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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d might be the most adorable movie ever made about murder.<\/p>\n
Frank Oz\u2019s adaptation of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman\u2019s musical \u2014 itself a loose adaptation of an old Roger Corman film\u00a0\u2014 is beloved for its toe-tapping numbers, awkward romance between geeky lovers, and a scene-stealing plant that belts out Motown. It\u2019s helmed by Frank Oz, the voice of Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and Yoda. It spawned its own animated children\u2019s series. Thirty years after its release, it\u2019s easy to remember this as nothing more than a light-hearted\u00a0comedy and look past its critique of consumer culture and the\u00a0characters\u2019 Faustian bargains. It\u2019s sweet but deranged, and it\u2019s one of my favorite cinematic musicals.<\/p>\n
The film takes place in a squalid center of the city known as Skid Row. At a struggling flower shop, geeky Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) toils away while pining over the beautiful Audrey (Ellen Greene), who\u2019s dating an abusive dentist while dreaming of a tidy home in the suburbs. When Seymour trips across a bizarre Venus fly trap during a solar eclipse and puts it on display in the florist\u2019s window, business soars. When the plant reveals a taste for blood, Seymour is willing to prick his fingers and feed the seedling. But as the plant\u00a0\u2014 named Audrey II\u00a0\u2014 gets bigger and begins to talk (and sing!), its hunger grows and a few small cuts won\u2019t be enough to satiate it. Seymour, spurred on by promises of fame, fortune and romance, turns to devious means to keep his plant full, but how long before he\u2019s found out? And Audrey II might have even bigger ambitions once\u00a0it\u2019s done with Seymour.<\/p>\n
Sinister and sweet<\/h2>\n
It sounds gruesome, but Oz, in his first directorial effort since \u201cThe Muppets Take Manhattan,\u201d turns it into something sweet, funny and immensely entertaining. The stage-setting \u201cSkid Row\u201d might be one of the most flat-out enjoyable numbers in any modern Hollywood musical, and Levi Stubbs\u2019 turn as Audrey II is a bullying, monstrous riot. The Greek chorus of Motown singers keeps things humming along, and the movie is paced with the energy of a stage comedy. Oz calls in favors from his Hollywood friends, so Christopher Guest shows up briefly as a floral shop customer and John Candy mugs for a bit as a hyperactive radio DJ. Steve Martin, as Audrey\u2019s dentist boyfriend, puts in an extended cameo\u00a0\u2014 complete with show-stopping, Elvis-inspired musical number\u00a0\u2014 that threatens to steal the entire movie,\u00a0 until Bill Murray waltzes in as a dental patient with a pain fetish and swipes it right from him.<\/p>\n
Menken and Ashman\u2019s music is infectious and fun, spanning the gamut of old-school rock, traditional show tunes and R&B, spiked with clever and sometimes cutting lyrics. Audrey\u2019s ballad, \u201cSomewhere That\u2019s Green\u201d might come across as a sweetly realized ode to domesticity, but it\u2019s actually a pretty wicked send-up of American consumer culture, where she admits to dating \u201ca semi-sadist\u201d and dreams of\u00a0 a \u201cwasher and a dryer, and an ironing machine\u201d in her home\u2019s \u201cPine Sol-scented air.\u201d The fan-favorite \u201cFeed Me\u201d ends with Seymour belting out (about Audrey\u2019s boyfriend) \u201cyou need blood and he\u2019s got more than enough,\u201d and wondering if he can perform \u201cmutilations.\u201d Even the peppy title number implores us to \u201cfeel the Sturm und Drang in the air.\u201d The off-Broadway version, complete with a subplot about the floral shop owner adopting Seymour to cash in on the craze and a moment where Seymour sings about the moral quandaries of murdering the dentist (both cut from the film), is a pitch-black, darkly humorous puppet show. On stage, where audiences can see the artificiality, that cynicism goes down a bit easier. It could easily curdle in a movie theater, where you invest more emotionally in the characters, who are seen not at a distance but in vivid closeups. By goosing the humor, pulling back on the snark and softening the satire, Oz keeps the movie enjoyable, even turning a sequence where Seymour feeds hacked-up body parts to a giant plant into something that\u2019s ghoulish but not ghastly.<\/p>\n
Key to the film\u2019s success is the central romance between Seymour and Audrey. Greene, who played the role on stage, is wonderful. She\u2019s all breathy ditziness when she speaks, but brings a great deal of sympathy and character to Audrey. She\u2019s resigned to life on Skid Row and doesn\u2019t believe she deserves someone nice like Seymour; her relationship with Martin\u2019s dentist is stark in its depiction of abuse, and Greene captures Audrey\u2019s yearning for something better that she feels she doesn\u2019t deserve. The lyrics to \u201cSomewhere That\u2019s Green\u201d might be snarky, but Greene packs so much emotion into Audrey\u2019s desire for a home \u201cout of \u2018Better Homes and Gardens\u2019 magazine\u201d turns it into something tender. Moranis, an actor dearly missed on the screen, is at his best here. Seymour\u2019s a nerd and a slob, and could probably be cousin to Moranis\u2019 \u201cGhostbusters\u201d character. But there\u2019s something charming to his enthusiasm and meekness, and we understand why Seymour might be willing to go to nefarious lengths when his big shot arrives. But Moranis doesn\u2019t paint the character as a victim; in \u201cFeed Me,\u201d he lets Seymour\u2019s darker ambitions shine through, and in \u201cSuppertime\u201d he pushes the character a bit further into darkness, choosing to let something awful happen to keep his secret safe. And the actor is also a compelling romantic lead, his niceness not a joke but the very thing Audrey has been secretly pining for. Moranis and Greene\u2019s duet \u201cSuddenly Seymour\u201d is a fantastic love ballad, and the movie\u2019s high point \u2014 which is saying something in a movie that features a giant, bloodthirsty plant.<\/p>\n But the film\u2019s drawback is that it can\u2019t quite stick the landing\u00a0\u2014 and it\u2019s had two shots.<\/p>\n The play\u2019s ending is famously a downer, with Seymour feeding an injured Audrey to the plant and then being consumed before the plant takes over the world. Oz originally filmed this ending, complete with massive special effects featuring giant plants wreaking havoc across the globe. Test audiences, who had been loving the movie up to that point, revolted. And it\u2019s not surprising why; even Oz said that audiences were okay with the bleak ending on the stage, where the actors could come out and take a bow afterward. But in a movie, where closeups build greater empathy and there\u2019s no curtain call, it takes the air out of the room. And so the 20-minute finale was scrapped in favor of a more traditional one where Seymour destroys the plant and runs off with Audrey.<\/p>\n Even as a kid, I could tell there was something off about this ending. It feels rushed. True, there\u2019s a catchy song in \u201cMean Green Mother from Outer Space\u201d (which was part of the original ending and new for the film), but Seymour\u2019s final tussle with Audrey II is largely weightless, culminating in an explosion, a kiss and a quick footnote of an ending. It\u2019s not bad, per se, but feels tacked on (which, of course, it was). More than that, it takes the tweaks at capitalism, greed and consumer culture and does nothing with them. Seymour isn\u2019t punished for letting people die (and feeding them to plants), and he and Audrey run off the happy home with plastic-covered furniture and nicely manicured lawns that \u201cSomewhere That\u2019s Green\u201d needled.\u00a0It\u2019s a happy ending, but one that isn\u2019t exactly earned, although our affection for Seymour and Audrey keeps it from being a disaster.<\/p>\n Yet it doesn\u2019t quite work. The special effects, while astonishing, go on and on (although it\u2019s likely we\u2019re not seeing what a full edit would have been). But more than that, Oz is right\u00a0\u2014 the empathy we build for Audrey and Seymour gives the ending a bitter taste. Onstage, with all of the production numbers intact, \u201cLittle Shop\u201d is a bit more wicked with its satire and the ending is just the right wicked culmination. But Oz\u2019s film is too darn nice, Moranis and Greene too lovable, and the film too fun for its dark finale to feel right. The movie (wisely) pulls back on its more satiric and cynical elements throughout, but the ending is as bleak as it gets. It\u2019s a jarring tonal shift, turning the movie preachy when before its satire was a diluted. With some time, maybe Oz could have massaged the film so it fit better, but as integrated, this ending is a fascinating, if flawed, inclusion.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s still worth a look. \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d has some all-timers in terms of songs, and there are few musical romances as tender and sweet as the one between Audrey and Seymour. Comedy fans owe it to themselves to watch Martin and Murray walk away with the show, and aficionados of Oz\u2019s work with Henson will likely love watching him make what might be the most deranged Muppet movie ever made. There\u2019s also an argument to be made that Frank Oz is simply one of our most underrated comedy directors, and his work probably deserves more critical re-examination. So, definitely add \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors\u201d to your Halloween rotation. It\u2019s adorable and grotesque, and the best movie ever made about singing, bloodthirsty plants.<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0<\/em>Fathom Events will be hosting special screenings of \u201cLittle Shop of Horrors: The Director\u2019s Cut\u201d on Oct. 29 and Oct. 31, the first time this film will be seen theatrically with the restored ending. For more information, check here<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nDoes this deserve a happy ending?<\/h2>\n
<\/a>A few years back, the film was released on Blu-Ray with Oz\u2019s original ending (it had previously only been seen in a black-and-white cut as a DVD extra that was quickly pulled from shelves). It\u2019s definitely a better conclusion. \u201cDon\u2019t Feed the Plants\u201d is the fun, acidic finale the movie deserves, and the deaths of Audrey and Seymour are genuinely affecting. The film takes the play\u2019s consumerism critique worldwide, indicting an entire society of Seymours who run out to buy miniature Audrey II\u2019s that grow to massive sizes and destroy humanity. The extended finale is one of the most astonishing practical effects sequences I\u2019ve seen, with giant plants rampaging through the city, busting down walls, devouring trains and climbing the Statue of Liberty. It makes you feel for the artists who put this sequence together only to have their work discarded for 25 years in favor of a cheap explosion. It feels more a piece with the rest film, and it makes the satire sting a bit more.<\/p>\n