HALLOWEEN REVIEW OF THE DAY: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Based on an Off-Broadway show that was based off a 1960 film directed by Roger Corman, I consider the 1986 musical film Little Shop of Horrors to be a somewhat underrated musical. I'm sure the film and the stage musical were big hits when they came out, but now I hardly hear any of them being mentioned today. I honestly thinks it needs to be looked at more. The story is about a young man named Seymour who grew up in the skid row slums of New York City, looked after and working for a flower shop owner, and falls in love with the beautiful Audrey, and most importantly looks after a strange looking plant to which he names Audrey II. Audrey II begins to grow bigger and bigger as Seymour continues to feed it blood, and eventually when the plant begins to talk it instead wants a huge portion of blood, including flesh and bones. The plant now wants to eat live beings. Most of the film is funny and enjoyable. Most of it is due the to the songs which were written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman who would later be more famous for their work for Disney such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. As one of their early works, you can already tell that the two are genius songwriters that create their trademark upbeat sounds and catchy lyrics that only the the two can deliver. Howard Ashman is also the screenwriter for the film as he also wrote the book for the stage version. Being mostly known for a lyricist, Ashman in my opinion has the talent of also writing a decent screenplay. He has the talent of being a comedic writer anyways, being able to make the characters work off each other, being able to get out jokes at an enormously fast pace, and also having the talent of writing good one-liners. Though this movie is decent, itcould have been something great and revolutionary. From what I understand the story of Little Shop of Horrors is a story about what happens when you want to get fame and success not through hard work but doing ungodly things and making a deal with the "devil" and that's where the true dark and gothic tones of the story take action. The ending for this film is very different from the Roger Corman film ending as well as the Off-Broadway show it was based on and those endings well represented the moral of the story. But the film originally had an ending that was cut due to test audiences' dislike towards it. But the surprisingly the alternate ending works a MILLION times better than the happy ending they went with, and it works as equally as the original ending of the story. If they went with the alternate ending, the movie could have effectively told their message better and I would possibly would have given this movie a slightly higher grade. Though this is mostly a musical comedy, the horror and dark aspects of the original story should have been more represented. Sometimes the audience needs something dark, gothic, and very thought provoking to really get a message like this across effectively, despite the fact that it's comedy, but again that would make the movie revolutionary and fantastic. That's what makes movies like A Clockwork Orange be fantastic as being all around dark, mean, and satirical. But either way the movie should still be looked at more because it is a fun and entertaining musical, and can definitely be added to the Halloween playlist. Grade: P