[HorrorScience] Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

little Shop of Horrors, also known as The little shop of horrors wave little shop of horrors It is one of those cheap films, made in haste and with few means that managed to plant a seed (pun intended) in the genre of horror and comedy films.

That seed grew and after a few decades it had already inspired a series of products related to the film, first a musical, then a second film based on the musical, then a television series... until the moment came when, without really knowing how, this film had become a classic and its main character (the carnivorous plant) was already included as one of the most parodied and recognizable monsters of the horror genre.

Generally, when it is mentioned Little Shop of Horrors, everyone remembers the 1986 film, starring Rick Moranis, with an excellent soundtrack (which is logical, being a musical) and incredible special effects. But this time we are going to talk about the original film, directed in 1960 by Roger Corman.

In a small flower shop, located in the marginal Skid Row neighborhood, a desperate Gravis Mushnick (Mel Welles) sees how his clumsy worker, Seymour (Jonathan Haze), spoils many of his flowers. Under the watchful eye of his other worker, Audrey (Jackie Joseph), and the store's few customers, Mushnick makes the decision to kick Seymour out on the street once and for all.

After some delirious conversations and thanks to the intervention of a client who has the peculiarity of eating flowers (Dick Miller), Seymour gets a second chance from his boss, by telling you that you have a type of strange plant that can increase the visits and profits of the store.

Quickly, Seymour goes home to get the plant that will ensure his job, where he meets his mother, an elderly hypochondriac with an unhealthy obsession with alcohol and medications, who does not hesitate to emotionally blackmail him to get Seymour to do what she wants.

Back at the store, Seymour discovers before everyone a small plant, planted in a coffee can, which apparently is a mixture of seeds, which makes it a species unknown to everyone (including the guy who eats flowers). The small plant (named Audrey Junior, in honor of Seymour's co-worker) does not convince Mr. Mushnick, but since the rest of the people present like it, he decides to let it stay in the store.

Unfortunately for Seymour, the plant seems to be dying and there is nothing he can do to remedy it, or so he thought, because when he was pricked by a thorn a drop of his blood falls on the small plant and causes its immediate improvement. From that moment on, Seymour will find it necessary to feed his plant until he runs out of a drop of blood, since its visual improvement (which has increased in size and spectacularity) has made Mr. Musnick's business prosper rapidly, and in the process has also gotten his partner Audrey to notice him permanently.

After running out of blood to give him, Seymour contemplates how his future disappears at the same time that the plant dies, so he decides to go for a walk to think about a possible solution, which will come in a tremendously stupid way when, inadvertently, Seymour causes the death of a man, whose remains will end up feeding his strange plant.

By pure chance, Seymour's boss manages to see how he feeds human remains to the plant, and decides to call the police, but upon seeing how his business prospers thanks to her, he decides to keep quiet and bear Seymour's terrible secret.

However, the problem reoccurs on several occasions, since the plant needs more and more food and obviously it is not easy or legal to obtain it, but chance means that some of the Skid Row residents end up dying in a quite comical way (like the sadistic dentist or the thief who breaks into the store to steal) thus ensuring a new resurgence of the already gigantic plant.

Now Audrey Junior has become an exceptional specimen and attracts people from other parts of the world, to the point that they are going to give Seymour an award for his work raising her. However, the disappearances of people have alerted the police who are already on the trail of the possible person responsible. How will the adventure of the clumsy and clueless Seymour end?

Little Shop of Horrors It is a very fun film and that is its best asset, because in general terms its low budget and the speed with which it was shot become very evident to the viewer. However, some of his dialogues are delirious, especially those of Mr. Mushnick or the conversations between the two police officers investigating the case. The characters are quite silly and flat in general terms, but to compensate for this they give us some quite atypical ones such as the sadistic dentist, or the masochistic patient (played by a young Jack Nicholson) who, despite appearing for only a few minutes, are very extravagant and comical.

Curiosities about the film:

• This film is considered one of the most quickly filmed, as the script was written in one night, and the film was shot in three days, making a single recording per scene, with three different cameras.
• The film was inspired by various stories, such as Green Thoughts written by John Corlier and The Reluctant Orchid by Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Oddissey)
• This film was one of the first filmed by Jack Nicholson, who appears on the cover of the soundtrack and whose name is highlighted in some later video and DVD editions, despite his small role.