It’s not every day that someone comes along and makes a musical remake of a Roger Corman-produced low-rent B-movie and does it so well that it winds up earning them a permanent position as the musical architects of the Walt Disney Studios’ animation renaissance throughout the late ‘80s and ‘90s, but that’s exactly what happened when Howard Ashman and Alan Menken decided to tackle Little Shop of Horrors.
Originally staged as an off-Broadway production in 1982, it became such a cult favorite that it was adapted for film just a few years later in 1986. Directed by the great Frank Oz, he pulled Ashman and Menken into the filmmaking industry to see the cinematic iteration of Little Shop of Horrors through, and the results speak for themselves. The film has stood the test of time and become a venerated genre classic, and rightfully so, because it absolutely rules.
Now, for the film’s fortieth anniversary, not only is Little Shop of Horrors coming back to theaters, but it is getting a first-ever remaster 4K Blu-ray release, set to hit shelves on October 6, 2026. In addition to this, Ellen Greene, the actress who played the lead role of Audrey both in the original stage production and in the 1986 film, will be embarking on an anniversary tour across the country, hosting screenings of the film.
All of this serves as an undeniably hard-earned victory lap for the film, and a fitting one at that. When Little Shop of Horrors first released in movie theaters, it wasn’t a hit. In fact, the film’s budget of $25 million made it a fairly pricey endeavor and meant that its modest box office earnings were a bit of a financial disappointment. However, the film would ultimately find its audience in the then-nascent medium of home video, as it exploded in popularity once it became available on VHS. In this way, the fact that the film is now getting remastered for a new, modern physical media release is extremely fitting.
Of course, the biggest question for many fans of Little Shop of Horrors relating to any new release is whether or not it will be the theatrical version of the film or the subsequently released Director’s Cut. Though the films are largely the same for the bulk of the runtime, their endings could not be more different. Oz’s cut preserves the ending of the original stage production, with the entirety of humanity being wiped out by these extraterrestrial plants that the whole story centers upon. But at the time, this apparently tested poorly with audiences, so the film was forced to reshoot a new ending just prior to release.
Delightfully, the upcoming 4K remaster will have both versions of the film, so fans can select which one they’d rather see for themselves. I personally am huge on the Director’s Cut and recommend it to anyone who has never seen the film before, because it just lands the genre-filled insanity of this science-fiction-horror-musical extravaganza in a vastly more satisfying way.
Following Little Shop of Horror’s success, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken would go on to work on a foundational level on Disney classics like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. Tragically, Ashman would pass away just before the release of Beauty and the Beast in 1991, but his legacy as one of the great musical constructionists of all time has very much persevered. Little Shop of Horrors is an iconic and unforgettable look into Ashman and Menken’s combined genius, all through the lens of Frank Oz and some absolutely gonzo genre work, which is to say it is a film that I adore very deeply and am thrilled to see getting this kind of treatment.
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