Little Shop of Horrors is really good

I didn't watch Little Shop of Horrors when it was in theaters because as a child, I avoided scary movies, and "horrors" in the title said to me the movie would be scary. I missed out, not that I would have appreciated the movie as a 10-year-old anyway. I wish LSoH would return to theaters with the original apocalyptic ending. If they had stayed with the original ending, instead of the test-audience-inspired ending used for the popular release, the movie would have been a cult classic. The story is meant to be a tragedy and perhaps cautionary tale, not a comedy with a feel-good ending.

Just as entertainment, LSoH is an excellent musical film with terrific songs and performances and the use of camerawork to orchestrate scenes in a way that couldn't be duplicated on stage.

The movie also works as incisive social commentary and a sensitive critique of human nature. The main message is basically summed up with "The path to hell is paved with good intentions". Ordinary people, even decent likeable people who deserve better, can bring about disaster by compromising with temptation. In the movie, Audrey II begins helpless and dependent, and grows by progressively manipulating Seymour into increasingly awful acts to feed it. Audrey II makes him uneasy, starting with its strange appearance in front of Chang's shop, but Seymour doesn't question his good fortune. Its feeding demands are first victimless, if unhealthy for Seymour, then escalate to a bad guy (the abusive Orin Scrivello DDS, well played by Steve Martin), then Mr. Mushnick, then innocent Audrey and finally Seymour himself (in the original story) when he belatedly tries to stop a now-powerful Audrey II. In exchange, Audrey II fulfills Seymour's desires until he, literally, is consumed by the monster, Seymour's greed embodied, that proceeds to wreck the world.

In the moral tale, Seymour was not tricked and could have stopped Audrey II at any point before it was too late, but instead chose to delude himself because the benefits were too great and the alternative was to accept a lonely, hopeless existence. As Seymour declared fatefully in the opening act, "Down on skid row . . . I would do anything to get out of here".

If faced with choosing between a pathetic life whose only expectation is an anonymous death or a glorious life whose cost may be mass destruction, which would you choose to sacrifice, your life or the world? The noble answer is obvious, but the honest answer is not. The moral of the fable rings true today with the incredible stories of corruption and greed behind the financial meltdown. The metaphor might also be applied to the welfare state, which has a hand in the financial meltdown. We're very good at rationalizing self-benefiting choices that could be harmful to others.

Teen actresses Tisha Campbell (Chiffon), Tichina Arnold (Crystal), and Michelle Weeks (Ronette) impressed as the ever-present greek chorus with their intricate song and dance numbers which they performed with terrific energy. As part of the background, they shaped Little Shop of Horrors as much as John Williams's score shaped Star Wars.

These outtakes and making-of featurette are interesting, though the latter is missing talk about the original ending, Levi Stubbs, and Vincent Gardenia.

Eric