There’s a convoluted history to the Little Shop of Horrors, a title that’s as applicable to failed business woman Meghan Markle and her tawdry tat shop as it is to the 1986 film which get a sparkling upgrade to 4k UHD
Behind the Little Shop of Horrors…
Originally a 1960 film from Roger Corman who with his eye as ever on the economics of film making wanted to use the sets from his film ‘A Bucket of Blood’ that had wrapped early and the sets would be left free for a couple of days until they were to be dismantled. As far as Corman was concerned that was more than enough time to shoot a film and got screenwriter Charles Griffith to write what was a horror themed comedy that went through several wildly differing incarnations.
In the end the script saw a clumsy young man working at an impoverished flower shop who discovers that the strange plant he has been nurturing has an insatiable appetite for blood, forcing him to kill to feed it.
Corman’s typically no budget film would make a profit even though it had difficulty getting distribution but ended up being screened out of competition at the 1960 Cannes film festival.
When it was finally released audiences loved it and that the cast included a brief appearance from a fledgling actor called Jack Nicholson did no harm. Over the following years re-runs saw it gain cult status and in 1982 an off Broadway version appeared with music by Alan Menken and ran for five years.
A stage version….
The stage version had been produced by David Geffen and its success suggested that maybe a film version could perform equally well if not better and several big name directors were attached that included John Landis and perhaps most bizarrely Martin Scorsese but the film stalled due to a lawsuit launched by original writer Charles Griffith
Once resolved Geffen offered muppet-meister Frank Oz the directing gig having just helmed ‘The Muppets take Manhattan’ who agreed to do it only if he could open out the script from its stage set premise.
Oz assembled a stellar cast led by Rick Moranis, still hot off the huge success of Ghostbusters as Seymour the florist shop employee and co-starred Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist with his patient played by Bill Murray in a cameo that saw him ad lib all his lines making it one of the films many highlights along with a neat cameo from John Candy. And then there was Audrey II the man eating plant and here it was Levi Stubbs with his voice like no other (‘Feed me NOW!’) and brilliantly suited to the show songs. Shot in Pinewood studios using every stage including the huge 007 stage where Audrey II had been built by Oz’s muppet collaborator Lyle Conway.
Audience reaction to the film…
The film’s release was delayed because the test audiences had loved the film up until the ending that saw Seymour getting eaten at which point they hated it. Really hated it and so the ending was reconfigured and reshot and finally released in the US over Christmas 1986 earning a modest $39m but despite its two Oscar nominations (Best Song and Best Visual Effects) but won ne and the film didn’t perform as expected at the box office. As with so many films it was it Home Entertainment release that saw it do stellar business and where the film really found its audience.
Now released on 4K UHD for the first time it’s a dazzling upgrade with an array of good bonus features that includes
Blu-ray
- Feature Directors Cut
- Feature Theatrical Cut
- Optional commentary by Frank Oz on the Director’s Cut 20-minute alternate ending
- “Frank Oz and Little Shop of Horrors: The Director’s Cut” (introduction by Frank Oz with Richard Conway)
- “A Story of Little Shop of Horrors” (behind-the-scenes documentary)
- Outtakes and deleted scenes with optional commentary by Frank Oz
- Two theatrical trailers
DVD
- Commentary by Director Frank Oz
- Outtake
- Music Only Track
- Making of Featurette
- 2 TV Spots: “Fearless Hero”, “Cast / Revised ”
- 2 Theatrical Trailers
Director Frank Oz has invested heavily into the bonus features and the commentary is especially good as is the Directors Cut making this an essential buy for fans of the film.
related feature : Andrea Riseborough chats to us about Matilda the Musical and her outrageous costumes
related feature : West Side Story – DVD | BLU RAY
Here’s the trailer…..
