VIDEO: "Little Shop of Horrors" featuring "Electro-Lude" by Hyper
In the long history of movies depicting the geeks of the world overcoming the odds and inevitably bagging the top billed female, there have been many takes on whatever absurd plot may lead to this end result. Sometimes, it even takes a couple adaptations along the way and a last minute reshoot of another to get to this right instead of opting out for a more downer ending to the story. This would be the story behind the next Dizzle Halloween addition, 1986's Academy Award nominated happy horror flick, The Little Shop of Horrors.
Directed by the legendary Frank Oz (Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Yoda, you should know him), the flick was based off the 1982 stage musical that is still performed all over the world (including Broadway revivals) almost three decades later. The musical itself was an adaptation of 1960 low budget black comedy flick of the same name by "king of the B-movies" Roger Corman, which featured a young Jack Nicholson in one of his first appearances. The story follows the always excellently nerdy Rick Moranis as flourist Seymour Krelborn, stuck in his lowly surroundings of Skid Row with no end in sight... that is, until a total eclipse yields quite the find for the floral expert: an possibly unidentified breed.
If I was in this face-to-face scenario, I'd be shitting my pants right about... now.
Yearning for the affection of his co-worker Audrey (singer/actress Ellen Greene most recently seen on Pushing Daisies, reprising her Off-Broadway role) and under pressure from his boss Mr. Mushnik to come up with something to big to bring life into the failing flower shop, he begins to discover that the plant (dubbed "Audrey II" for reasons that shouldn't need clarifying) only thrives on blood. As the plant begins to grow and the bodies continue to pile up, the alien being's plans for world conquest become clear, leaving Seymour as the last man standing between the Mean Green Mother From Outer Space and the planet.
The supporting cast is a pretty strong one as well, including appearences from Steve Martin, Bill Murray, John Candy, James Belushi, and the chick who went on to star in the TV show "Martin" opposite Martin Lawrence (and earning herself a reference in Kanye West's "Flashing Lights"). As a kid, I loved the fact that Bill Murray and Rick Moranis got to share a brief scene together, giving me a chance to see some of the Ghostbusters share the screen together again. I still remember my sister taking me to see her high school class drama club production of the stage show, and finding myself just as bummed with the downbeat real ending, as the audiences must've been at test screenings that scrapped the "plants take over the world" ending originally intended for the film.
I like happy endings, but this would've been a SICK way to end a movie.
Still, while some may not like the more audience-friendly happy ending, any film with Rick Moranis getting the win is good by me. Trying to briefly highlight the film in some means of clarity meant that some of the random faces and body count characters don't pop up, instead focusing on the main "flower shop trio", not including the plant. I ended up picking a personal favorite instrumental song to allow for some brief musical cues to pop up, highlighting the ones that have some good expositional lyrics that weren't Oscar-nominated (as "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space" was, rightfully so).
So with that, let's get to the slightly-delayed fifth installment of the Dizzle Halloween Updates: Little Shop of Horrors, featuring "Electro-Lude" by Hyper. We'll have a few more updates before Halloween as well so stay tuned! --Tommy Dizzlemits
