Suddenly... Scary?

.

True fact! I have never seen Roger Corman's 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors. My Corman exposure is woefully slight actually; a fact I keep meaning to rectify but have so far been lax in doing so. But then I look at his IMDb page and see that he's directed 55 films and produced a whopping (and I do mean WHOPPING) 385 projects (!!!) and I feel a little less guilty. I'll never make a dent in that shit in all of my life.

Still, Little Shop, like Wasp Woman and A Bucket of Blood (both films I adore) is an essential Corman film so it's gotta get done some time. And what better time than when spurned on by news of a remake? Via BD:

"While chatting with Declan O'Brien about his forthcoming direct-to-video effort Wrong Turn 3, he revealed exclusively to Bloody-Disgusting that he just optioned the rights to Roger Corman's classic The Little Shop of Horrors! “Actually its been a busy time for me. I just optioned Roger Corman’s 'The Little Shop of Horror', which Im setting up as a big studio remake," he tells B-D this morning. "We're in the process of talking to studios this week. It will be a remake of Roger’s original 1960’s movie. I don’t want to reveal too much, but it’s me, it’ll be dark," he explains. "It wont be a musical.""

I think I've stated my adoration of the musical version here before, but let me just reiterate: I love - LOVE - Frank Oz's 1986 musical version. I've watched it dozens upon dozens of times and have it pretty much memorized. As a little gay I pranced and danced along with Audrey wishing I could cook like Betty Crocker and look like Donna Reed (My heart + Ellen Greene = FOREVER). So there's that.

But I did think that Audrey II, aka the mean green mutha from outer space, in Oz's movie was scary. Campy yes, silly sure, but also, when that thing was smacking its lips for more, downright creepy. That's probably what made me skip over my usual musical aversion, really. Again not having seen Corman's film I don't know if the plant comes off scary there or not (although I'd hazard a guess at 'not really' having, ya know, seen a few other Corman films), but it certainly seems possible to me that this story could be played straight and succeed as terrifying, just based off the glimpses we got of that side of the monster in Oz's film.

So this is a remake (of sorts) that I welcome. I think it's a great idea. I might just have to hum a little "Somewhere That's Green" to myself in the audience is all...
.