The Maul

When a retired cop takes over Mall security, shoplifting and staff car parking become the least of her concerns when something far worse gets loose behind the walls of New Zealand’s newest shopping centre.

A “Paul Barlow” FILM
WRITTEN BY Paul Barlow

Liz Hunter likes her job – it’s a surprise to her, being a former cop she thought she’d hate being Head of Security for the Campbell Shopping Centre, but the shop workers are really nice, her boss seems very personable and her team of “Security Professionals” seem harmless enough – if a little flat footed. She was far happier sorting out shoplifters and taggers, chasing up bad parkers or even working out what that funky smell was in the rubbish area that seemed to arrive every Saturday morning. It was no stress.

Until the day she discovers the acid burned corpse of the Mall Manager in the rubbish area on her first night shift, and the nightmare creature that did it, an unholy mess of evil and animal. She tries to call in the cops but the phones are down, she tries to radio in for help, but the only one who answers is Will, the old guy near retirement who is seemingly attacked while she’s talking to him.
Confused and alone, Liz has to hunt down the creature, through the labyrinthine back corridors of the mall without a weapon, using only her wits to survive. She soon reaches the staff room where the rest of the security team have assembled – Pat - the joker, Amy – the hard as nails fighter, and Will...

Confused, Will explains he survived the attack and escaped and got to the room just as Liz did, but she doesn’t buy it. Her cop senses tell her something wrong. She confronts him about it, cornering him. In a panic he pushes her, she scratches him in a bid to keep her balance, revealing an alien beneath the skin – the creature is a shape shifter. Will bolts out the door, leaving Liz and her team to hunt it down and kill it before it escapes from the Mall – but the creature isn’t the only hunter in the Mall that night...