Little Shop of Horrors

Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Timing: 1:34 (94 min)

6.967/10
1588

6.899/10
5513

7.1/10
94000

All about film

Video 3

Photo 99

Actors and characters

Release date

1986-12-19

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures, Geffen Pictures

Genre

Horror, Comedy

Budget

$30 000 000

Revenue

$38 748 395

Website

Director

Frank Oz

Actors

Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Levi Stubbs, Steve Martin, Tichina Arnold, Michelle Weeks, Tisha Campbell, Jim Belushi, John Candy
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

David Geffen

Operator

Robert Paynter

Composer

Alan Menken

Artist

Jim Morahan

Audition

Margery Simkin, Celestia Fox

Editing

John Jympson
All team (38)

• The scene where Bill Murray's character waits his turn at the dentist was filmed according to the script. However, once he was in the dental chair, the character had practically no lines (aside from excited squeals and moans). The scene was shot for two days in a row, and Bill Murray constantly improvised, making up lines on the fly. During the final film editing, specialists had a hard time assembling something coherent from the pile of footage of that scene.
• The role of Patrick Martin in the film was played by Paul Dooley. When the film crew reconvened after a several-month break to shoot a new ending, it turned out that Dooley was unable to come, so the necessary scenes were reshot with James Belushi. The filmmakers expressed their gratitude to Dooley in the credits. Scenes with him could be seen in the black and white version of the original ending, included in the first DVD release. In 2012, the director's cut of the film was released with Dooley, and Belushi received a thank you note in the credits.
• The film was shot at Pinewood Studio in London, specifically on the world's largest soundstage called «007». The idea of shooting on location was abandoned in order to preserve the unique atmosphere of the film. The performance of the composition 'Suddenly Seymour' was also filmed on the «007» stage. Due to its enormous size, it was impossible to heat, hence the steam billowing from the actors' mouths.
• The members of the «Greek chorus» took the names of female groups from the 1950s and 1960s — The Ronettes, The Chiffons, and The Crystals.
• The scenes where the actors interact with the two largest Audrey II puppets were shot at a slow speed – first at 16 frames per second, then at 12 frames per second. The actors also had to move and speak slowly.
• The "chroma key" technology was not used in the scenes with the talking and carnivorous plant Audrey II. Six plant mock-ups were made in different stages of development and, accordingly, different sizes, as well as three different versions of the shop, allowing two groups to work with mock-ups of different sizes simultaneously. At the end of each shooting day, the mock-ups had to be cleaned, repainted, and repaired. Depending on their size, the entire process took up to 3 hours.
• The original script stipulated that in the finale, Audrey and Seymour would be eaten by the plant. Director Frank Oz reluctantly agreed to reshoot the ending due to negative reactions during preview screenings.
• In the final shot of the theatrical release, a "Greek chorus" appears on screen, but the viewer only sees the faces of two girls (Tichina Arnold and Michelle Weeks) out of three. Tisha Campbell was unable to come to the shooting after the break and was replaced by a stunt double from the UK.
• In 1998, a special edition of the film was released on DVD with an alternate ending where "everyone dies." A few days later, the entire DVD run was withdrawn from sale, as producer David Geffen wanted to re-release the film with the dark ending in theaters. This finale was restored 14 years later with the release of the director's cut of the film on Blu-Ray.
• The film was shot at Pinewood Studio in London, specifically on the world’s largest soundstage, called ‘007’. The idea of shooting on location was abandoned to preserve the film’s unique atmosphere. The performance of ‘Suddenly Seymour’ was also filmed on the ‘007’ stage. Due to its enormous size, it was impossible to heat, resulting in visible breath vapor from the performers.
• The members of the "Greek chorus" took the names of female groups from the 1950s and 1960s — The Ronettes, The Chiffons, and The Crystals.
• The "chroma key" technology was not used in the scenes with the talking and carnivorous plant Audrey II. Six plant dummies were made in different stages of development and, accordingly, different sizes, as well as three different versions of the shop, which allowed two groups to work with dummies of different sizes simultaneously. At the end of each shooting day, the dummies had to be cleaned, touched up, and repaired. Depending on their size, the entire process took up to 3 hours.
• In the final shot of the theatrical release version of the film, the "Greek chorus" appears on screen, but the viewer only sees the faces of two girls (Tichina Arnold and Michelle Weeks) out of three. Tichina Campbell was unable to come to the shooting after the break, and was replaced by a stunt double from the UK.
• In 1998, a special edition of the film was released on DVD with an alternative ending where "everyone dies". A few days later, the entire DVD run was withdrawn from sale, as producer David Geffen wanted to re-release the film with the dark ending in theaters. This ending was restored 14 years later with the release of the director's cut of the film on Blu-Ray.