Feed Me!

If you're about my age you'll remember a little musical called "Little Shop of Horrors", as well as the man-eating plant called "Audrey 2" shouting "Feed Me" at Seymour, the lead character in the film that was brilliantly played by Rick Moranis. What some of you may not know is that this film was intended as a scathing criticism of consumer culture, the American dream and capitalism...

_{Image by Len Radin - source: Flickr}

For those of you who don't know, Little Shop of Horrors is the story of Seymour Krelborn, a poor man who grew up and lives on Skid Row, the poorest neighborhood in town. He works in the failing plant store of mr. Mushnik and is secretly in love with his colleague Audrey who is in an abusive relationship with a sadist dentist. Seymour finds a mysterious plant, calls it Audrey 2, and after placing that plant in the shop window it attracts lots of curious new customers; business takes a turn for the good and eventually the plant brings Seymour a great deal of wealth and even the girl that he loves. The problem is that the plant feeds on human blood, initially sipping it from Seymour's fingers. But as the plant grows bigger Seymour has to resort to feeding it human bodies.

Both Seymour and Audrey dream about escaping from Skid Row, and Audrey in one song, "Somewhere that's Green", literally describes the 1950s American dream of living in a house with a lawn and a white picket fence, taking care of her husband who lovingly provides for her. Seymour is about to give her that dream, but only after selling his soul to Audry 2. The plant promises him wealth and fame, if only he keeps feeding it what it craves. The plant consumes everyone that stands between Seymour and his happy life with his secret love, starting with Audrey's abusive boyfriend, and also mr. Mushnik, the shop's owner, ends up as plant-food. Seymour is approached by business men, marketeers and the likes, and is offered contracts, radio and television appearances and eventually the opportunity to sell stems from Audrey 2 so that the plant can be mass-produced for millions of eager customers. Seymour refuses that final offer though, as he now realizes what a horrible monster he has created, and all because of his selfish wish to become rich and famous so he can provide for the love of his life...

The film was directed by Frank Oz, the man behind the Muppet Show, and he wanted it to have a tragic ending in which Seymour and Audrey both are eaten by the plant, after which Audrey 2 and its offspring go ahead and conquer the entire earth. I recently watched that "director's cut" of the film and I must say that with this ending, the metaphor becomes truly complete. You see, the American Dream is fueled by capitalism and consumer culture. It says that as long as you play by capitalism's rules, working hard and idealizing self-sacrifice as the only way to be successful, you can realize that dream. Seymour starts with feeding the plant his own blood and at one point complains to the plant that he has very little of blood left to give. At that point the plant whispers in Seymour's ear that there are plenty of other humans with more than enough blood, some of which may even deserve to die. Capitalism basically says the same: if you want to be successful it will hurt, and you are not meant to work with others, instead you must step on anyone who stands between you and your dream.

Little Shop of Horrors is brilliant and breaks the usual mold of pro-American messaging in popular media. Other alien invasion films stand as a metaphor for anti-American forces invading the world, mostly resembling the communism-scare, with maybe Invasion of the Body Snatchers being the best known example. In Little Shop of Horrors it's a single plant that manages to overthrow humanity, not with numbers, weapons or mind-control. No, it uses the capitalist paradigm against us, it uses the the overarching ideology by which we let our lifes be shaped and ruled against us. The below linked video about the brilliance of Little Shop of Horrors also quotes the closing words from an episode of The Twilight Zone that has a similar theme:

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone."
_{source: IMDB}

True words that... Now enjoy the video. Or maybe first look if you can get your hands on a copy of Little Shop of Horrors, preferably the director's cut with the originally intended ending, and not the theatrical cut in which Audrey and Seymour live happily ever after...

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