No one is going to watch "The Little Shop Of Horrors" and think that it's a masterpiece. It isn't. Really not in any way. The performances are at best OK for the most part, the story is silly, the sets are bare bones, the man-eating plant looks ... well ... not very scary at all. Just silly. But of course, you're making a mistake if you watch this expecting to find a masterpiece. It hasn't become known as a cult classic for no reason. It has pretty much everything you'd want to find in a cult classic.
In its silliness, it's fun pretty much the whole way through. Interspersed among the "OK" performances is actually a pretty good one by Mel Welles as Gravis Mushnick, a flower shop owner whose store is on skid row, so he doesn't make much money. When his employee Seymour (Jonathon Haze) develops a new plant, it's a chance for Gravis to make money by getting people into the store to see the new plant and hoping to get them to buy flowers while they're there. Unfortunately, the new plant is a man-eater, and Seymour ends up having to find its food for it. There's a bit of a spoof of the TV show "Dragnet" going on, revolving around a couple of local cops assigned to find the people who've gone missing (after being fed to the plant.) There's even a very early role for Jack Nicholson as a guy who loves having pain inflicted on him by dentists!
It's not a masterpiece. Not at all. Not in any way. But it has more than enough going for it to deserve the status of cult classic that it's gained. And you'll never hear the words "Feed Me!" again after watching this and not think about this movie! (6/10)
In its silliness, it's fun pretty much the whole way through. Interspersed among the "OK" performances is actually a pretty good one by Mel Welles as Gravis Mushnick, a flower shop owner whose store is on skid row, so he doesn't make much money. When his employee Seymour (Jonathon Haze) develops a new plant, it's a chance for Gravis to make money by getting people into the store to see the new plant and hoping to get them to buy flowers while they're there. Unfortunately, the new plant is a man-eater, and Seymour ends up having to find its food for it. There's a bit of a spoof of the TV show "Dragnet" going on, revolving around a couple of local cops assigned to find the people who've gone missing (after being fed to the plant.) There's even a very early role for Jack Nicholson as a guy who loves having pain inflicted on him by dentists!
It's not a masterpiece. Not at all. Not in any way. But it has more than enough going for it to deserve the status of cult classic that it's gained. And you'll never hear the words "Feed Me!" again after watching this and not think about this movie! (6/10)