A closer look
Never underestimate the deceptive power of a brilliant illustrator and a profoundly desperate video distributor. In the lawless wasteland of 1980s video rental stores, the box art was your only marketing tool. The distributors completely ignored the film's actual plot—which was basically about security droids short-circuiting in a mall—and commissioned an unforgettable, wildly misleading painting of a metallic killer holding a severed head. The movie didn't contain a single severed head, nor a robotic hand, but it didn't matter. The lie sold millions of rentals, birthing a cult classic.
