Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed.

Director:

Frank Oz

Writers:

Howard Ashman (screenplay), Howard Ashman (musical play "Little Shop of Horrors")

Stars:

Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Levi Stubbs	...	Audrey II (voice)
Rick Moranis	...	Seymour Krelborn
Ellen Greene	...	Audrey
Vincent Gardenia	...	Mushnik
Steve Martin	...	Orin Scrivello - D.D.S.
Tichina Arnold	...	Crystal
Michelle Weeks	...	Ronette
Tisha Campbell-Martin	...	Chiffon (as Tisha Campbell)
James Belushi	...	Patrick Martin
John Candy	...	Wink Wilkinson
Christopher Guest	...	The First Customer
Bill Murray	...	Arthur Denton
Stan Jones	...	Narrator (voice) (as Stanley Jones)
Bertice Reading	...	'Downtown' Old Woman
Ed Wiley	...	'Downtown' Bum #1

Storyline

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?

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Plot Keywords:

plant | florist | shop | eclipse | nerd | 

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Taglines:

A Singing Plant. A Daring Hero. A Sweet Girl. A Demented Dentist.

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Genres:

Comedy | Musical | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including comic horror violence, substance abuse, language and sex references

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

19 December 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der kleine Horrorladen

Filming Locations:

Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage, Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$38,747,385 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Geffen Company, The

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 102 min (original)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby Stereo (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The original production of "Little Shop of Horrors" premiered off-off-Broadway at the WPA Theater on May 6, 1982, before transferring off-Broadway to the the Orpheum Theatre, where it ran between July 27, 1982 and November 1, 1987 for a total of 2,209 performances. The musical made its Broadway debut 11 years later at the Virginia Theater, where it ran between October 2, 2003 and August 22, 2004, totaling 372 performances.

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Goofs

During the "Somewhere That's Green" number, Audrey dusts the house with a synthetic fiber static cling duster that wasn't invented until 1973, about 15 years after the movie takes place.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: 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...

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Crazy Credits

"Special Thanks" are given to Paul Dooley, because his scenes as Patrick Martin were cut and re-cast with James Belushi. Dooley's scenes are restored for the Director's cut, and consequently Belushi gets the "Special Thanks" instead.

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Connections

References The Wizard of Oz (1939)

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Soundtracks

Mean Green Mother From Outer Space
Written by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken
Arranged and Adapted by Bob Gaudio and Robby Merkin
Produced by Bob Gaudio
Performed by Levi Stubbs and Chorus (Oren Waters, Maxine Waters Willard, Julia Waters, Lynn Davis, Tommy Funderburk, Siedah Garrett, Debra Dobkin, Luther Waters, Jay Gruska, Joe Pizzulo, Donny Gerrard, Monalisa Young and Gene Morford)

User Reviews

An off-beat delight

No, not the black & white Roger Corman jewel featuring Jack Nicholson, though I suppose I'd watch that one again too. I'm talking about the 1986 color musical with Rick Moranis and Audrey II by way of Frank Oz. Like I tell my friends about "Babe," I love a film with a Greek chorus. In this one, the chorus consists of three Motownish women singers, Crystal, Chiffon and Ronette. I'll watch this film again, just to hear them sing one line: "TO – TAL – E – CLIPSE – OF – THE – SUN!" This is an all-singing, all-dancing science fiction black comedy that features human misery, a sadistic dentist, a masochistic patient, casual murder, girlfriend abuse, and a blood-sucking alien house plant monster. It's hilarious from beginning to end. And the music is outstanding.