“DOES THIS LOOK INANIMATE TO YOU, PUNK?!”
There’s something to be said about finding a niche and doing it well enough that you become a name just because of that—in this case, Frank Oz made his name working with puppets, going from Jim Henson to Star Wars to his own childhood-scarring projects like Dark Crystal, and eventually directing this adaptation of a certain musical based on a Roger Corman movie. That happens to involve a singing person-eating flytrap plant from space. Yup, here’s a swing by the Little Shop of Horrors.
As the fifties was the nostalgic decade du jour in the Reagan-era USA, we of course have a doo-wop theme from the beginning, as we focus on Rick Moranis as Seymour, working in a struggling little New York store. Like with many of his roles around then, Moranis plays a socially awkward but likeable enough schmuck, pining for one Audrey (Ellen Greene). Things turn around when Seymour gets his hands on a mysteriously appearing plant that becomes the talk of the town, especially as it starts getting bigger and asking pretty charismatically for some blood.
Yep, despite being a puppet plant, Audrey II pretty much steals the show—combine the boisterous tones of Levi Stubbs as the voice, and Oz’s own craft (let’s not forget that they shot the puppet in half-speed, which meant Moranis had to act, sing, and talk at the same rate, which is insane). They even manage to get fluid expressions out of something with no face—and that’s before the flytrap gets even bigger and starts to produce its own choruses from buds. Even in modern 4k, it still looks damn impressive.
This has the side-effect of this Audrey overshadowing most of the cast…with the exception of Steve Martin as a sadist dentist, whose music number and subsequent scene where he interacts with a cameoing Bill Murray being an absolute riot. Around this era, little beat Murray being his deadpan wiseass ad-libbing self, especially when he’s a masochist deliberately seeking out the most sadistic dentist in town, because of course.
Now, the interesting twist in the tale around this film is the ending—which was reshot on account of the original being too depressing, and that original was considered lost for years, before being found and restored for more recent editions. There, Moranis gets eaten, and the Audrey plants spread, growing until they become Godzilla-sized monsters laying waste to New York. While Moranis made himself perhaps too likeable, the old ending does pay off that faustian bargain and play more into those satirical themes around American consumerism—feeding the monster until it eats you right back. And, well, it was plain fun to see the film go nuts and fully embrace those fifties monster movie roots.
Still, either way, while you may need to enjoy a bit of camp to get the most of this one…I luckily do, so this mean green mother’s fine by me!
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