Little Shop of Horrors (film)

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This article is about the 1986 film. For the 1960 film, see The Little Shop of Horrors.
Little Shop of Horrors

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Frank Oz
Produced by David Geffen
Written by Howard Ashman
Starring Rick Moranis
Ellen Greene
Vincent Gardenia
Steve Martin
and Levi Stubbs
Music by Miles Goodman
Alan Menken
Howard Ashman
Cinematography Robert Paynter
Editing by John Jympson
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) December 19, 1986
Running time 94 min.
Country Flag of the United States
Language English
Budget $30 million
Gross revenue $38,747,385
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Little Shop of Horrors is the 1986 film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical comedy of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, about a nerdy florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood. The film was directed by Frank Oz, and starred Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene and the voice of Levi Stubbs. The musical was based on the low-budget black comedy The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman.

Little Shop of Horrors was shot on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at the Pinewood Studios in England, where a "downtown" set, complete with overhead train track, was constructed. The film was produced on a budget of US$30 million, in contrast to the original 1960 film, which, according to Roger Corman, only cost $30,000.[1] Like the 1960 film, the 1986 musical film did not make a big impact during its initial theatrical release, but is now considered a cult film.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film opens with the words read by Stan Jones: "On the twenty-third day of the month of September, in an early year of a decade not too long before our own, the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence. And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places..."

We see a florist's nerdy young assistant named Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) trying to store pots, but breaking them by accident. The day of a solar eclipse, Seymour discovers a mysterious new plant, which is later revealed to have came from outer space. He names the plant "Audrey II," because of his secret crush on his co-worker Audrey (Ellen Greene). However, when the shop closes for the day, Seymour accidentally cuts his finger and discovers that Audrey II has an appetite for human blood. As the plant thrives, business booms at Mr. Mushnik's (Vincent Gardenia) failing Skid Row flower shop, and Seymour becomes a local celebrity.

Eventually, the now-huge Audrey II (voiced by Levi Stubbs) begins to talk to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give. He convinces Seymour to kill Audrey's abusive and sadistic dentist boyfriend, Orin Scrivello, DDS (Steve Martin). Seymour books an appointment with Dr. Scrivello and arms himself with a revolver. However, Orin, disappointed with his previous masochistic patient Arthur Denton (Bill Murray), decides to amuse himself by sniffing nitrous oxide. His gas mask malfunctions and Seymour allows him to die laughing hysterically from asphyxiation.

Seymour drags Orin's body back to the flower shop, where he chops it up for the plant. He is in the middle of dismembering the body with an axe when Mr. Mushnik passes by the flower shop and witnesses it. He does not confront him, but runs off scared. Seymour feeds the body parts to the plant.

After Seymour has spent a sleepless night, he discovers two policemen questioning Audrey about Orin's disappearance. She says that she feels guilty about Orin's death, even though she did not cause it, because she always secretly wished that he would die. Seymour tells Audrey that she is beautiful and shouldn't have such low self-esteem, and she realises that she loves him.

That night, Mushnik finds Seymour and accuses him of being an axe murderer. Seymour confesses that he chopped Orin up but denies that he killed him. Before leaving the store, Mushnik decides to bargain with Seymour, offering Seymour protection if he allows Mushnik to take care of the plant. Seymour is undecided and stands by while Mushnik investigates Audrey II and gets killed and swallowed whole by the carnivorous plant. Seymour's fortune continues to grow, and he becomes a media star, but he is very worried about Audrey II's growth and insatiable appetite.

Later, Audrey II telephones Audrey and asks her to come over, and then tries to eat her. Seymour saves her. They go out of the shop, and a salesman named Patrick Martin James Belushi from World Botanical Enterprises offers to breed Audrey II and make a fortune by selling the plant to families around the world. Seymour, frightened, realises that Audrey II must be destroyed before more lives are lost. Seymour fights the gigantic plant, who now has little offspring in tow, and blows them all up by electrocuting them with an exposed wire.

Seymour and Audrey wed and move to the suburbs, but as the credits start to roll we see a little Audrey III bud in front of their picket fence.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Musical numbers

  1. "Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors" - Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, and Company
  2. "Skid Row (Downtown)" - Seymour, Audrey, Mushnik, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, and Company
  3. "Da-Doo" - Seymour, Chiffon, Ronette, and Crystal
  4. "Grow for Me" - Seymour
  5. "Somewhere That's Green" - Audrey
  6. "Some Fun Now" - Chiffon, Ronette, and Crystal
  7. "Dentist!" - Orin, Chiffon, Ronette, and Crystal
  8. "Feed Me (Git It)" - Audrey II and Seymour
  9. "Suddenly Seymour" - Seymour, Audrey, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
  10. "Suppertime I" - Audrey II, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
  11. "The Meek Shall Inherit" - Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Seymour, and Company
  12. "Suppertime II / Somewhere That's Green (Reprise)" - Audrey II and Audrey / Audrey and Seymour (in original ending)
  13. "Suppertime II / Suddenly Seymour (Reprise)" - Audrey II and Audrey / Audrey and Seymour (In new ending)
  14. "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" - Audrey II
  15. "Finale: Don't Feed the Plants" (in original ending)

[edit] Production and development

"Little Shop of Horrors" was the only film ever written by Howard Ashman, who died in 1991 while he was working on Beauty and the Beast as executive producer.

The character of the masochistic dental patient, played in the original by Jack Nicholson and cut from the stage version, was added back to the story and was played by Bill Murray.

The film's ending was re-shot after receiving negative reviews from test audiences. The new ending was written by Ashman as a happy ending, while the off-Broadway musical version and 1960 film have downbeat endings, the 1986 film has a happy ending in which Audrey II is killed, while Seymour, Audrey, and humanity survive. The film's ending is somewhat ambiguous, however, with a final shot of a smiling Audrey III bud in Seymour and Audrey's front yard.

The film's version of Audrey II was an extremely elaborate creation, using puppets designed by Lyle Conway and The Jim Henson Company. For the musical numbers (which involved a great deal of movement on behalf of the puppet) the frame rate of the filming was slowed to 16 frames per second, frequent screen cuts were used to minimise the amount of screen time the puppet spent with human actors, and when interaction was totally necessary, the actors (usually Moranis) would pantomime and lip sync in slow motion. The film was then sped up to the normal 24 frames per second and voices were re-inserted in post production. During Audrey II's final stage of growth, 60 technicians were necessary to operate the one-ton puppet.[citation needed]

Musically, the film differs only slightly from the stage play. The title song is expanded to include an additional verse to allow for more opening credits. The song "Ya Never Know" was re-written into a calypso-style song called "Some Fun Now," although some of the lyrics were retained. Five other songs ("Closed For Renovation," "Now (It's Just the Gas)," "Mushnik and Son," "Call Back In The Morning" and the dramatic reprise of "Somewhere That's Green") were cut from the original production score. "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" was written for the film. The full version of "The Meek Shall Inherit" and the "Finale Ultimo (Don't Feed the Plants)" were cut from the film, but are included on the soundtrack album.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song for "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. It caused a small controversy at the Academy Awards because it was the first Oscar-nominated song to contain profanity and thus had to be censored for the show.[citation needed]

Frank Oz cast Steve Martin as the Dentist after watching his performance in The Muppet Movie.

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and John Landis were all planned to direct at before Frank Oz took on the project.

This remains, as of 2008, Steve Martin's only death role.

[edit] The original ending

Audrey II on top of the Statue of Liberty in the alternate ending of the film
Audrey II on top of the Statue of Liberty in the alternate ending of the film

The film has become legendary for a rarely seen 23-minute original ending that retains the B-movie roots of the original source material, and was the preferred choice by Oz and the majority of the actors (including Moranis). As originally conceived and filmed, the story follows the stage musical's plot: Audrey is attacked by Audrey II and dies in Seymour's arms, begging him to feed her to the plant so that in a way, she will always be with him. Seymour does so, and in the process ironically fulfills Audrey's great wish, that she wants to be "somewhere that's green". After Seymour feeds Audrey to the plant, he attempts to commit suicide by jumping off Audrey's apartment complex. Before he can, Patrick Martin (played in this version by Paul Dooley, but by Jim Belushi in the revamped ending) climbs to the roof to persuade Seymour to let him cut samples of the plant so that they can grow into little Audrey IIs and be sold across America. Seymour quickly slides down the ladder and crosses the street to Mushnik's while Martin reminds him that plants are in the public domain and can be sold without his permission. After confronting the plant as it sings "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", the plant eats Seymour, and then spits out his glasses. The three chorus girls are enlisted by Patrick Martin to cut shoots from the plant in order to sell them around the world. Soon, Audrey II (along with a duplicate of himself) takes over Cleveland, Des Moines, Peoria and New York City as the song "Don't Feed the Plants" warns the audience not to give in to evil temptations.[2]

This version of the stage ending was adapted to film, with some changes: in the film, an extended showdown between Seymour and Audrey II (featuring the new number "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space") takes place in the shop, which Audrey II eventually destroys before overpowering and devouring Seymour. Oz then took the show's apocalyptic finale far beyond the limits of the stage version by actually showing the plants' takeover of Earth (rather than just describing it).[2]

Oz and his special effects team went to great lengths to create this dramatic finale during which Audrey II takes over New York City, attacks the Brooklyn Bridge, fights the U.S. Army, strangles the Statue of Liberty and, in homage to the 1933 classic monster movie King Kong, scales the Empire State Building. There are also various nods to the 1953 film The War of the Worlds. The sequence cost $5 million to produce. However, preview audiences rejected this ending as too disturbing.[2] Afterwards, director Oz commented: "In a stage play, you kill the leads and they come out for a bow — in a movie, they don't come out for a bow, they're dead. And the audience loved those people, and they hated us for it."[3]

Oz and Ashman scrapped Audrey's and Seymour's grim deaths and the finale rampage, and Ashman rewrote it all into a happier ending shot, with Jim Belushi replacing Paul Dooley as Patrick Martin. The showdown between Seymour and Audrey II remains intact, but now Seymour wins by electrocuting the plant as Audrey is seen observing through a window. Seymour and Audrey get married and move to the suburbs, where a little Audrey III grows in the garden.

Another cut sequence is seen on the blooper reel on the DVD, in which Seymour is seen running through fog and in the background are white pillars under a black sky. Director Frank Oz, who has a commentary on the reel, says this was a "dream sequence" that never made the final cut of the movie. It may be from the deleted section "The Meek Shall Inherit", in which Seymour contemplates the morality of continued murders in order to keep feeding the plant. In the end, he reluctantly decides to keep feeding Audrey II in order to please Audrey. This sequence was cut after the ending was changed, but still remains on the movie soundtrack album.

[edit] DVD conflict

Little Shop of Horrors was the first DVD to be recalled for content.[4]

In 1998, Warner Bros. released a special edition DVD of the film. This DVD included approximately 23 minutes of unfinished footage from Oz's original ending, although it was in black and white and was missing sound, visual, and special effects.

David Geffen, the film's producer and owner of the rights, wanted to re-release the film to theaters with the original ending intact.[citation needed] Geffen became angry at Warner Bros. for including this footage on the DVD without his consent, and as a result the studio removed it from shelves in a matter of days and replaced it with a second edition that did not contain the extra material. The original first edition DVD is now a much sought-after collector's item and sells for upwards of $150 on eBay. The original ending can be viewed on the Internet.

On February 28, 2007 Warner Bros. hinted that a DVD re-issue featuring the original ending in colour with the missing effects recorded may be on its way.[5][6]

[edit] Pop culture references

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • In 1987, DC Comics published an adaptation of the movie, written by Michael Fleisher and drawn by Gene Colan. However this adaptation differs from the movie, most notably in the placement of Audrey II's mouth and the elimination of the three chorus girls. In addition to this, Orin's hair is an orangish blonde color instead of the black featured in the film.
  • A 1991 children's show, Little Shop, was based on the concept and characters.
  • Audrey II has also made an appearance as a boss in the Sega Genesis port of the video game Ghostbusters.
  • At the end of the film Scrooged, Bill Murray (who made a cameo in Little Shop of Horrors) calls out "Feed me Seymour, feed me!" to the camera during the closing credits.
  • In an episode of That's So Raven, when Chelsea and her friend Jennifer from veggie camp go to the bio dome, Raven came along to keep her friend. A similar plant to Audrey II resided in the bio dome and tried eating Raven. Also at the end of the episode, a little sapling hid in Raven's bag.
  • In an episode of Family Guy, while Chris is performing house work for Herbert (who has a thing for Chris), Herbert has a fantasy almost identical to Audrey's fantasy about Seymour. In another episode of Family Guy, Chris grows a pimple whose first words are 'Feed Me' and provokes Chris to do things he shouldn't. In another episode of Family Guy, Stewie screams out "THANK YOU! THANK YOU!" identical to Bill Murray's screams during the dentist scene.
  • An episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is named Little Rock of Horror, spoofing the musical and film.
  • The online RPG game Dragonfable has a boss named Awdreetoo, spoofing the plant.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Roger Corman interview. Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
  2. ^ a b c Little Shop of Reshoots. DVD Savant (November 20, 1999). Retrieved on 2007-03-11.
  3. ^ Frank Oz Interview. Retrieved on 2007-08-30.
  4. ^ DVD Savant: Little Shop of Reshoots
  5. ^ *** Official Warner Chat and Discussion Thread - Home Theater Forum
  6. ^ Fangoria - America's Horror Magazine

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Frank Oz

The Dark Crystal (1982) • The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) • Little Shop of Horrors (1986) • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) • What About Bob? (1991) • HouseSitter (1992) • The Indian in the Cupboard (1995) • In & Out (1997) • Bowfinger (1999) • The Score (2001) • The Stepford Wives (2004) • Death at a Funeral (2007)
v • d • e
Steve Martin
Discography
Bibliography
The Jerk • Cruel Shoes • Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays • Pure Drivel • Modern Library Humor and Wit Series • Shopgirl • Kindly Lent Their Owner • The Underpants: A Play • The Pleasure of My Company • The Alphabet from A to Y with Bonus Letter Z • Born Standing Up
Filmography
The Absent-Minded Waiter • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band • The Muppet Movie • The Kids Are Alright • The Jerk • Pennies from Heaven • Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid • The Man with Two Brains • The Lonely Guy • All of Me • ¡Three Amigos! • Little Shop of Horrors • Roxanne • Planes, Trains & Automobiles • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels • *Parenthood • My Blue Heaven • L.A. Story • Father of the Bride • Grand Canyon • HouseSitter • Leap of Faith • A Simple Twist of Fate • Mixed Nuts • Father of the Bride Part II • Sgt. Bilko • The Spanish Prisoner • The Prince of Egypt • The Out-of-Towners • Bowfinger • Fantasia 2000 • Joe Gould's Secret • Novocaine • Bringing Down the House • Looney Tunes: Back in Action • Cheaper by the Dozen • Shopgirl • Cheaper by the Dozen 2 • The Pink Panther • Baby Mama • The Pink Panther Deux
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