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"You remember that total eclipse of the sun about a week ago?"
Note: There's no hard rule or anything, but I've been watching the theatrical versions of these movies for these reviews. No Assembly Cuts. I'm making an exception here because the Director's Cut of Little Shop of Horrors is not the version I've ever seen. I've been really excited to check this out. There's a totally new ending, and holy crap: what an ending! I cannot believe this sequence was left on the cutting room, just out of pure expense. I've read that this cut material cost something in the neighborhood of $5 million to shoot, which was enormous back in the Eighties. This is the most complicated and incredible part of the movie and Warner Bros tore it out because it was too much of a downer. This footage was not fully restored and made available again until 2012, twenty-six years later.
So, our history lesson of that is that WB was having problems even before Zaslav, fun to know. Well, this is HORROR MONTH, so we're doing the more horror-full version. Downers are my uppers!
Little Shop of Horrors, the big special effects movie we're covering today, is an adaptation of an off-Broadway stage musical from 1982. The musical was written by Alan Manken and Howard Ashman, the two men who would launch Disney's Renaissance by writing the songs for Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and notably The Little Mermaid. (Listen for how much of Ariel's big song, "Part of Your World" is already in "Somewhere That's Green".) Manken would later reuse the idea of three doo wop back-up singers as a Greek chorus in Hercules, making the "Greek" part more literal. All you Disney Adult sickos will find a lot to like musically in this one.
The musical in turn is based on a 1960 Roger Corman movie, which we did not cover for this series. That original movie never says the killer plant is from outer space, so it is ineligible. But more importantly: it is not very good, basically a bad comedy. Nothing but respect for my man Rog C., he is a legend, but Little Shop of Horror was made mainly as a dare to see if he could squeeze out another movie with the few days he had left in the shooting schedule for A Bucket of Blood, also starring Dick Miller. Watching that movie gives one the strong impression... that it was shot in two days, rather poorly. I couldn't even finish it the one time I tried.
So how does this dismal little cheap movie end up the inspiration for a major multi-million dollar blockbuster? Well, there's this thing called "camp". I am not all that terribly well-equipped on this topic, I'm a straight dude, after all, so I'll do my best. Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of most important films in queer culture in the Seventies, being one of great Midnight Movies. And that's a strong counter-culture glam rock statement of sexual liberation heavily inspired by genre movies from the Thirties to the Sixties. (Remember how It Came from Outer Space was referenced in the lyrics of "Science Fiction Double Feature"?) There's plenty of connection between horror and queer culture: there is no such thing as a 100% straight vampire movie, for example. Little Shop of Horrors is nowhere near as transgressive as O'Brien's opus, but it is still very goofy, very campy. These old B-movies also have a camp appeal just by their dated quality, an ironic appreciation for all things passé is wrapped up in here too. A lot of old genres ended up reclaimed by queer culture, see the brief hagsploitation craze of the Sixties or the "woman's films" that inspired John Waters to make Polyester. The original Little Shop was a relic by the Eighties - the Corman movie looked dated even in 1960. That increasing ridiculousness increases the artifice and from there you get a ton of Camp value. So... why not turn this into a wacky musical? Play up the retro mid-century aesthetic for extra irony.
It also helps that Corman did not bother to copyright his movie, so his Little Shop of Horrors went immediately into public domain.
Anyway, I have written many paragraphs and I haven't actually talked about Little Shop of Horrors '86 yet. Frank Oz did not shoot this movie in two days. Like many classic film musicals, this is shot mostly on sound stages, in this case on an enormous set for Skid Row, built on the "007 Stage" in England. It is a really impressive, filling out an entire street corner with rooftops, stunning stuff. Even more impressive is the puppetry. This is the Eighties, the Jim Henson Company is at the height of its powers, and while Little Shop not a Jim Henson joint, Frank Oz was one of their main creative voices. (And of course, he's Yoda, cannot not mention that.)
As a musical, Little Shop of Horrors is solid, I still got the main theme floating through my head. Rick Moranis is a surprisingly decent singer. His strength is the lovable dweeb character he played in things like Ghostbusters, so he plays the main role of Seymour well. They did not cast a Hollywood actress to play Audrey, instead bringing back Ellen Greene from the stage version. Holy crap are her pipes impressive. Her voice shakes the soundstage in "Suddenly Seymour", it's something special. Seymour's other relation is also named Audrey, Audrey II (Levi Stubbs), a man-eating plant he bought from a Chinese man downtown, Gremlins-style. They're a "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" and the other great voice in the cast thanks to Stubbs' smooth R&B baritone.
But while the acting and singing are good, the effects over-shadow everything. Moranis doing a duet with an incredibly articulated giant puppet several feet tall is unbelievable. It.... could be the most impressive special effect I've ever seen. They only really do this shot once, because it was probably so difficult. Most of the time when actors are on set with the killer Piranha Plant, they're either shot from behind or standing off the side, not moving much. That's because Audrey II is so sophisticated and complicated a puppet, they're actually moving in slow-motion, and the footage is then sped up to 24 fps. Moranis is mouthing his words in slow-motion, the final singing being dubbed in. You'd never be able to tell, the effect is seamless.
The plant has a ton of moving parts as well: articulated leaves and tentacles and later little extra mouths to be its own back-up singers. But the most impressive thing is the mouth itself, with a big nasty smile without eyes. Even without eyes, the puppet is wonderfully expressive and fluid. Just watching this creature sing at any point is amazing.
Plot-wise Little Shop of Horrors is a Faustian story where Seymour discovers a space plant, feeds it his enemies, and then it grows too large to controlled, eventually devouring his beloved Audrey in her cleavage-bearing dress. They're poor kids with a dream to escape the Mean Streets, and for that they're eaten. It is grim, but the black comedy lands well thanks to a comedy back-up cast of people like Steve Martin, John Candy, Bill Murray, and Christopher Guest. Plus, Audrey II is a foul-mouth wise-cracker.
Now let us talk endings. The theatrical version is boring. The Director's Cut keeps the stageshow ending, which is disturbing and magnificent. In this version, Audrey II eats Audrey I, then Seymour, then NYC itself. Let me tell you: cinema does not get better than this. Oz stages this elaborate, fantastic sequence of Godzilla-sized plants smashing through buildings and devastating Manhattan landmarks all to a final song "Don't Feed the Plants". There's so much miniature work and so many effects shots, which all work brilliantly. Gag after gag. Maybe there's one too many shots of Audrey II tearing through a brick wall, but the creativity of the monsters rocking on the Brooklyn Bridge or conquering the Statue of Liberty make up for it. It is the best part of the movie, and Warner Bros cut it out.
Unbelievable.
It even ends on lovable nods to the 1958 The Blob. With a cheesy "THE END?!?" credit, and Audrey II smashing through the screen to eat the audience you're in, laughing it up in that deep Motown voice. Yeah, it's dark, but this is no Xtro. It's pure joy. An apocalypse of silliness. If it had to end, I hope it ends this way.
Next time! America gets over its Vietnam Syndrome with Predator.
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