The Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day as Seymour is seeking a new mysterious plant, he finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper. Soon enough, Seymour feeds Audrey's sadistic dentist boyfriend to the plant and later, Mushnik for witnessing the death of Audrey's ex. Will Audrey II take over the world or will Seymour and Audrey defeat it?

And what a great concept it was! The original version was lame, along with the ending leading to disappointment. Frank Oz obviously felt the same, and decided to do a beautiful, SF musical version you see before you! Rick Moranis stars as a nerdy guy who works in florist's shop, and has a crush on a beautiful girl named Audrey. He fantasizes about being happily married to her in a suburban home, with a picket fence, and two adoring children.


The problem is she don't know how he feels about her, and to top it off, she's stuck in an abusive relationship with a scummy boyfriend named Orin. And the shop isn't selling and thing at all, causing his boss, Mushnik to be hard on him.

It seems like his dreams will never come true, that is until he finds a strange plant during an eclipse. He thinks its a type of Venus Flytrap, so he takes it inside and calls it Audrey II. He later discovers that its no ordinary, bug eating plant one day, when it wilts and he tries everything to revive it. He accidentally cuts his finger, and when it bleeds the plant starts making sucking noises. He figures out that it needs blood to eat, and he feeds it this everyday.

This just suits Audrey II just fine, until it grows excessively large. Thats when it suddenly speaks to Seymour, and demands him to feed him something much more gruesome. Steve Martin does a fine job as Orin, the sadistic and amoral dentist, whose dental gear resembles medieval torture devices. He also has an obvious addiction to laughing gas. Many of the memorable songs from this movie are: Mean Green Mother From Outer Space, the title song and Be A Dentist!

This movie is also seen as something of black comedy as well, with many of the dark things going on in this movie. It is a fine classic,(and dark) remake you won't soon forget. If the Broadway version shows up in your town, make an effort to see it!