Summary
Once when I was in junior high I was over at a friend's house. We were looking through her videotapes to find a movie to watch. I saw a tape labeled "Little Shop of Horrors" and assumed it was the Rick Moranis movie musical. "Little Shop of Horrors!" I said, "I love that movie!" "It's not what you think," replied my friend, "You don't want to watch that one." "Why? What's it about?" inquired little, innocent me. "What does it sound like?" responded my friend, mysteriously, archly. Not knowing what the heck she was talking about yet not wanting to appear ignorant, I said, "Uh-huh!" and nodded, knowingly, trying to look wise in the ways of the world. I assumed that it was something dirty. At that age, whenever people said things I didn't understand it was usually something dirty. Actually, that's pretty much still the case to this day. I just found out what "tea-bagging" is, and frankly, I was just as happy not knowing. Do we really need an official term for things like that?
Fifteen years later I finally watched this version of Little Shop (At least I assume this was the movie my friend had at her house. There isn't a porno out there called "The Little Shop of Horrors" is there? Wouldn't it be called "The Little Shop of Whores"?) and learned what I've been missing! This may be Roger Corman's best movie (though I'm sure the screenwriter deserves at least as much credit for it as Roger), which, in a sense, is saying a whole lot, since Roger Corman directed approximately 7,000 movies. In another sense, it's saying nothing at all, since approximately 6,996 of those movies are total crap. This movie isn't.
This movie is the random, quirky, occasionally hilarious tale of the corruption and downfall of the innocent and hapless Seymour Krelborn, flower shop employee, caring son, and aspiring botanist, at the hands of the free market economy and a blood-sucking plant.
Warning! Spoilers ahead!
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Barbara's Rant
I'm a little unclear on how Audry Junior came into being. When Seymour first presents her to Mushnik, Audry, and the flower-eater he says he "got the seeds from a Japanese gardener over on Central Avenue. He found them in with an order he got from a plantation next to a cranberry farm." I'm particularly intrigued by the cranberry farm connection because it suggests that Audry Junior is in some way related to a cranberry bush, which in turn implies that cranberries have something to do with Audry Junior's voracious craving for human flesh. Perhaps cranberries, if they had mouths, would jump at the chance to suck our blood. Perhaps if they had mouths they would even verbally demand our blood, as Audry Junior does. Cranberries are approximately the color of blood. That can't just be coincidence, can it? Come to think of it, this ties in brilliantly with my rant from The Curse in which I contend that cabbages harbor a deep, virulent loathing for humanity and are only waiting for the right catalyst to start their uprising. Obviously the cabbages aren't the only florae we have to keep an eye on. It's a good thing cabbage and cranberries don't grow in the same places (Do they?) or they might team up and then we'd really be in trouble. I suspect that the cranberries would be the brains of the operation (unless cauliflower got in on the act) because they get so gelatinous and gooey when they're boiled. That seems like something a brain would do, doesn't it?
But wait! Later on, Mushnik confronts Seymour, demanding to know what kind of plant Audry Junior really is and Seymour responds that she's a cross between a Venus Fly Trap and a Butterwort! Did Seymour cross these two species himself, making his initial story about the Japanese gardener a lie, or did he perform some sort of genetic test on Audry Junior to obtain this information? It seems unlikely that Seymour has the manual dexterity, let alone the scientific expertise, to perform either a complicated genetic analysis or a difficult cross-species pollination, so I'm inclined to think that, in fact, Audry Junior herself told Seymour that she is a cross between a Venus Fly Trap and a Butterwort. Which only lends support to my hypothesis that the cranberries are devious adversaries. It was this false information (coupled with the false information about the feeding and life cycle of Venus Fly Traps in Seymour's book) that led Seymour and Mushnik to believe that the end was in sight in this chain of murders, that perhaps the survival of the plant was worth a few little human sacrifices.
The origin of Audry Junior is clearly fertile ground for speculation, but a far more fascinating question remains to be explored - Where did all these other freaks come from? Compared to some of the people in this movie, Audry Junior is as normal as a dandelion! Homicidal cranberries may explain Audry Junior, but what can explain the gentleman who pops into the flower shop for a quick snack of carnations before heading home to the wife for a dinner of gardenias? Or the dentist who is so unabashedly cruel and violent that he keeps issues of Pain magazine in his waiting room, yet is frustrated that his limited weekly flower budget only allows him to buy two gladiolas and one fern? (Incidentally, I think he should make a practice of saving up this money and buying potting plants instead of cut flowers. Potted plants would last longer, saving him money in the long run.) Or the undertaker who so enjoys physical pain that he voluntarily surrenders teeth from the front of his mouth, in spite of the fact that his resulting grotesque appearance is bound to impact negatively on his business? The woman whose extended family is dying at a rate of two or three a week? The detective who nonchalantly shrugs off the death of his own son? The high school girls who think the dead faces nestled in Audry Junior's blossoms will make the perfect accent to their homecoming float? Seymour's mother with her recipes based on castor oil and Epsom salts?
I cannot even begin to explain the existence of these people, let alone the complicated ties of kinship, friendship, and the exchange of goods and services that join them to each other and to the denizens of Mushnik's flower shop. What's more, I don't want to explain them; I just want to enjoy them! (And I want to meet them! Except the dentist.) For a more in-depth discussion of movies that I love even though I don't understand them, please see my review of Army of Darkness.
Unfortunately, this movie suffers from one major flaw. I refer, of course, to Audry Junior's hypnotism of Seymour. The fact that, by the end, Seymour is not acting of his own free will greatly dilutes the impact of his moral corruption. It also makes for the most boring scene in the movie as we watch Seymour stagger blindly about the city and play a bizarre game of tag, to its extremely predictable end, with an usually persistent prostitute.
But this and other minor flaws, such as the blurriness of the images of the dead people in Audry Junior's blossoms, are easy to forgive in light of the overall unique and delightful style of this movie. All aspiring filmmakers should look to this movie as a beacon of hope and inspiration for anyone with a dream, a video camera, and a free weekend.
BARBARA JO
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