Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American dark comedy horror musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is a film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical comedy of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, which in turn was based on the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors directed by Roger Corman and screenplay by Charles B. Griffith.
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The film stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II. The film also featured special appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray. It was produced by David Geffen through The Geffen Company and released by Warner Bros. on December 19, 1986.
Plot
In the hopes of turning around the fortunes of his failing floral business, a nerdy florist purchases a bloodthirsty plant from a Chinese street vendor.
Why It Rocks
- It follows its source material very well: it is not only based on the 1982 Broadway musical of the same name, but the 1960 low-budget horror/comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. It resembles both in an awesome way.
- The concept of a evil, man-eating plant is a very interesting one for a film. Perhaps because it plays into the concept of things that are usually thought of as harmless and innocent being presented as evil (i.e., Child's Play and Annabelle with dolls, Bendy and the Ink Machine with cartoon characters, etc). And the reason this trend may be so popular is because it takes people's expectation on certain things and turns them on their heads by making them evil and malicious instead of lovable as they're usually perceived as.
- Awesome soundtrack, featuring great musical songs that are catchy and memorable, such as:
- "Feed Me (Get It)"
- "Dentist!"
- "Skid Row (Downtown)"
- "Somewhere That's Green"
- "Suddenly, Seymour"
- "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"
- "Don't Feed the Plants"
- The music is composed very well and matches the original musical's soundtrack well.
- Excellent acting, especially from Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin and even Levi Stubbs as the man-eating alien plant Audrey II himself (voice acting in his case).
- Impressive puppetry for the main antagonist Audrey II; it was notable for large scale, movement and speech, having 60 puppeteers to control the plant. As a matter of fact, the puppetry done for him, especially during his movie-exclusive song "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space", are arguably some of the absolute best puppet effects in any film.
- The characters are all likable and memorable:
- Seymour Krelborn, the main protagonist of the film, is a nerdy and selfless florist who has a particular interest when it comes to "strange and interesting" plants. He is a nice and well-intentioned guy, but still easy to take advantage of, which is displayed when, Audrey II tricks him into feeding it humans by simply exposing his love interest Audrey's romantic troubles to him, which he then immediately grows infuriated over.
- Audrey, the film's deuteragonist, is a shy but kind-hearted coworker of the shop who Seymour has a crush on, but is trapped in an abusive relationship with the sadistic dentist Orin Scrivello.
- Audery II, the film's main antagonist, is an malicious and boisterous venus flytrap-like alien plant with an appetite for blood and plans to take over the world with an amazing voice that perfectly matches his hammy and wicked personality.
- Great set design imitating the musical well, and the design of Audrey II looks very nice. And the puppetry done for him, as well as the buds he summoned during "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" are arguably some of the absolute best puppet effects in any film.
- Memorable dialogue, notably "Feed me Seymour!"
- Good amount of campiness in certain scenes.
- The cinematography from Robert Paynter is great as well.
Bad Qualities
- The original ending where Audrey II has successfully eaten everyone (including the main protagonist) was changed due to complains from the test audiences that they want the good ending where Audrey II is defeated as Seymour and Audrey lived happily. It sort of loosely focused on the off-Broadway musical of the same name because the villain always wins at the end, though thankfully the original ending surfaced in the director's cut version on the Blu-ray release along with the theatrical cut.
- Audrey's voice can come off as annoying to some, although it does sound beautiful when singing, and her wig is kind of unconvincing.
Reception
Box office
Little Shop of Horrors, after a delay needed to complete the revised ending, was released on December 19, 1986, and was anticipated to do strong business over the 1986 holiday season, and the film grossed $39 million at the box office, which, from the viewpoint of the studio, was considered an underperformer. However, it became a smash hit upon its home video release in 1987 on VHS and Beta.[citation needed]
Critical response
Rotten Tomatoes retrospectively collected reviews to give it a score of 90% based on reviews from 51 critics, with an average rating of 7.37/10. The general consensus states: "Remixing Roger Corman's B-movie by way of the Off-Broadway musical, Little Shop of Horrors offers camp, horror and catchy tunes in equal measure—plus some inspired cameos by the likes of Steve Martin and Bill Murray." On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, the film has an 81% rating based on 15 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim" (14 positive reviews, 1 mixed, and no negative).[citation needed]
Roger Ebert gave it three and a half stars and said; "All of the wonders of Little Shop of Horrors are accomplished with an offhand, casual charm. This is the kind of movie that cults are made of, and after Little Shop finishes its first run, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it develop as one of those movies that fans want to include in their lives."[1]
Accolades
Little Shops of Horrors was nominated two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects (Lyle Conway, Bran Ferren, Martin Gutteridge) and Best Original Song (Alan Menken, Howard Ashman) for "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" but was lost to Aliens for Best Visual Effects and Top Gun (Take My Breath Away) for Best Original Song. "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was the first song sung by a villain to be nominated, second nominated villain song was "Blame Canada" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.[citation needed]
Trivia
- The filming location of the Skid Row set was on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, which was well-known for making film sets for James Bond films.[citation needed]
- This film was directed by Frank Oz, who was Jim Henson's good friend at the time. He was also the voice of several Jim Henson characters, such as Fozzie from The Muppets or Yoda from Star Wars.
