Blast from the Past: Cult Movies–Revisited
The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)
Roger Corman’s low-budget, black-and-white comedy, The Little Shop of Horrors, which was shot in two days and a night, looks like it was made up on the spot.
The tale concerns a nebbish plant-store worker named Seymour (Jonathan Haze), who breeds a man-eating flower named Audrey that turns into a giant insatiable Venus flytrap.
It stars Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, and Dick Miller, who had all worked with Corman on previous films.
Produced under the title “The Passionate People Eater,” the film combines dark comedy with farce, and incorporating Jewish humor as well as elements of spoof.
The Little Shop of Horrors was shot on a budget of $28,000 ($310,000 in 2026). Interiors were shot in two days, utilizing sets that had been left from the horrpor flick, A Bucket of Blood.
The film was released in October 1960 by Filmgroup as a double feature with Filmgroup’s Last Woman on Earth.
IOt slowly gained a cult following through word of mouth when it was later distributed as B movie in double feature with Mario Bava’s Black Sunday (also 1960).
The film’s popularity furthern increased with local TV broadcasts, and the presence of Jack Nicholson, whose small role wasprominently promoted on homevideo releases.
Unintentionally, in between giggling at the film’s borscht belt insanity (like Nicholson dentist-office pain freak), there might be a tale about the world’s goofiest serial killer.
This was well before the more prestigious “serial killer genre” emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s, reaching its apogee with Jonathan Demme’s 1991 Best Picture Oscar, The Silence of the Lambs.
Recycling: Stage and Screen
The film was the basis for an Off-Broadway musical, “Little Shop of Horrors,” which in turn was adapted into a 1986 feature film.
The musical enjoyed a 2003 Broadway debut and a 2019 off-Broadway revival, among other productions
