I Watch Films: The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)

 

The Little Shop Of Horrors (1960)

Seymour works at a florist in Skid Row, he’s very bad at his job. But he’s growing a new plant and hopes that this will make his fortune. He names it Audrey Junior after his co-worker Audrey. It turns out it feeds on blood. It then develops the ability to speak, demanding to be fed.

Anemic from feeding the plant Seymour wanders along the railway line, throwing rocks, one of which knocks out a drunken man in front of a train, where he is horrifically dismembered. Seymour tries to get rid of the body but can’t, eventually returning to the shop where Audrey Junior demands to be fed. Inevitably the body goes into the plant.

As Audrey Junior grows she attracts attention, bringing people to the shop. Seymour and later the shop owner accidently kill and feed people to the plant. The police get involved when the dentist next door vanishes. This all takes place against a strange and funny background; one of the florist’s customers eats flowers; Seymour’s mother only cooks food that is medicinal; the dentist is a sadist and he has a customer who wants long and painful work done. If the final reveal is predictable and a little disappointing, at least the journey there is pacy and amusing.

Watch This: Funny, brisk, grotesque by turns and at the same time
Don’t Watch This: The low budget and bare-bone sets (apparently reused from A Bucket Of Blood) do no favours to a very silly and horrid film
Also: They made a musical of it