Movie Review: THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1960)

Tribute read as today is Jack Nicholson’s 79th birthday.

THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, 1960
Movie Reviews

Directed by Roger Corman

Cast: Jonathan Haze, Jack Nicholson, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Myrtle Vail, Karyn Kupcinet,
Review by Christian Medina

SYNOPSIS:

A clumsy young man nurtures a plant and discovers that it’s a bloodthirsty plant, forcing him to kill to feed it.

REVIEW:

Some time ago, a friend, (that is also a horror fan), told me about the 1986 remake of this movie. Since I also like musicals, I thought in later seeing it. One day, as I was walking through the aisles of a “KYE”, I saw the special edition of this movie. I was surprised when I saw black and white pictures on the box. It wasn’t something that my friend had told me. It was later when I found out that this was the original movie. So, I bought the movie, thinking it may still be quite interesting. And god I was right.

The story starts off in the “Mushnik’s flower shop”. Gravis Mushnik (Mel Wells) has been really hopeless with drop in sales. Audrey Fulquard (Jackie Joseph) and Seymour Krielboin (Jonathan Haze) are both Mushnik’s employees who encourage him everyday to at least open for any chance of arriving costumers. Later, Seymour thinks of putting exotic plants on display which he believes will attract costumers. The next day, Seymour brings Audrey Jr. (named after Audrey for obvious love interest), which is a plant he bought from a japanese market. The problem was that the plant looked like it was dying, and Mushnik was not really proud. But thanks to Audrey, Mushnik decides to give

Seymour one day to “revive” the plant. That night, Seymour accidently cuts himself and a drop of blood falls on Audrey Jr., who later drinks it. Seymour discovers that only blood satisfies it. After giving a few other drops, Seymour locks up and goes home. The next day, Audrey Jr. has grown bigger and more beautiful. Instantly causing a great flow of buying customers. From there on, more and more people come to see the plant making Seymour famous. But, the problem is, as it grows bigger and bigger, Audrey Jr. demands more and more food. Going from a few drops of blood to entire bodies. Will Seymour be willing to keep up with Audrey Jr’s demands?

Usually when I see black and white movies, I always associate it with classical theatre. Not that I think that is bad, I know that in those times filmmaking was fresh and both, actors and directors, still had the trouble of differentiating both styles. I didn’t felt this when I was watching this movie. It never felt like I was watching a play. It was a great horror-comedy.

For those of you who has seen the remake, this movie has some of the same plot, but still has plenty of differences. An example is that Audrey is not the dentist’s girlfriend. As far as the story goes, I would say that this one has a lot of better choices. Where as far as effects go, the remake is a lot better.

One great aspect of this movie are the weird characters. With characters like an alcoholic mother who always think she is sick, or this fellow who loves eating flowers, etc. This over the top acting sets you at the exact mood the movie is going for.

I was really surprised when I saw Jack Nicholson. Here he plays a person who has an extreme fetish for dental pain. Even though he has a small part, he still has a strong presence. And what can I say, it’s great seeing a very young Jack Nicholson showing his early signs of talent.

In conclusion, If you are a horror fan or somebody who likes weird stuff. this is definitely a movie for your collection. If not, it’s still worthy of a laugh.