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Thursday, August 11, 2011

MY 17TH FAVORITE MOVIE VILLAIN


   














AUDREY 2(VOICED BY LEVI STUBBS)

AND....
ORIN SCRIVELLO, DDS (STEVE MARTIN)

FROM "LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS"

WARNING:THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!

I couldn't choose which one's my favorite. They both play their characters so villainously that I simply had to put them together on this list. I love everything about them, every moment they have on screen;their attempts of making the film conflicting; and even having their own cool villain song. I might as well tell you this little secret, I loved the characters so much as a kid that it's my dream to play one of them on stage. Well enough discussing why they're tied, lets talk about the characters and why I love them so much. Since Audrey 2's the main villain I'm going to save it for last.

ORIN SCRIVELLO,DDS



This is a villain who's in the film for a short time, but still leaves an impression on you. We don't see him until we reach the middle of the film. All we know is he's not a good guy. When we first meet Audrey, she looks good, but she has a black eye because her boyfriend beats her. When we see Audrey the next day, her arm is in a cast, because she was handcuffed by her boyfriend. Mr. Mushnik (Her Boss), Seymour (Our Hero) and a group of girls (Chorus Girls who pop up anywhere during the film and can't be noticed) tell Audrey he's not a nice guy and that she should dump him. Audrey however refuses to leave him because he's a professional that makes big money and he'll do something worse to her if she leaves him. I haven't seen his face but already I hate him. How could a guy beat up such a pretty and sweet defenseless poor young woman?

 Image result for Steve Martin little shop

When we finally first meet him, everything about him and his life is described in his song "Dentist". It starts out with him riding his motorcycle and wearing a leather jacket as he starts singing about his life as a kid. Just read these lyrics and tell if he doesn't sound like a messed up kid? "When I was younger, just a bad little kid, My mama noticed funny things I did, Like shootin' puppies with a B B gun. I'd poison guppies, and when I was done. I'd find a pussycat and bash in its head."  What a screwed up child!


 Image result for Steve Martin little shop

His job is being a Dentist. The minute he walks in, his patients are frightened; he punches the fat nurse in the face; and takes the head off of a little girl’s doll. The reason why he loves being a Dentist is because he enjoys giving people pain. The sound of screaming is music to his ears. Everybody runs and hides from him because they know he's crazy and he knows it too. He even likes hurting his patients before he starts putting his tools in their mouths. Most of the time before he starts giving his patients pain, he sucks on gas and sometimes wears his special gas mask while giving them pain.  The gas he uses is nitrous oxide and it increases his pleasure enormously, plus giving him one of the world’s best laughs! His dental tools are everything you can imagine being... painful, they even hurt his eyes a little when he opens the draw to get them. He also keeps an old special rusty drill that no one makes anymore, that's "Sturdy, Heavy, Dull".

Image result for Steve Martin little shop

Like most of my favorite villains, he knows how to make an entrance. You see Seymour outside of the shop, when suddenly you hear Orin's laugh and out of nowhere he flies down on his motorcycle snorting up gas. When you finally see him and Audrey together he's already yelling at her and slapping her like an animal. There's a scene with him and Bill Murray as a patient, that show how much he tries to give his patients pain. Unfortunately Bill Murray likes to be in pain and no matter how hard he tries to make him scream and cry, he's laughing and screaming with joy and as a result he throws him out. Right after that he turns to his next patient (Seymour) and asks him "Does this scare you? Would you like if I took this and headed right for your damn incisors! It'd hurt, right? You'd scream, right?" Seymour replies with a frightened yes and he drags him in his office and throws him on the chair. One of the many cool things about him is whenever he jumps off his motorcycle it immediately stops and stays in its place.

Orin maybe a supporting villain. but every time I see him on screen I enjoy every bit of it, his performance, his laugh and his kickass song (Which by the way my favorite critic Doug Walker put his song as number 7 on his "Top 11 Villain songs", which was by the way tied with "Sweet Transvestite" from "Rocky Horror".). If this guy was my local Dentist I'd rather lose my teeth then see him.

"Cause I'm a Dentist and a Success!"-Orin Scrivello, DDS

AUDREY 2
 Image result for Audrey 2 little shop

Our main Villain in the film is the plant Audrey 2. It's Mean, It's green, It's Bad, It's Levi Stubbs from "The Four Tops". Audrey 2 is an alien plant from outter space that plans to destroy the world.



The plant is found by a nerdy orphan who works at a flower shop named Seymour, who found it right after the total eclipse of the sun ("Da-Doo"). Seymour puts the plant on display at the flower shop and already customers are attracted to it and start buying the plants in the shop. The Plant sadly is dying and Seymour does whatever he can to save it. After he accidentally pricks his finger on a throne of a rose, the Plant wakes up as it wants to drink Seymour's blood. Seymour reluctantly gives the plant a few drops of blood from his finger and when Seymour leaves the room, the plant grows a little bit. When I first saw the little plant, I thought it was cute and adorable, plus making me forget what the plant’s going to do throughout the film, which still does sometimes leave the same effect on me.


 Image result for plant little shop of horrors

The reason why the Plant's name is Audrey 2 is because no one has ever seen a plant like this before and since there's no name for it, he names it after his love interest Audrey. So far in the film, Seymour and the flower shop are now famous thanks to the plant, as Seymour secretly keeps feeding the Plant blood from his fingers. One of my favorite parts with the Plant by the way, is the scene when it's about to bite a woman's butt as Seymour tries to prevent it from doing so. One night when the Plant is big, we find out the Plant is not a she.....IT'S A HE! The plant talks for the first time and tells Seymour that he needs more blood! In one of the best songs in the film called "Feed Me (Git It)", the plant convinces Seymour to kill people to feed him and in return he'll make it worth his while. As a matter fact in the song the plant tells Seymour that the customers and the press coming was all his doing. 







Seymour is famous and has his girl but he can't live with the guilt. He didn't mean to commit those murders he just did them for a reason. He feed Orin to the plant because of his abuse towards Audrey and Feeds his Boss to the Plant because he was blackmailing him. Notice that Seymour doesn't even kill them. Orin dies of asphyxia and the Boss stumbles into the Plants open trap. He could have saved them and at times he even tries, but what's holding him back is not just the Plant, it's also his love for Audrey. He only wants to be rich so Audrey can be with him. Seymour is not really a villain he's just a mislead victim, like what some of my other favorite villains do.

Image result for plant little shop of horrors

In the end of the film Seymour puts his foot down and stops feeding the Plant. The Plant however, lures Audrey to it and tries to eat her. The scene with the plant and Audrey just sends shivers down my spine while also showing the true monster he is. Seymour saves her and it turns out Audrey always loved him. A salesman from World Botanical Enterprises, plans to take leaf cuttings from the Plant and sell Audrey 2's worldwide. Seymour says no and scares the salesman away.

Image result for plant little shop of horrors

Audrey 2's plan to destroy the world was to become so famous that people can breed Audrey 2 and thousands of Audrey 2's will keep eating the entire planet until there's nothing left. Seymour is about to fight the plant when suddenly the Plant bursts out of its pot with its new little offspring singing buds and starts singing the best song in the whole film (That was by the way nominated for an Oscar for best original song)! This Plant is one "Mean Green Mother"! He tries to shoot Seymour with a gun; tries to kill him with his “Killer Buds, Power Stem and Nasty thrones”, and even makes the whole shop fall on Seymour. The Plant's also hard to kill. In the end, the plant gets electrocuted by Seymour and explodes. Seymour and Audrey go to their dream house when suddenly another Audrey 2 appears in Seymour's garden smiling at the audience.

Image result for little of shop of horrors 1986 Suppertime

Audrey 2 literally steals the show in the whole movie, giving me mixed emotions of the character making me both love and hate it. How he cons Seymour throughout the film is so persuasive that I unfortunately would listen to it too. The Plant sometimes scares me at points, mostly of the shots of inside his mouth. The most suspenseful scene with the plant in the movie is the song "Suppertime”as he and the three girls con Seymour to feed his boss to the Plant. However, out of all the reasons why I love this villain, its his singing voice. It's got one of hell of a voice. Every time I hear it's voice I either rock out to it or get goosebumps.

 Image result for little shop of horrors audrey 2 eats seymour

The villain is so evil that's there's an alternate ending that the test audiences hated and wanted a happy ending. In this ending instead of the main characters living they all get eaten and as a result the plants take over the world. Personally, I prefer the happy ending because the film is so funny and comical that the ending didn't fit it. I know that's the ending to the play but you get to see our main characters bow and look like plants. In this ending they're completely gone. I will say that I felt pretty bad that they had to waste all that money on the special effects of the plant taking over the world and not showing it on the released film. I enjoyed this ending and makes me love and hate the villain even more, but I personally think it will make people leave the film on a sad note.

Audrey 2 a Villain I loved as a kid and a Villain that deserves to be on my list.

"Cut the crap, bring on the Meat!"-AUDREY 2

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