Luke Owen counts down to Pacific Rim by looking at some of his favourite giant monsters….
Kaiju: The Japanese word for “strange beast”. However, the word Kaiju has been universally translated and defined into English as “monster” or “giant monster”.
Today’s monster is a touch more musical then previous entrants. It’s the soul loving plant from Little Shop of Horrors that is lovingly titled, Audrey II.
What started out life as just a “strange and interesting plant” that Seymour wants to display, quickly becomes a blood thirsty monster who abuses Seymour’s desires to be loved by florist Audrey. As his need for blood grows, Seymour becomes a killer to feed his sassy and demanding plant friend. Before he knows it, not only has Audrey II become a national phenomenon, but he’s also getting bigger. Much bigger.
Now I know what many of you might be saying, Audrey II is not a giant monster. And you’d be right. Despite being a little larger than your average plant, there is nothing particularly “kaiju” about this singing piece of greenery. That is, unless you’ve seen the original ending.
In the theatrical cut, Seymour and Audrey II have a “thrilling” action scene which eventually ends up with Audrey II being destroyed when Mushnik’s Flower Shop collapses. Seymour and the original Audrey go on to live a happy life in suburbia with a white picket fence with only a slight tease in the final shot that Audrey II was not the only plant of his kind on Earth.
But in the original ending, Frank Oz intended to have a much darker tone. Audrey dies outside of Mushnik’s Flower Shop after an attack from Audrey II and she asks Seymour to feed her to the plant in order for him to gain more success. Even after Seymour complies and feeds her to Audrey II, they still have a climactic battle that eventually ends up with Audrey II swallowing Seymour whole and spitting out his glasses. With Seymour now dead and nothing to stop him, Audrey II steps up the next part of his plan.
Before Seymour is killed, he gets an offer from an businessman to turn Audrey II into a product to sell to the masses. In the wake of his death, every home in America has their own Audrey II and that’s when everything goes to hell.
Little Shop of Horrors becomes a giant monster movie nightmare as an army of Audrey IIs start to take apart New York City. Cars fly all over the place as people run for their lives, all while Audrey II laughs manically. The army seems helpless in their assault on the plant army as the Audrey IIs start to climb the Statue of Liberty. While it’s never spelled out – Audrey II leads a revolution that ends humanity.
A bit different to the white picket fence ending huh?
What I love about Audrey II as a giant monster is his maniacal laugh. Much like Stay Puft, everything that he does he seems to get so much glee from. His plan was simple – abuse the simple nature of a hopeless romantic to lead to his world domination. It worked, and now he’s laughing his way to victory like some crazy James Bond villain. Plus, the visual of these giant plants destroying a city and throwing around cars is really frightening. I particularly love the train riding directly into one of their mouths.
This director’s cut has now become more widely known since the Blu-Ray release and some cinemas have had the film back on the big screen complete with the original ending. While the theatrical cut ending is fine and a lot safer, the director’s cut is a lot better and certainly is more of an impact. Even the moments leading up the awesome apocalyptic scenes are better.
His giant monster roots (no pun intended) may have been kept a secret for so long, but it’s about time that Audrey II steps out of the shadow of his giant brethren and take his place as one of my favourite giant monsters.
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Month in Review show for Flickering Myth’s Podcast Network. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published July 4, 2013. Updated November 7, 2019.
