FEED ME SEYMOUR

Honestly, it’s a tragedy that my best friend hasn't seen the movie yet. I am at a crossroads, either I am about to ruin the whole plot, to rent it to them by the sword, or just to burst into flames spontaneously at the mere thought of having to maintain this masterpiece.

I was (and will always be) an all-out Audrey II fan. I don't know what it is about that 80s practical horror feel that has not been replicated with modern CGI. It is touchy, it is sticky, and it is so that it sticks out. Does it simp on the entire leafy-mommy chaos, or is it me alone?

I am on such a Little Shop kick of late that I even had to draw the piece you see above! I was attempting to capture in a bottle that inimitable 80s creature-feature vibe. Well, I tell you it is a bit of a wonky one. But like any artist you know when you are being struck so hard you can no longer hold back, then you have nothing to worry about but to put the soul of the character into the paper.

The Ending We Deserved.

And, speaking of which can we finally, PLEASE, normalize the bad ending in which the plants seem to win after all? I am not saying I do not love a happy ending like any other human being but the original director cut ending, whereby the Mean Green Mother from outer space actually takes over the world is the only ending that counts honestly.

It is more than a Faustian bargain that is dark. When you make a bargain with a blood-drinking plant and fame and love you should not have the happily after that of a little house with a white picket fence. There should be a giant plant on the Statue of Liberty. It is cynical, it is grand and the size of the miniature work in that order is a triumph of filmmaking.

Suppose that the screen faded away, not to a wedding, but to a city of the intertwined vines. In my mind, the real-life ending is like a fever dream, Seymour is no hero he is the last ingredient. I am observing him on the rooftop, and the understanding dawns too late when the giant pods start to burst open on the horizon. There should be a bruised purple sky, and the smell of wet earth and copper. As the Audrey II clones tear through the streets of New York, the camera shouldn't pull away. And it must magnify that last, toothy smile when the bargain is paid in full. It is a neon-soaked, beauty of an apocalypse which seems to say the ultimate 'I told you so'.

The Soundtrack of My Life (Literally)

That shift between the crashing weight of the world ending and the lightness, the soulfulness of the malice of the soundtrack is where the film really resides with me. At this point, my personality is the song "Feed Me (Git It). It has been in a 24/7 loop days and doesn’t seem to be leaving my brain. The vocals of Levi Stubbs are so strong that one wishes to be the one to give the plant its next meal. Whenever the bassline kicks on, I find myself in Skid Row Florists of Mushnik where I am willing to do whatever the Mean Green Mother requests.

Are you a suddenly seymour romantic?

Or would you rather have the mania of dental induced by the Be a Dentist?

Or are you just like me, on a rut with Feed Me?

Which song do you listen to when you feel like it’s time to go to a Little Shop? Comment, and in the meantime, watch the movie, before I can ruin it with thee!