“Feed Me!”: Power Struggles and the Portrayal of Race in Little Shop of Horrors

This study is an analysis of the horror-comedy-musical Little Shop of Horrors. Not present as an element intrinsic to the story itself, the conflict of this film is subtly framed in terms of race relations. A carefully manipulated palette of musical styles and characterizations articulates associations between blackness, the alien “other,” and the threat of an imminent social collapse accompanying integration.