Little Shop of Horrors

Cast & Crew

Rick Moranis

Seymour Krelborn

Ellen Greene

Audrey

Steve Martin

Orin Scrivello, D.D.S.

Vincent Gardenia

Mr. Mushnik

Tichina Arnold

Crystal

Tisha Campbell-Martin

Chiffon

Michelle Weeks

Ronette

Jim Belushi

Patrick Martin

John Candy

Wink Wilkinson

Christopher Guest

The First Customer

Bill Murray

Arthur Denton

Frank Oz

Director

Charles B. Griffith

Writer

Howard Ashman

Writer

David Geffen

Producer

Miles Goodman

Original Music

Alan Menken

Original Music

Robert Paynter

Cinematographer

John Jympson

Film Editing

Margery Simkin

Casting

Roy Walker

Production Design

Steve Spence

Art Director

Tessa Davies

Set Decoration

Marit Allen

Costume Design

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Critic Reviews for Little Shop of Horrors

Audience Reviews for Little Shop of Horrors

• Feb 28, 2013

  Wicked funny! It's a mixture of screwball comedy and musical! Delightful fun and little wrong! ;-)
  

  Super Reviewer
• May 05, 2012

  I know when I think of giant venus fly trap aliens eating people, especially when they're in a film with a title like this, I think of comedy-musicals. I suppose after "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", we decided that horror films probably could use a few added chuckles, because lord knows Ed Wood wasn't gonna live forever; why do you think Freddy Krueger kept popping out snappy one-liners? Yeah, everyone was talking about how "Scream" broke ground with its tongue-in-cheeck sensibilities, but no, they were just ripping off "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". It would appear as though Wes Craven was a big fan of horror-comedies, or rather, still is, because although I don't keep up with the guy too much, I'm hearing that plenty of his horror movies nowadays are pretty laughable. Okay, now, I'm sure that all of the Wes Craven fans are glad that someone is at least trying to make up excuses for his recent work being so hilariously bad, but I am very much exaggeratedly looking too far into things, because even with its subject matter and title, this film is anything but a horror film, or if it is, then it was doomed when they decided to make the director the guy who is also very notorious for playing Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Cookie Monster, Bert, Grover and, of course, Yoda, the least serious of all. Don't worry fanboys, I'm kidding, "Star Wars" has some depth, though not quite enough for it to not earn the label of "overrated" from me, and with this film having even less, if any depth, then it, for all extents and purposes, shouldn't stand a chance of avoiding the label of "overrated". Well, ladies and gentlemen, worry not, as this film accomplishes just enough of what it sets out to do for it to slip under the radar and come out as more rewarding than not, yet it still goes tainted by quite a few missteps, all the same. The film runs just a little over an hour-and-a-half, and you would think that's enough to get this story over and done with pretty comfortably, yet there are points in the film that feel a touch glossed over. Sure, the rushing isn't that severe, and even if it was, this isn't at all a film that needs a whole lot of meditation on its story, yet the glossing over some pieces of exposition feels a touch offputting here and there. Of course, it's pretty clear as day why there is so much rushing in the film, yet the reason isn't so much a reasonable excuse, as much as it's actually an intensifier on the problem, for the reason why the storytelling gets to be a bit spotty is because of this, and simply this: they want to hurry up to the next musical number. It's a problem found in a lot of musicals of this film's time and type, where storytelling, while still very prominent, sometimes finds itself battling off against the musical style of the production, leaving storytelling to fault in a few ways to make room for the next musical set piece. The film often finds itself gearing up for the next piece on the soundtrack, and when it's not doing that, then its storytelling loses some inspiration and goes rather slow, making the film's pacing all over the place. The film's missteps aren't terribly glaring, yet they definately take some knocks at a unique concept, rendering the film not much more than the same-old-same-old, or at least that's what I would say if this film wasn't above that. Even without its handful of minor missteps, the film was never written to be terribly slam-bang, yet, as I said, the film accomplishes what it sets out to do, and does it with style, notably when it comes to the musical aspects that are often a little too overly focused upon. Sure, maybe director Frank Oz focuses on the musical aspects a little too much, but hey, I guess I can't blame him too much, because it's hard to get enough of these catchy, lively musical numbers. The musical aspects follow a certain formula, yet there's a surprising amount of versatility in each tune, with each number being different enough from the last, yet still never at the cost of what's so good about the musical formula, from the lively dynamicity in storytelling tone to top-notch quality in the music, in general. Musically, the film really delivers with plenty of catchy, memorable fun, which isn't to say that the aspects outside of the musicality, while not always terrible comfortably done, don't still have enough inspiration behind them to keep you charmed. The film's humor is clever and unique, with subtlety that appeals to the more witty audience member, as well as enough broadness to catch anyone and everyone offguard, and really hit, thus creating a powerful aura of charm that lasts throughout the film, even with its missteps, yet couldn't have stayed so charged without being supplemented by the charm of the performers. Whether it be the inspired and fun cameos by John Candy and Bill Murray (And so begins Bill Murray's new fallback career of being "that guy" to get as a cameo in your comedy) or a comes-and-go, yet still delightfully hammy Steve Martin, everyone charms, with leading man charisma coming from two people you wouldn't expect to deliver so well: dorky character actor Rick Moranis and a plant. Seriously though, Levi Stubbs' slick voice comes in handy when it's behind such a charmingly sleazy and dangerous being, and with that sharp vocal work going backed up by a pretty excellent giant talking plant special effect, you've got yourself a villain that's as unexpectedly effective as he is charming. As for Moranis, he's play, well, Rick Moranis, yet doing so in a way that gives him a surprising amount of presence, charisma and, shockingly, even some layers that we always knew was there, yet never knew could be used so well to well Moranis could carry a film all but by himself, something that really isn't done, for although Moranis is a surprisingly engaging lead, he's not the only sharp aspect in this film that helps in making it sharper than you'd expect, and much more entertaining than not. In closing, the film's moments of over inspiration towards style leaves storytelling to suffer, moving either too fast or a little too slow, yet the film has every right to focus so much on the style, as the musical numbers really pop and dazzle with surprisingly versatility and high quality, which isn't to say that the substance doesn't deliver more often than not, as the film boasts consistently witty and lively humor to power consistent charm, really brought to life by the colorful cast of fiery charmers that help in making Frank Oz's musical take on "Little Shop of Horrors" to resonate on as a generally thoroughly entertaining classic number that is very likely to charm musical-lovers, the clever, the general audience and all around moviegoers. 3/5 - Good
  

  Super Reviewer
• Mar 18, 2012

  "Feed me, Seymour!" From director Frank Oz comes Little Shop of Horrors, an outrageous musical comedy. Based on the off-Broadway musical, the film follows a little flower shop on Skid Row that is taken over by an alien planet from outer space. Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene give great performances and are supported by the terrific comedic talents of Steve Martin, John Candy, and Bill Murray. The music is outstanding, with wonderfully choreographed dance numbers; which really brings the audience into the musical aesthetic of the film. Little Shop of Horror is a wildly entertaining comedy that's a lot of fun.
  

  Super Reviewer
• Dec 04, 2011

  Audrey II: Does this look "inanimate" to you, punk? If I can move and I can talk, who's to say I can't do anything I want?  "A Singing Plant. A Daring Hero. A Sweet Girl. A Demented Dentist." Little Shop of Horrors isn't a horrible musical by any means. It is just an extremely annoying one. I found all the songs to be annoying that weren't sung by the trio of girls who followed the events of the story around. Ellen Greene's voice irritated the shit out of me. She talks in a raspy, soft spoken way that just makes you want to kill yourself. Then when she sings, good Lord when she sings. Rick Moranis's singing tunes are just as bad. He plays his usual character and that character just doesn't translate well to singing. A flower shop in the ghetto isn't doing very well. No one comes in and the owner is looking at shutting the place down. This is when Seymour shows his new plant and puts it in the window to attract new customers. It works and the business begins to thrive and Seymour becomes an overnight success. Soon he figures out that in order for the plant to grow and not die, it needs human blood. For a while, he is able to feed it with drips from his fingers, but eventually the plant grows to big for that to do any good.  My favorite thing about this movie are the cameos. There are great cameos from Steve Martin as a sadistic dentist and also from Bill Murray as a pain loving patient of that dentist. Also the songs from the three women who follow the events around are awesome. I wish I could have sold after the initial credits because that was awesome. The movie is just too dull and actually quite boring. Songs can only go so far, there has to be characters and a plot that can support those songs and in Little Shop of Horrors, the characters cannot. I guess it is still worth one watch for Steve Martin' scenes alone. 
  

  Super Reviewer