Little Shop of Horrors

The Little Shop of Horrors is a 1960 dark comedy/horror film produced by Roger Corman, later adapted as a stage musical and then a 1986 musical film and a 1991 animated television series Little Shop.

1986 film

The lost ending

The film has become legendary for a widely-unseen 23-minute alternate ending that retains the darkness and B-movie roots of the original source material. As originally conceived and filmed, the story follows the stage musical's plot: Audrey is attacked by Audrey II and dies in Seymour's arms, begging him to feed her to the plant so that he can continue his success. After Seymour does this, there is a showdown between him and Audrey II and Seymour is killed and eaten, The three chorus girls are enlisted by Patrick Martin (played in this version by Paul Dooley) to cut shoots from the plant in order to sell them around the world. Soon, Audrey II clones take over the planet as the song "Don't Feed the Plants" warns the audience not to give in to evil temptations.

Related Topics:
B-movie - Paul Dooley

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Oz and his special effects team went to great lengths to create this dramatic finale during which Audrey II takes over New York City, attacks the Brooklyn Bridge, fights the U.S. Army, strangles the Statue of Liberty and - in an homage to the 1933 classic monster movie King Kong - scales the Empire State Building. The entire action sequence cost $5 million to produce (some reports say $2 million). But 1986 preview audiences - perhaps under the sunny spell of the Reagan Administration - rejected this ending as too disturbing. Afterwards, director Oz commented: "They hated us when the main characters died. In the play, they're eaten...but you know they're coming out for a curtain call. But the power of movies is different."

Related Topics:
Statue of Liberty - 1933 - King Kong - Empire State Building - Reagan Administration

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Oz scrapped Audrey's grim death and the finale rampage and reshot a happier ending with Jim Belushi replacing Paul Dooley as Patrick Martin. The showdown between Seymour and Audrey II remains intact, but now Seymour wins by electrocuting the plant as Audrey is seen safely observing through a window. Seymour and Audrey get married and move to the suburbs, where a little Audrey II grows in the garden, paving the way for a sequel.

Related Topics:
Jim Belushi - Paul Dooley

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Oz's subsequent re-edits, while making the film lighter and thus more palatable to general audiences, had the unfortunate effect of making the film morally questionable. While Seymour never actually kills anyone in the story, he does participate in luring people to their deaths, hacking up their bodies and feeding them to the plant. In both the stage play and the original edit of the film, the song "The Meek Shall Inherit" was designed to illustrate Seymour's moral dilemma via a musical soliloquy. As his fame grows, he is tempted by offers from Hollywood, but cringes at the idea of having to continue to do evil deeds. He finally decides to destroy Audrey II, but at the last minute changes his mind because he feels that without his plant, Audrey will not love him anymore. He signs the Hollywood contracts and seals his fate. Later, when he is killed and eaten by Audrey II, it is because he made a wrong and greedy decision. The theatrical version of the film retains only the very beginning and end of "The Meek Shall Inherit," with the soliloquy cut entirely so as not to raise the idea of Seymour's moral dilemma. He now blissfully chops up bodies and wins the girl in the end without paying the consequences.

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The DVD fiasco

Little Shop of Horrors was the first DVD to be recalled for content.

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In 1998, Warner Brothers released a Special Edition DVD of the 1986 musical film. This DVD included approximately 23 minutes of unfinished footage from Oz's original ending, although it was in black and white and was missing sound, visual, and special effects.

Related Topics:
Warner Brothers - DVD - Special effects

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David Geffen, the film's producer and owner of the rights, apparently wanted to re-release the film to theaters with the original ending intact. Geffen became angry at Warner Brothers for including this footage on the DVD and as a result, the studio yanked it off the shelves in a matter of days and replaced with a second edition without the extra material. The original first edition DVD is now a much sought-after collector's item and sells for upwards of $150 on eBay.

Related Topics:
David Geffen - First edition - Collector's item - EBay

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No plans have been made to re-release the film or DVD with the alternate ending, although modern audiences may be better prepared for a darker version of what is essentially a morality play.

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