The film, which centers on a floral shop worker who discovers a sentient carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and the voice of Levi Stubbs.

Little Shop of Horrors was filmed on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at the Pinewood Studios in England, where a "downtown" set, complete with overhead train track, was constructed.

Produced on a budget of $25 million, in contrast to the original 1960 film, which, according to Corman, only cost $30,000,[2] it was well received by critics and audiences alike, eventually developing a cult following.

[3] For years only available as black-and-white workprint footage, the original ending was fully restored in 2012 by Warner Home Video and a director's cut was released.

Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns.

Immediately attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant – which he dubbed "Audrey II" – from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse ("Da-Doo").

Meanwhile, Audrey suffers at the hands of her sadistic biker boyfriend, Orin Scrivello; however, she has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of running off with him to the suburbs ("Somewhere That's Green").

Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas, but breaks the valve, and Seymour watches as he asphyxiates.

Seymour dismembers Orin's body and feeds it to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, but is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear.

Approached by an executive named Patrick Martin from a botanical company, Seymour is offered a contract to breed Audrey II and sell the saplings worldwide.

Audrey II reveals that he is an extraterrestrial as he tears down the shop, fishes Seymour from the rubble and eats him alive ("Mean Green Mother from Outer Space").

Fueled by the greed of their owners who provided them with blood, the Audrey II buds grew into an army of monstrous plants that began to take over the Earth.

As the United States Army fights the buds ascending the Statue of Liberty, an Audrey II bursts through the screen and lunges at the audience ("Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)").

[citation needed] Four other songs ("Closed for Renovation", "Mushnik and Son", "Now [It's Just the Gas]", as well as "Call Back in the Morning") were cut from the original production score, and "Finale (Don't Feed the Plants)" does not appear in the theatrical release of the film.

As mentioned, additional sequences and songs from the original off-Broadway show were dropped or re-written in order for the feature version to be paced well.

As originally filmed, it detailed through a dream sequence Seymour's rising success and the need to keep the plant fed and impress Audrey.

[10] Oz and Ashman wanted to retain the ending of the musical where Seymour and Audrey die and the plant succeeds and takes over the city of New York, but Geffen was against it.

Oz said, "For every musical number, there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic... until Rick and Ellen died, and then the theatre became a refrigerator, an ice box.

The musical number "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was left mostly intact from the original cut, with new shots of Audrey observing from a window added in.

A brief sequence from the "Mean Green Mother" number was also removed in which Seymour fires his revolver at Audrey II, only to discover that the bullets ricochet harmlessly off of the plant.

[9] In the final theatrical cut, the only miniatures that are retained are the New York City streets passing behind Steve Martin's motorcycle ride at the beginning of "Dentist!

[12] Little Shop of Horrors, after a delay needed to complete the revised ending, was released on December 19, 1986, and was anticipated to do strong business over the 1986 holiday season.

[17] Richard Corliss of Time magazine said, "You can try not liking this adaptation of the Off-Broadway musical hit -- it has no polish and a pushy way with a gag -- but the movie sneaks up on you, about as subtly as Audrey II.

[20] Roger Ebert gave it 3 and a half stars, writing, "All of the wonders of Little Shop of Horrors are accomplished with an offhand, casual charm.

"[21] Gene Siskel also gave it 3 and a half stars, calling it "one of the best and certainly funniest musicals in years,"[22] and listing it as a runner-up for his ten best films of 1986.

"Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" was the first Oscar-nominated song to contain profanity in the lyrics and was the first to be sung by a villain (Audrey II).

[34] Warner Bros. reconstructed and restored the ending in an alternate edit, with re-discovered color negatives of the sequence and the help of production notes from Oz and others on the film's creative team.

The new edit was screened at the 50th New York Film Festival in the "Masterwork" line-up on September 29, 2012, alongside titles such as Laurence Olivier's Richard III and Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate.

[38] The Hollywood Reporter affirmed in February that the film was being developed by Warner Bros. Pictures with Greg Berlanti directing and producing with Marc Platt and David Geffen, Porter confirmed, and Egerton and Johansson in negotiations.

[41] In March 2024, Deadline Hollywood reported that Corman, Brad Krevoy and Charles Cohen were preparing to produce a reboot film, Little Shop of Halloween Horrors, with the intention of inaugurating a media franchise.