La Petite Boutique des horreurs

The first version of The Little Shop of Horrors, long before the Broadway musical and Frank Oz's musical/horror/comedy, is one of the primary examples of shoe-string movie-making. Shoe-string, of course, refers mostly to the budget, and this possibly ranks above others like Clerks, Slacker, Night of the Living Dead and Blair Witch in order to put it together so quickly. And yet for all of its little slip-ups and deranged moments of comedy, it does work for what its worth. Not that it doesn't show that the film was made in two days, but on those terms of extremely low-budget, go-for-broke B-movie-making, Roger Corman as a director has quite a nifty effort here. The story is similar to a fairy-tale (a darkly comic one to be sure, like one of the Fractures Fairy tales from the old Rocky & Bullwinkle show), in how Seymour (Jonathan Haze, perfect as an awkward, easily shockable little guy) tries to nurture a plant to earn the affections of Audrey (Jackie Joseph). But then the plant turns into a meat-eater, to put it that way, and from there Charles Griffith's script goes into wild comic turns where he now has to figure out how to take care of the plant before it 'takes care' of him. Some scenes are less notable than others, and sometimes the cheesiness of it all (just look at the plant itself for proof enough) can be wearisome. But Corman keeps the atmosphere with a giddy amount of late 50s 'shlock', and some scenes stand the test of time as the best of their B-movie status. Tops go to the 2nd film appearance from Nicholson as the most psychotic of the bunch, as a 'chipper' fetishist who gets off on getting his wretched teeth worked on- it's a masterpiece of a scene with cartoonish action, innuendo and crazy looks from a 23 year old Nicholson. Worth checking out, maybe more than once, and you're likely to find it (appropriately) in the cheapest lot of DVDs and videos at your local store.

Mushnick's is a small florists in skid row – a dead end part of town that everyone knows about but nobody wants to know about. Business is not great, in fact it is awful – nobody wants to buy flowers when they can't be sure where their next meal is coming from. However the cleaning boy has nurtured a strange new plant up from seed and it seems to be getting interest. When he discovers it needs a few drops of blood to make it grow Seymour is the toast of the town with his employer very grateful for the increased revenue the visitors bring. However as it grows it begins to need more than a few drops and soon he is heading down a terrible, dark road.

Like many viewers I suspect, I came to this film after seeing the musical remake; as such I assumed that this would be a straight film in the b-movie genre that Corman is famous for. However I was taken by how amusing this film was because really this is as much a horror comedy as the musical is. From Seymour's alcoholic mother to the cop so hard that even the death of his son is met with a shrug, the whole film is full of darkly comic touches that drew some nice laughs from me. This comic approach helps the film because really it is a silly plot and the fact that the script was tongue-in-cheek meant it was easier to swallow, if you pardon the choice of words. As a horror it doesn't really work but it does have a slocky property that Corman films tend to have – not high quality but low budget, b-movie fun.

The cast match the material and all buy into the joke, watching them also shows that the cast in the musical are really pretty much just impersonate the actors here. Haze is enjoyably geeky and convinces throughout. Welles is funny and plays up to his ethnic caricature well. Corman regular Miller hasn't really got much to do but his face is always a ruggedly familiar and welcome sight. Joseph is not great but her performance suits the b-movie genre – likewise Campo and Warford (who are very funny as Dragnet style cops). Nicholson is pretty funny and was a curious find in a small cameo.

Overall this is not a great film but it is a great b-movie horror. Never taking itself seriously means that it can be darkly funny and take the audience along for the ride. To me it is just as funny as the musical even it is a different type of humour and it is worth checking out.

The picture concerns upon a geeky employee (Jonathan Haze) working in a florist shop called Mushnick (Mel Welles) who brings a carnivorous and ferocious plant developing a bloodthirsty hunger and is forced to murder for human eating .

Horror comedy blending black humor , parody , tongue-in-cheek and horror . The comedy is absurd and cheesy but gets its moments here and there . Incredible cheap but effective visual effects . This is a well known terror-comedy , it's a quickie but was shot for two days and is deemed one of Corman's best and funniest movies ever made although with lack budget . The principal actors and technicians will repeat along with Corman in various films ,in fact, the picture belongs to horror-black comedy sub-genre as ¨A bucket of blood¨ and ¨Creature from the haunted sea¨, both of them written by Charles B. Griffith (who is the voice of ¨Audrie the plant¨ and besides plays the thief) . In the film appears the Corman's ordinary actors as Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Haze and a young newcomer Jack Nicholson in a comic interpretation as a sadomasochistic who receives a especial dental intervention . The picture is remade (1986) as an amused musical comedy by Frank Oz with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis . The flick will appeal to classic and cult movies fans.

'The Little Shop Of Horrors' is one of the movies that Roger Corman's reputation as the "king of the quickies" is founded on. Filmed in two days on a budget less than Spielberg's dinner money, this is one of the all-time b-grade camp classics. While the humour is extremely dated the concept is very black and contemporary. Charles B. Griffith probably deserves as much credit for this movie as Corman. Writing this, 'A Bucket Of Blood', 'The Wild Angels' and 'Death Race 2000' has ensured him movie immortality! Corman semi-regular Jonathan Haze may not be as fondly remembered as Dick Miller, but he is well cast as the klutzy Seymour Krelboyne, "father" of the blood thirsty exotic plant Audrey, and Mel Welles hams it up as his tyrannical boss Mushnick. But the show is stolen by Miller as a flower eating hipster, and an astonishingly fresh faced Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient (a classic bit!), as much as Audrey herself. Forget the crappy 80s musical version, stick with this, the real deal. It is pretty creaky in places but still a lot of fun!

Gravis Mushnick is a cheapskate flower shop owner in a poor neighborhood. Seymour Krelboyne is a clumsy worker. Mushnick wants to fire him but he claims to have a new kind of flower that could be a good money maker. Seymour's mother is a bed ridden drunk. He names the plant Audrey junior after his beautiful co-worker Audrey Fulquard. Then late one night, he discovers that Audrey junior loves blood. The plant becomes healthier overnight.

This is one of the great contributions of schlock filmmaker Roger Corman. This is a completely weirdly original story. It is insanely quirky and odd. I wouldn't say it's laugh out loud funny. However it's quite watchable even though the quality of production is very low. For such a great original, I am willing to add one to my rating. Also watch out for a young Jack Nicholson as masochistic patient Wilbur Force.