96 minutes
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Summary
This week we reach PEAK 80s with two killer robot teen movies from 1986! Michael Blyth joins Mike to discuss Wes Craven's Deadly Friend and Jim Wynorski's Chopping Mall!
Hosted, Produced and Edited by Mike Muncer
Music by Jack Whitney.
Artwork by Mike Lee-Graham
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | By the mid-1980s, teen movies were taking over. |
| 0:27.6 | John Hughes films, like The Breakfast Club, Pretty and Pink and Weird Science, |
| 0:32.0 | proved that teen films were big bank at the box office. |
| 0:36.0 | And of course, teen horror was bigger than ever after the wave |
| 0:39.4 | of teen slasher movies that dominated the early 80s and franchises like Elm Street being more |
| 0:45.0 | popular than ever. It's no surprise that 1986 saw an abundance of teen genre movies, including |
| 0:53.2 | two killer robot films. One, a Wes Craven picture |
| 0:57.6 | about a boy's robot friend turning deadly, and another about teens in a shopping mall being |
| 1:03.4 | picked off by laser-wielding murderous killbots. |
| 1:20.2 | Join me as we continue exploring the evolution of man-made monsters, and we discuss two 80s killer robot teen movies, deadly friend and chopping mall. |
| 1:31.3 | We're going to... and chopping more. Welcome back to the evolution of horror. |
| 1:33.5 | My name is Mike Munza, and as ever I am your host. |
| 1:36.1 | In this podcast, we explore and dissect the history and the evolution of the horror genre, |
| 1:40.4 | one subgenre at a time. |
| 1:42.3 | We are currently in the midst of our 11th season exploring the |
| 1:46.0 | evolution of man-made monsters. And this is part 22. And in this week's episode, as that |
| 1:52.5 | intro suggested, we've got a very fun double bill. A little bit of a pallet cleanser after |
| 1:57.0 | threads last week. We're going to be discussing deadly friend and chopping mall, |
| 2:02.4 | both from 1986. These will be spoilorific discussions if these are, in fact, the sorts of movies |
| 2:08.4 | that can be spoiled. I'm not sure if they are. So check them out before you listen to our |
| 2:12.8 | conversation. So I sat down with a long-time friend of the pod. In fact, he's been on the podcast ever since part one of our slasher series. |
| 2:22.4 | So long-time friend of the pod, Michael Blythe, joined me. |
... |
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