Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American horror comedy musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is an adaptation of the off-Broadway 1982 musical by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, which is itself an adaptation of the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors by screenwriter Charles B. Griffith and director Roger Corman. The film, which centers on a floral shop worker who discovers a sentient carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, stars a number of notable names in quirky roles, cameos, and musical performances.
Brought to the screen by music impresario, David Geffen, and Frank Oz, who had just finished The Muppets Take Manhattan, the film’s version of the iconic Audrey II (voiced by Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops) was an elaborate creation, using puppets designed by Lyle Conway, who had previously worked with Oz on “The Muppet Show”, The Dark Crystal, and The Great Muppet Caper. The animatronic and fabrication team consisted of many of the same people who had worked on the creatures in Labyrinth and Oz’s friend and Muppet colleague Jim Henson praised the film by saying “the lip sync on the plant in that film is just absolutely amazing.” Originally consider a box office failure, it went on to become a smash hit upon its home video release in 1987.