Little Shop of Horrors
Short description
Little Shop of Horrors centres on Seymour Krelborn, a shy assistant at a failing flower shop on Skid Row. He pines for his co-worker Audrey while enduring the scorn of the shop's owner, Mr. Mushnik. After an eclipse, Seymour acquires a strange plant and names it Audrey II. The plant turns out to be intelligent, able to speak, and dependent on human blood, which Seymour discovers by accident. As Audrey II grows, the shop's fortunes revive and the creature becomes a local attraction, while its appetite and its demands on Seymour grow more dangerous.
The film is a musical comedy-horror directed by Frank Oz, following The Dark Crystal and The Muppets Take Manhattan in his filmography. Howard Ashman wrote the screenplay, David Geffen produced, and the cast includes Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Tichina Arnold and Levi Stubbs as the voice of the plant, with 46 credited performers in all. Made for about 25 million dollars, it took roughly 54 million worldwide, a modest return.
On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 94,000 votes, and on TMDB 7 out of 10 from about 1,700 votes. A critics' rating of 7.4 out of 10 from 55 reviews places it slightly above those audience scores, indicating steady approval across both groups.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Patrick Martin in the film was played by Paul Dooley. When the film crew reconvened after a several-month break to shoot a new ending, it turned out that Dooley was unable to come, so the necessary scenes were reshot with James Belushi. The filmmakers expressed their gratitude to Dooley in the credits. Scenes with him could be seen in the black and white version of the original ending, included in the first DVD release. In 2012, the director's cut of the film was released with Dooley, and Belushi received a thank you note in the credits.
- The scene where Bill Murray's character waits his turn at the dentist was filmed according to the script. However, once he was in the dental chair, the character had practically no lines (aside from excited squeals and moans). The scene was shot for two days in a row, and Bill Murray constantly improvised, making up lines on the fly. During the final film editing, specialists had a hard time assembling something coherent from the pile of footage of that scene.
- In 1998, a special edition of the film was released on DVD with an alternative ending where "everyone dies". A few days later, the entire DVD run was withdrawn from sale, as producer David Geffen wanted to re-release the film with the dark ending in theaters. This ending was restored 14 years later with the release of the director's cut of the film on Blu-Ray.
- The members of the "Greek chorus" took the names of female groups from the 1950s and 1960s — The Ronettes, The Chiffons, and The Crystals.
- The film was shot at Pinewood Studio in London, specifically on the world’s largest soundstage, called ‘007’. The idea of shooting on location was abandoned to preserve the film’s unique atmosphere. The performance of ‘Suddenly Seymour’ was also filmed on the ‘007’ stage. Due to its enormous size, it was impossible to heat, resulting in visible breath vapor from the performers.
- In the final shot of the theatrical release version of the film, the "Greek chorus" appears on screen, but the viewer only sees the faces of two girls (Tichina Arnold and Michelle Weeks) out of three. Tichina Campbell was unable to come to the shooting after the break, and was replaced by a stunt double from the UK.
- The original script stipulated that in the finale, Audrey and Seymour would be eaten by the plant. Director Frank Oz reluctantly agreed to reshoot the ending due to negative reactions during preview screenings.
- The "chroma key" technology was not used in the scenes with the talking and carnivorous plant Audrey II. Six plant dummies were made in different stages of development and, accordingly, different sizes, as well as three different versions of the shop, which allowed two groups to work with dummies of different sizes simultaneously. At the end of each shooting day, the dummies had to be cleaned, touched up, and repaired. Depending on their size, the entire process took up to 3 hours.
- The scenes where the actors interact with the two largest Audrey II puppets were shot at a slow speed – first at 16 frames per second, then at 12 frames per second. The actors also had to move and speak slowly.
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
