improbable fiction

So Bullshish has been taken over by horror movies, and while that is all fine and dandy, there are only two-three “horror” movies that I will watch. I just don’t do horror movies. At all. I mean, I recently watched the “horror” episode of Psych and I got scared walking back to my dorm, alone, at night, and Psych is a freaking comedy. But fear not! I have decided that horror musicals are okay, because even if they are scary (which, to be quite honest, this movie was NOT) they still have dancing and singing.

PLOT: A nerdish florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed. (Thank you IMDB.) The basic point to this story is that this nerdy guy has this exotic plant and the only way the plant will grow is to be fed human blood. (oooh! scary!) Now here are some important details. The plant shop where everyone important to the story works is losing more money than it is making. Mr. Mushnik (the owner) is out of luck and when the threat of closing the store reaches his ears, Seymour has to do something! Enter the plant he cleverly names Audrey II. The fact that this plant grows at alarming rates interests apparently everyone in the state, and soon the plant shop is BOOMING with business. Seymour is a hero! But as Audrey II begins to grow, the fate of mankind is pushed to the limits. (Cue scary music.)

CHARACTERS: Rick Moranis plays our lovely protagonist Seymour, a nerdy little wimpy kind of guy who is 1) in love with the ditzy, leggy blonde Audrey (Ellen Greene) and 2) growing some sort of scary, evil blood drinking plant. Both these crazy kids work in a plant shop run by the (insane) Mr. Mushnik played by Vincent Gardenia. I must say that the best character by far is Audrey’s boyfriend, a dentist who goes by the name of Orin Scrivello, DDS played by the always amazing Steve Martin. He really is one of the best characters in the movie. And lastly, we have the crazy plant, Audrey II. So remember like… 30 seconds ago when I said this movie was not scary? I’m correcting that statement. The overall movie is not scary in the slightest, EXCEPT for Audrey II’s voice (by Levi Stubbs). That voice is simply terrifying!

MUSIC: The title song is by far my favorite of the movie. The rest were good, but honestly none of them (save two) really stayed with me. The first being Little Shop of Horrors, and the other awesome one Suddenly Seymour! Sometimes I will just be sitting there and I will belt out SUDDENLY SEYMOUR!!!! because in the song he tends to just shout it out. I thought the voices weren’t very strong, and I think that is another reason I wasn’t in a rush to learn the songs. (As I usually am with musicals.) I actually really dislike Audrey’s voice. A lot. And she was in the original stage version of the musical! Insanity, I know.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I liked the plot of the movie and for the most part enjoyed it. It was a little long and the resolution was absolute insanity. The music was good, but nothing earth shattering as far as musicals go. The actors were great, but sometimes I feel like movie studios tend to cast actors not singers and this is definately a case where they could have found other people. I’d watch it again, probably, but I’m not exactly in a hurry to do so. And don’t let the “horror” in the title fool you; while the thought of a plant feeding off blood to survive is terrifying, the movie was not.