Little Shop of Horrors (1960 film)
Little Shop of Horrors (1960), AKA The Passionate People Eater, remade shortly afterward as a live musical, which was in turn re-adapted to film in a 1986 musical. Little Shop of Horrors was a sort of spiritual successor to Corman's previous film and successful first try at black comedy, A Bucket of Blood (1959, forgettably remade in 1995).
Summary
"The store with more!" A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it's carnivorous, forcing him to kill to feed it.
Details
- Release Date: 1960
- Country/Language: US, English
- Genres/Technical: Comedy, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy
- Runtime: 1 hr 12 min
- Starring: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles
- Director: Roger Corman, Charles B. Griffith and Mel Welles (uncredited)
- Writer: Charles B. Griffith, Roger Corman (not credited)
- Producer/Production Co: The Filmgroup, Santa Clara Productions, Roger Corman
- View Trailer: (link), (link), (link)
- View Film: (A Bucket of Blood (1959)), (Little Shop of Horrors (1960)) (in public domain)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated) (perhaps equivalent to a PG-13 for mild, comedic Violence and Adult Content)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- S____ (One Tentacle: Debateably Lovecraftian; has almost no direct connection to Lovecraft's work)
Not particularly "Lovecraftian", beyond the psychic, talking plant-monster from another world, though there is surely some potential for a Delta Green scenario in there, somewhere....
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- (review needed)
Synopsis
- A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1959) - Nerdy Walter Paisley, a maladroit busboy at a beatnik café who doesn't fit in with the cool scene around him, attempts to woo his beautiful co-worker, Carla, by making a bust of her. When his klutziness results in the death of his landlady's cat, he panics and hides its body under a layer of plaster. But when Carla and her friends enthuse over the resulting "artwork", Walter feels forced to create some bigger and more elaborate pieces using the same artistic process....
- LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960) - Seymour Krelboin works in the Skid Row flower shop owned by Mr. Mushnik. In his spare time, Seymour creates a new plant species he names Audrey Junior in honor of his girlfriend Audrey. Audrey Junior begins speaking and demands to be fed human blood and flesh, convincing Seymour to kill a railroad detective, a sadistic dentist and a trollop. Seymour's guilt over the deaths forces him to confront Audrey Junior in a final confrontation.
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- This film pairs quite nicely with A Bucket of Blood (1959) as two films that seem to satire Roger Corman's exeriences with film-making: the two films share the same musical score, much of the same cast, and similar themes of inept creators driven to self-destruction by their art.
Associated Mythos Elements
- race: Audrey Jr. (Audrey II in the remake), a talking plant from another world
- location: "Skid Row"
- Mushnick's Florist, Prop. Gravis Mushnick
- The Yellow Door Cafe coffee house
- Skid Row Police, Homicide Dept.: Sgt. Joe Fink and Det. Frank Stoolie
- Dentist, Dr. Phoebus Farb
- Hotels: Hotel Panama, Southern Hotel
- Skid Row Seminary
- Good News Mission
- Pioneer Cafe
Keeper Notes
- A team of investigators track a handful of seemingly unrelated missing persons cases to a terrified and socially awkward young man with a green thumb and a dark secret growing in his basement....
