Movie Review: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

The movie stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Steve Martin, Vincent Gardenia and Levi Stubbs (as the voice of Audrey II).

My oldest daughter and I ended up having a conversation about this film several weeks ago (at the time, I didn’t even realize it was nearly 30 years old already) and, after that discussion, I decided she needed to see it.

However, even though I put it on top of my Netflix list, it did take several tries to finally get the DVD so she could watch it with me. This happened this past weekend, and we watched it Saturday night. It did not disappoint.

The thing I have always loved about this musical is the way it manages to keep a comedic tone to it throughout, helped in part by some pretty recognizable 1980s actors (including some excellent guest appearances by John Candy and Jim Belushi). Yet, at the same time, the film also stays true to its horror movie roots.

In fact, there were some scenes that had my daughter squirming a little bit in her seat, despite the fact she has watched plenty of other movies that were much scarier and more graphic than this one was. I guess the idea of a talking, man-eating plant was more than she was prepared for.

I think the best part of this movie, however, has to be the music. Even two days after watching this, I still have half the songs stuck in my head. This is a pretty big deal considering we’ve watched plenty of other musicals together and couldn’t remember a single song from them.

Probably my only real complaint about this movie was the language, at times, was a bit too adult. I’m chalking this up to when the movie was made and, since my daughter has definitely heard worse, it wasn’t too big of a deal. However, this could have been much more family-friendly without it.

As I said before, I didn’t even realize this movie is as old as it is. So, the fact my daughter enjoyed it as much as I always have did mean something. I definitely am glad I watched this movie with her and will likely be adding it to my permanent collection in the future.

My Grade: A