Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American horror black comedy musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is a film adaptation of the 1982 off-Broadway musical comedy of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, and is in turn a remake of the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman, about a geeky florist shop worker who finds out his Venus flytrap has an appetite for human blood. 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.
Little Shop of Horrors was filmed on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at the Pinewood Studios in England, where a "downtown" set, complete with overhead train track, was constructed. Produced on a budget of $25 million, in contrast to the original 1960 film, which, according to Corman, only cost $30,000, it was well received by critics and audiences alike, eventually developing a cult following. The film's original 23-minute finale, based on the musical's ending, was rewritten and reshot after test audiences did not react positively to it. For years only available as black-and-white workprint footage, the original ending was fully restored in 2012 by Warner Home Video.
Plot:
In the early 1960s, a three-girl "Greek chorus"—Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon—introduce the film, warning the audience that some horror is coming their way ("Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"). Seymour Krelborn and his colleague, Audrey, work at Mushnik's Flower Shop in a run-down, rough neighborhood in New York City referred to as "Skid Row". They lament that they cannot escape the neighborhood ("Skid Row (Downtown)"). Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns. Immediately attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant—which he dubbed "Audrey II"—from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse ("Da-Doo"). Attracting business to Mushnik's shop, the plant soon starts to wither. Seymour accidentally pricks his finger, and discovers that Audrey II needs human blood to thrive ("Grow for Me").
Audrey II begins to grow rapidly and Seymour becomes a local celebrity. Meanwhile, Audrey suffers at the hands of her abusive sadistic boyfriend, Orin Scrivello; however, she has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of running off with him to the suburbs ("Somewhere That's Green"). Seymour continues to feed Audrey II his own blood, draining his energy ("Some Fun Now"). Seymour soon attempts to ask Audrey out, but she turns him down because she has a date with Orin, who is revealed to be a dentist ("Dentist!"). After Seymour closes up shop, Audrey II begins to talk to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give. The plant proposes that Seymour murder someone in exchange for fame and fortune, as well as the ability to woo Audrey; Seymour initially refuses, but eventually agrees after witnessing Orin beating Audrey ("Feed Me (Git It!)").
After Orin finishes with his masochistic patient, Arthur Denton, who had requested "a long, slow, root canal", Seymour draws a revolver on Orin, but cannot bring himself to use it. Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas, but breaks the valve, and Seymour watches as he asphyxiates. Seymour dismembers Orin's body and feeds it to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, but is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear.
Audrey, feeling guilty over Orin's disappearance, is comforted by Seymour and the two admit their feelings for each other ("Suddenly, Seymour"). That night, Mushnik confronts Seymour about Orin's death and holds Seymour at gunpoint, blackmailing him into turning the plant over and leaving town. With no choice, Seymour begins to tell him how to care for Audrey II but before he can reveal the secret, the plant swallows Mushnik whole ("Suppertime").
Despite widespread success, Seymour worries about Audrey II's growth and unbridled appetite ("The Meek Shall Inherit"). Offered money and a contract for a botany TV show, Seymour becomes overwhelmed and decides to escape Skid Row with Audrey using money coming the next day, and leaving the plant to starve. After Audrey accepts Seymour's marriage proposal, Audrey II catches Seymour leaving and demands another meal: Seymour agrees, but insists on meat from a butcher. While Seymour is gone, the plant telephones Audrey, coaxes her into the shop, and then tries to eat her ("Suppertime II").
Seymour, returning in time to save Audrey, escapes the store with her. Explaining that he fed the plant to become successful and win Audrey's heart, Seymour discovers she has always loved him ("Suddenly, Seymour" (reprise)). Approached by an executive named Patrick Martin from a botanical company, Seymour is offered a contract to breed Audrey II and sell the saplings worldwide. Horrified by the idea, Seymour drives Martin away and realizes he must destroy Audrey II for the sake of humanity.
Returning to the shop, Seymour learns that Audrey II is actually an alien from outer space ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"). Audrey II traps Seymour and destroys the shop, but he grabs an exposed electrical cable and electrocutes it, resulting in an explosion. Leaving the destroyed shop, Seymour safely reunites with Audrey. The two wed and move to the suburbs. As they arrive at their new home, a smiling Audrey II bud can be seen among the flowers in their front yard, leaving the ending ambiguous.
However there was an unofficial director's ending/Original ending: During production, director Oz shot a 23-minute ending based on the off-Broadway musical's ending. However, after audiences at the preview screenings did not react positively to it, the ending had to be rewritten and re-shot for the theatrical release with a happier ending.
In the cut ending, the plant attacks Audrey, in the process revealing to her that it also ate Orin and Mr. Mushnik. Seymour comes and pulls her from its jaws but is too late, as she is mortally wounded. As she is dying she tells him what the plant said about Orin and Mushnik, and then Seymour confesses that he fed them to the plant. Audrey requests that Seymour feed her to the plant too so that Seymour can earn the success he deserves, and, in a way, she'll always be with him ("Somewhere That's Green" (reprise)). After fulfilling her dying wish, he attempts suicide by jumping off the roof of a building, only to be stopped by Patrick Martin. Martin offers to reproduce and sell Audrey IIs and has already grown a smaller Audrey II from one of the cuttings that he harvested earlier. He also warns Seymour that his consent is not necessary, as plants are considered to be in the public domain. Realizing Audrey II is planning global domination, Seymour climbs down from the roof resolute to destroy the plant. Returning to the shop, he confronts and tries to kill Audrey II (“Mean Green Mother from Outer Space”), who tears down the shop, fishes him from the rubble and eats him alive. The plant then spits out Seymour's glasses and laughs victoriously.
The three chorus girls appear in front of a large American flag and tell how although Audrey II buds became a worldwide consumer craze, the buds grew into an army of monstrous plants who began to take over the Earth. Giant Audrey II plants are shown destroying cities, toppling buildings, as well as eating people. The United States Army attempts to fight the buds as they ascend the Statue of Liberty and Audrey II eventually bursts through the movie screen and presumably eats the viewers ("Finale (Don't Feed The Plants)").
Development:
David Geffen was one of the original producers of the off-Broadway show and he began planning to produce a feature film adaptation. Originally Steven Spielberg was to executive produce the film and Martin Scorsese was to direct, Scorsese wanting to shoot the film in 3D even, but production was stalled when a lawsuit was filed by the original film's screenwriter and actor, Charles B. Griffith. John Landis was also attached to the project for a time.
Geffen then offered the film to Frank Oz, who was finishing work on The Muppets Take Manhattan around the same time. Oz initially rejected it, but he later had an idea that got him into the cinematic aspect of the project, which he did not figure out before. Oz spent a month and a half to restructure the script which he felt was stage-bound. Geffen and Ashman liked what he had written and decided to go with what he did. Oz was also studying the Off-Broadway show and how it was thematically constructed, all in order to reconstruct it for a feature film.
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. Four other songs ("Closed for Renovation", "Mushnik and Son", "Now [It's Just the Gas]", as well as "Call Back in the Morning") were cut from the original production score, and “Finale (Don’t Feed the Plants)” does not appear in the theatrical version of the film. An original song written by Ashman and Menken, "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space", was created for the film.
Casting:
Greene was not the first choice for the role of Audrey. The studio wanted Cyndi Lauper, who turned it down. Barbra Streisand was also rumored to have been offered the part. Since Greene was the original off-Broadway Audrey, the role was given to her. "She's amazing," Oz said. "I couldn't imagine any other Audrey, really. She nailed that part for years off-Broadway." The character of the masochistic dental patient (who in Corman's original film was named Wilbur Force and played by Jack Nicholson) was cut from the stage version but added back to the new film, renamed Arthur Denton, and played by Bill Murray, who improvised all of his dialogue. It supposedly took Steve Martin six weeks to film all his scenes as Orin. He contributed ideas such as socking the nurse in the face (originally he was to knock her out using his motorbike helmet) and ripping off the doll head.
Filming:
All the scenes were filmed at Pinewood Studios in England, making use of every sound stage there, including the 007 Stage. Oz and his crew did not want to shoot on location as it would tamper with the fantastical mood of the film. Part of the giant 007 stage was used to film the "Suddenly Seymour" number. But because of its size, the stage was impractical to heat properly and thus caused breath condensation to appear from the actor's lips. This was countered by having Ellen Greene and Rick Moranis put ice cubes in their mouths.
This would be the first time Moranis and Steve Martin starred in a film together, and they would later appear together in three more films: Parenthood, My Blue Heaven and L.A. Story.
As mentioned, additional sequences and songs from the original off-Broadway show were dropped or re-written in order for the feature version to be paced well. The notable change was for the "Meek Shall Inherit" sequence. As originally filmed, it detailed through a dream sequence Seymour's rising success and the need to keep the plant fed and impress Audrey. In the final cut, the dream sequence and much of the song is cut out. Oz said, "I cut that because I felt it just didn't work and that was before the first preview in San Jose. It was the right choice, it didn't really add value to the entire cut." The full version of the song was included on the film's soundtrack album, as were the songs from the original ending. The sequence was deemed to be lost until in 2012 when it was rediscovered on a VHS workprint that contained alternate and extended takes and sequences.
{Figured I'd mention how they controlled the plan puppet, it's very interesting}
Operating Audrey II:
The film's version of Audrey II was an elaborate creation, using puppets designed by Lyle Conway, who had previously worked with Oz on The Muppet Show, The Dark Crystal, and The Great Muppet Caper.
While developing the mouth of the plant for the dialogue scenes and musical numbers, Oz, Conway and his crew struggled to figure out how to make the plant move convincingly. "We kept trying and trying and it didn't work." The solution presented itself while reviewing test footage of the puppet. When the film ran backwards or forward at a faster than normal speed, the footage looked more convincing and lifelike. They realized they could film the puppet at a slower speed, making it appear to move faster when played back at normal speed. "By slowing it down it looked it was talking real fast. We then went 'holy cow, look at that. We can do it.'" The frame rate for filming the plant was slowed to 12 or 16 frames per second, depending on the scene, and frequent screen cuts were used to minimize the amount of screen time the puppet spent with human actors; when interaction was 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 reinserted in post-production. Levi Stubbs' recordings were pitch-shifted through a Harmonizer when slowed down so that they were coherent for Moranis or Ellen Greene.
There are no blue screens or opticals involved in any of Audrey II's scenes, with the exception of the reshot ending where the plant is electrocuted, designed by Visual Effects supervisor Bran Ferren, and in some shots during the rampage in the original ending. The plant was made in six different stages of growth and there were three different versions of Mushnik's shop, making it possible for two units to work with different sized plants at the same time. Each of the talking plants had to be cleaned, re-painted and patched up at the end of each shooting day, which would take up to three hours depending on the size. The "Suppertime" number uses two different sizes of Audrey II. When "Twoey" is singing all alone in the shop, it is actually a smaller size: the same size as when it sang "Feed Me", but now standing on a scaled down set to make it appear larger. The full size one that is seen to interact with Seymour and Mushnik was not provided with lip movement, but was built to swallow Mushnik's (mechanical) legs. Performing the plant in its largest form required around 60 puppeteers, many of whom had worked with director Frank Oz on previous projects.
My Review:
Oh my word was this movie a BIG surprise for me. Beforehand I had heard of this theatre show flittering about, but when I found out that there was a movie version it peaked my interest. Like all musicals I listened to the soundtrack on Youtube and liked it enough to buy the film and check it out. AND BOY am I glad I did! Wow I was blown away with this movie, especially with the practical effects. Audrey II though is the most impressive thing in this film; this is one of the reasons why I love practical effects so much, because it's actually there and not CGI'd in. Don't get me wrong CGI is amazing, but at sometimes it's gets very tedious and doesn't actually look convincing. It's cool how it's Frank Oz in the director's chair, one of the masterminds behind the globally beloved 'Muppets'; so we've seen first hand how good he is at sculpting and characterization/bringing the the puppets to life. {For the longest time as a kid I thought the Muppets were real, not inanimate objects that people controlled}. Then again I'm not surprised who else would be talented enough to create a life size Audrey 2, because damn the puppet is enormous!
LOOK AT THIS THING!
The casting was great: Rick Moranis pulled off the nice, well-intentioned, nerdy Seymour well. Steve Martin was just wild, then again he tends to be; I don't see how else the sadistic nitrous-oxide addicted dentist - Bill Murray's appearance even more so! Levi Stubbs' voice was perfect for Audrey II. Ellen Greene portrayed Audrey's kind, friendly, shy and awkward character well - then again she was in the original stage show casting. Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, and Tisha Campbell as Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon - the narrators/backing singers - were very good, for the times we see them {they really reminded me of the three African American lady singers from Hairspray... Hang on; Hairspray ripped this movie hard! XD}.
Everything else about the movie was amazing: from the soundtrack to the story... just, just WOW I'm amazed! I definitely recommend this film if you haven't seen it already, it gets a very deserved 10/10 from me!!!
{Soundtrack if you're interested in giving it a listen}
Songs/Soundtrack:
"Prologue: Little Shop of Horrors"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Skid Row (Downtown)"– Seymour, Audrey, Mushnik, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company
"Da-Doo"– Seymour, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Grow for Me"– Seymour, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal (off-screen)
"Somewhere That's Green"– Audrey
"Some Fun Now"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Dentist!"– Orin, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Feed Me (Git It!)"– Audrey II, Seymour
"Suddenly, Seymour"– Seymour, Audrey, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"Suppertime"– Audrey II, Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal
"The Meek Shall Inherit"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company
"Suppertime II"– Audrey II, Audrey, Chiffon, Ronette and Crystal (off screen)
"Suddenly, Seymour" (reprise) – Audrey, Seymour
"Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"– Audrey II, the Pods
"Little Shop of Horrors medley" (end credits) – Company
Original Ending:
"Somewhere That's Green" (reprise) – Audrey, Seymour
"Mean Green Mother from Outer Space"– Audrey II, the Pods
"Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)"– Chiffon, Ronette, Crystal, Company
"Little Shop of Horrors medley" (end credits) – Company
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