Frank Oz’s LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS brings back fond memories of watching this as a child (although I had the theatrical version with the distinctly happier ending) and while nearly decades ( yes decades) have passed since I last saw it, I can still sing nearly word perfect at least three of the songs – the titular Prologue to Little Shop of Horrors, Feed Me Seymour and Skid Row – but besides the basics of the plot (man eating alien plants lands on earth) I remembered little from it other than the experience of watching it.

Getting to see if on the big screen was a marvel. I personally found that it held up really well. It’s kitschy fun in an absolutely absurd world and I liked being part of it for 103 minutes. The pacing of the film was the first thing that worked for me. Truly theatrical, in homage to it’s broadway influences, everything moved at a frenetic pace so there were never any time for lulls in the narrative. It’s all killer no filler as they say. This is a true stage adaptation as audiences are thrown right into the story via a vibrant opening number sang by three glamourous ladies (Tichina Arnold, Tisha Campbell and Michelle Weeks. It was fun playing the spotting game When They Were Young as two of these ladies both went on to play fiery mothers in TV sitcoms, Arnold in Everybody Hates Chris (hard recommend) and Campbell in My Wife and Kids (softest of recommends)).

We are introduced the less-than-glamourous life of those who live on Skid Row, in particular Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis), the klutzy but well-meaning shop assistant in a failing flower shop. Just as the shop’s owner, Mushnik, considers closing the shop doors for good, Seymour shows him an intriguing plant he accidentally came by naming it Audrey II after a colleague he pines for. It’s origins unknown, the plant draws inquisitive crowds and booming business. All is well until its revealed that Audrey II doesn’t feed like normal vegetation, because Audrey II isn’t anything like normal vegetation. He reveals to Seymour that he can talk and move and he is in fact a plant from outer space. And also there’s the small issue that his tipple of choice is blood. Seymour acquiesces to this by offering up his own blood but as Audrey II grows Seymour finds his blood isn’t enough and is soon pushed to extreme measures in order to feed a very hungry plant…

I thoroughly enjoyed the performances – Rick Moranis perfecting his nerdy, weatherworn but secretly optimistic persona here. But I enjoyed the musical numbers more with special mention to Ellen Greene as Audrey, Seymour’s colleague and object of his desire. To be able to convincingly be that Marilyn Monroe girly glamour with an undertone of melancholy and lack of self esteem was quite something. She could have easily been aggravating but is instead endearing and also funny. And have a powerful voice explode from such a tiny frame to boot.

The actor having the most fun was so obviously Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist and Audrey’s abusive boyfriend Orvin Schrivello. In the original film adaptation a very young Jack Nicholson played Bill Murray’s fun cameo as a masochistic dental patient and while I like Steve Martin enough it would have been genuinely unsettling and gleefully evil to have Nicholson’s eyebrows take on the role .

My favorite character is Audrey II for various reasons. Excellently voiced by Levi Stubbs of Four Tops, the puppetry of the alien takes me back, in my opinion, to the golden era of animatronics and puppetry. Audrey II is as intricately and masterly created as the best of Henson and I found myself marvelling at how real Audrey II felt because it was more solid and substantial than say CGI. (I have nothing against CGI but for me no matter how detailed or epic the world building is in CGI-heavy films there’s still the little bit of me that can’t completely suspend all disbelief when I know that in reality it’s all a green screen. Old school special effects are just as fake but more easily believable because they’re THERE.)

*WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD*

What makes Little Shop of Horrors enduring is finally getting to see it the way Frank Oz intended. The version I saw when I was young had Audrey II defeated by Seymour with him and Audrey (I) running off in the sunset to live the picket fence life Audrey had dreamed for herself. That’s perfectly fitting for an 8 year-old (although I wouldn’t really call this an appropriate film for 8 year-olds even with the injected happy ending) but fundamentally that ending betrays the central conceit of Little Shop of Horrors.

An adaptation of John Collier’s 1932 short story that then became a broadway show before being adapted for the screen in a low-budget Roger Corman vehicle in 1960, Little Shop is an off-colour tale of romance in a shitty world where alien plants come and eat everyone. Despite the cute love story and the kitschy look, Little Shop is macabre in the truest form staying faithful to its source material to what precedes the 23-minute rampage of apocalyptic grandeur in the finale as Audrey II devours both our hero and his love before spawning sister plants that destroy New York and beyond.

It’s both heartbreaking but morbidly satisfying to see such a disarmingly depressing end. But when one thinks of the tone of the film, take away the tongue in cheek vibe of it the world in that Little Shop inhabits is terrible to say the least. If we were to take the character of Audrey as an example. She is a particularly tragic character; physically, emotionally and one could assume sexually abused by her sadistic boyfriend Schrivello. She is constantly told by those around her that she deserves more and should quit him but she doesn’t until Seymour takes the option away from her. She seems willing, despite herself, to put up with it Schrivello because she thinks that is what she thinks she deserves. While she may dream of the big romance, her reality is one of self hatred and constant abuse. Her world like so many soul-beaten people is a hopeless one. In a strange sense despite the absurdity of Little Shop‘s tone its original ending seems to stay true to an element of realism by removing that happy ending option from its desolate characters. It’s daring stuff, but it pays off so well for this cynical modern cinema goer.

It’s also easy to see why test audiences rejected this ending back in the 1980s. After all Seymour and co (with the exception of Schrivello) are the loveable underdogs and they die? The budding romance that is central to the story never comes to fruition because the loving couple are killed before they can see it through? By a foul-mouthed, jive-talking alien motherf****r nonetheless! (Audrey II is physical creation of white America’s worst nightmare. Justin Simien could have used this reference hard in Dear White People) What happened to film as escapism? I can practically hear them exclaim when scoring the film.

Little Shop of Horrors was a real pleasure to rediscover. Part of why its so winning – and why it continues to be – is due the refreshingly new theatrical take on a well-worn tragedy tale. While it’s fundamentally a love story, Little Shop is also prodding allegory about consumer consumption and media power that never comes off preachy due to its irreverent, razor-toothed humour and memorable musical numbers. It’s kind of a revelation in my book and its cult status is well-deserved.

*Fun fact – I was watching Bugsy Malone at work for the 100th time (cos that’s my job. It’s hard watching films you love) and I noticed that the “Chicago” street sets looked very familiar to the Skid Row of Little Shop of Horrors. That’s because they are possibly the same sets. These two very ‘American’ films were actually filmed in Pinewood Studios, here in the UK. Oh to have worked there at that time! To be apart of that magic! Sigh.

Little Shop of Horrors – Director’s Cut and Theatrical version is available on DVD!