Street Trash

Last updated
Street Trash
Streettrash.jpg
Theatrical poster
Directed by J. Michael Muro
Written by Roy Frumkes [1]
Produced byRoy Frumkes [1]
Starring
CinematographyDavid Sperling
Edited byDennis Werner
Music byRick Ulfik
Production
companies
Distributed byLightning Pictures
Release date
  • September 16, 1987 (1987-09-16)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Street Trash is a 1987 American black comedy body horror film directed by J. Michael Muro (credited as Jim Muro). It won the Silver Raven at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film. The film has acquired a status as a cult classic independent horror-comedy and is one of a number of films known as "melt movies". [2]

Contents

In the film, a liquor store in Brooklyn starts selling cheap alcoholic beverages to local hobos. The beverages date to the 1920s, and are actually poisonous. While a local cop investigates the series of unexplained deaths, homeless veterans of the Vietnam War group together as a dangerous gang.

Plot

The owner of a liquor store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York City finds a case of cheap booze ("Tenafly Viper") in his basement. It is more than 60 years old and has gone bad, but he decides to sell it to the local hobos anyway. Unfortunately, anyone who drinks it melts away hideously. At the same time, two homeless brothers find different ways to cope with homelessness while they make their residence in a local junkyard while one employee, a female cashier and clerk (Jane Arakawa), frequently tends to both of them.

Meanwhile, an overzealous cop (Bill Chepil) is trying to get to the bottom of all the deaths, all the while trying to end the tyranny of a deranged Vietnam War veteran named Bronson (Vic Noto), who has made his self-proclaimed "kingdom" at the junkyard with a group of homeless vets under his command as his personal henchmen.

The film is littered with darkly comedic deaths and injuries. It also contains the notorious "severed privates" scene where a group of homeless people play catch with the severed genitals of one of their number, as he futilely attempts to recover it.

Cast

Production

Roy Frumkes wrote the screenplay. In an NBR profile, he later said: "I wrote it to democratically offend every group on the planet, and as a result the youth market embraced it as a renegade work, and it played midnight shows." [3] The film was based on a ten-minute student film directed by J. Michael Muro and starring Mike Lackey. [4] Bryan Singer worked on the film as a grip. [5]

Deleted scenes include a junkyard dance sequence [6] [7] and a sub-plot involving the relationship between Fred (Mike Lackey) and Bronson; these sequences are included in the documentary Meltdown Memoirs.

Release

The film was given a limited release theatrically in the United States by Lightning Pictures in June 1987. [8] They also released the film on VHS the same year.

In 2005, Synapse Films marketed an all-new, digitally remastered version of the film. Included with the DVD were sticker-type "labels" of the Viper wine featured in the film. [9] In 2006, a second release by Synapse Films was announced, featuring the documentary Meltdown Memoirs by writer Roy Frumkes. The feature includes interviews with most of the surviving cast and crew with the exception of Jane Arakawa. It also contains the original 16mm short version of Street Trash. [10]

In 2010, Arrow Video released a two-DVD set in the UK featuring the documentary Meltdown Memoirs along with a previously unavailable featurette with Jane Arakawa and the booklet 42nd Street Trash: The Making of the Melt written by Calum Waddell. [11] Since then, the movie has been released also on Blu-ray in numerous countries. [12]

Reception

Street Trash received little critical attention upon its initial release. The film holds a 67% rating on review site Rotten Tomatoes, where critic Walter Goodman of The New York Times said of it, "It claims no redeeming social value, and you don't have to be a Supreme Court nominee to question whether the Founders could have foreseen anything like it when they wrote the First Amendment." Other reviewers on the platform consider Street Trash a crude but overlooked dark humour pioneer in the splatter film genre. [13]

The film has since gained a cult following among horror fans on the internet, owing in part to the minor character role of an obnoxious kid being played by infamous contestant Ian Benardo from reality TV shows So You Think You Can Dance? and American Idol , both of which he lost due to rude and bizarre behaviour, making him an iconic meme on YouTube. Chuck Bowen of Slant Magazine said (of the Street Trash Blu-ray), "Street Trash is a cult item that’s almost earnestly eager to offend, which is admittedly an odd thing to say about a film that features a prolonged scene in which a group of bums play hot potato with a man’s severed penis. It’s a 1980s American film, like Repo Man , that celebrates the proletariat’s resigned disenfranchisement as a badge of aesthetic honour." He went on to describe the film as a satire of the 1980's American political hierarchy, and rated it 4/5 stars. [14] Review platform AllHorror said of Street Trash that they "personally loved it... the title might lead you to think its purpose is to shine a light on how trashy the homeless are, but it actually succeeds in showing how trashy everyone is. [15] Brian Eggert of Deep Focus Review criticized the film's attempts at shock value, saying, "around the time an unsuspecting bum inadvertently urinates on another, causing the pee-victim to chop off the offending man’s penis, while at the same moment, not far away, a would-be rapist engages in necrophilia with the corpse of a gang-rape victim, I decided Street Trash wasn’t my cup of tea... all I saw was a desperate attempt to get a reaction. My response to the film is the same with a bully or noisy child; I just roll my eyes and ignore it." [16]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Toxic Avenger</i> (1984 film) 1984 American superhero black comedy splatter film by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman

The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 American superhero black comedy splatter film produced and directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman from a screenplay by Joe Ritter, based on a story by Kaufman. The film was produced and released by Troma Entertainment. It is the first installment in The Toxic Avenger film series and generated a media franchise.

<i>Lady and the Tramp II: Scamps Adventure</i> 2001 American direct-to-video animated film

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure is a 2001 American animated direct-to-video musical romance film produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and the sequel to Disney's 1955 animated feature film Lady and the Tramp. The film was released on February 27, 2001, 46 years after its predecessor. It involves Lady and Tramp's only son, Scamp, who runs away from his home and joins a gang of stray dogs called the Junkyard Dogs. There, he falls in love with one of the gang's members, Angel.

<i>Brain Damage</i> (film) 1988 American horror comedy film

Brain Damage is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Frank Henenlotter. It stars Rick Hearst in his debut acting role as Brian, a young man who becomes acquainted with a talking parasite known as Aylmer that injects him with an addictive fluid that causes euphoric hallucinations; in return, Aylmer demands that Brian allow him to feed on the brains of other humans.

<i>Frankenhooker</i> 1990 American comedy horror film

Frankenhooker is a 1990 American black comedy horror film directed by Frank Henenlotter. Very loosely inspired by Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, the film stars James Lorinz as medical school dropout Jeffrey Franken and former Penthouse Pet Patty Mullen as the title character.

<i>The Return of the Living Dead</i> 1985 film by Dan OBannon

The Return of the Living Dead is a 1985 American comedy horror film written and directed by Dan O'Bannon from a story by Rudy Ricci, John Russo, and Russell Streiner, and starring Clu Gulager, James Karen, Thom Mathews, and Don Calfa. The film tells the story of how a warehouse owner, accompanied by his two employees, mortician friend and a group of teenage punks, deal with the accidental release of a horde of unkillable, brain-hungry zombies onto an unsuspecting town.

<i>Countess Dracula</i> 1971 British horror film by Peter Sasdy

Countess Dracula is a 1971 British Hammer horror film directed by Peter Sasdy and starring Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green and Lesley-Anne Down. It was produced by Alexander Paal.

Roy Frumkes is an American independent filmmaker. Frumkes directed the 1985 documentary Document of the Dead, a film detailing the production of Dawn of the Dead.

<i>Body Melt</i> 1993 Australian film

Body Melt is a 1993 Australian independent science fiction black comedy body horror film directed by Philip Brophy and written by Brophy and Rod Bishop. Brophy and Bishop are ex-members of the art punk group → ↑ →. The pair also composed the film's soundtrack. The movie satirizes suburban lifestyles and fitness fads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synapse Films</span>

Synapse Films is an American DVD and Blu-ray label, founded in 1997 and specializes in cult horror, science fiction and exploitation films. It is considered a boutique DVD label.

<i>Intruder</i> (1989 film) 1989 American slasher film by Scott Spiegel

Intruder is a 1989 American slasher film written and directed by Scott Spiegel, and co-written and produced by Lawrence Bender. It received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise given for its unique setting of a grocery store for a slasher film.

<i>Zombie Holocaust</i> 1980 Italian film

Zombie Holocaust is a 1980 Italian horror film directed by Marino Girolami. The film is about a team of scientists who follow a trail of corpses in New York to a remote Indonesian island where they meet a mad doctor who performs experiments on both the living and dead in his laboratory. The team face both zombies and cannibals in an attempt to stop the doctor. The film was re-edited and released theatrically in the United States in 1982 under the title Doctor Butcher M.D.

<i>Horrors of Malformed Men</i> 1969 Japanese film

Horrors of Malformed Men is a 1969 Japanese horror film directed by Teruo Ishii, who also co-wrote the film. It is based on the novels Strange Tale of Panorama Island and The Demon of the Lonely Isle by Edogawa Rampo.

<i>Document of the Dead</i> 1981 American film

Document of the Dead is a 1981 documentary film by American filmmaker Roy Frumkes that was largely shot during the production of the 1978 film Dawn of the Dead. Originally a 66-minute feature, it has since been expanded two times, first to 85 minutes in 1989, then to 102 minutes in 2012.

David Del Valle is a journalist, columnist, film historian, and radio and television commentator on horror, science-fiction, cult and fantasy films. Described by Entertainment Weekly as "Something of a cult celebrity himself," he was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame in 2016.

<i>Nail Gun Massacre</i> 1980s American rape-and-revenge slasher film

Nail Gun Massacre is a 1987 American slasher film written by Terry Lofton and directed by Lofton and Bill Leslie. It follows a young doctor and a sheriff seeking a killer in a motorcycle helmet who is murdering locals with a nail gun.

<i>Slime City Massacre</i> 2010 American comedy horror film

Slime City Massacre is a 2010 American science fiction comedy horror film directed by Greg Lamberson and starring Jennifer Bihl, Kealan Patrick Burke, Debbie Rochon and Robert Sabin. It is a sequel to the 1988 film Slime City, also directed by Lamberson.Filmed at Central Terminal in Buffalo, NY.

<i>Hanger</i> (film) 2009 Canadian film

Hanger is a 2009 Canadian horror film directed by Ryan Nicholson and written by Nicholson with Patrick Coble. The film is banned in Australia and Germany.

<i>Killer Nerd</i> 1991 American film

Killer Nerd is a 1991 comedy horror film. It was directed by Mark Steven Bosko and Wayne Alan Harold and stars Toby Radloff in his first film.

<i>Killer Rack</i> 2015 American film

Killer Rack is a 2015 American musical horror comedy film directed by Greg Lamberson and written by Paul McGinnis. The film, which was shot in Buffalo, New York, was screened at several film festivals, and profits from promotional stickers were donated to the Lynn Sage Foundation, a breast cancer organization.

<i>Old 37</i> 2015 American film

Old 37 is a 2015 American horror film written by Joe Landes and Paul Travers, directed by Christian Winters and starring Kane Hodder, Bill Moseley and Brandi Cyrus.

References

  1. 1 2 Stimpson, Andrew (2012-10-07). "25 Years On: Street Trash Revisited". The Quietus . Retrieved 2016-08-21.
  2. ↑ Jones, Gareth (2010-01-06). "Street Trash (UK DVD)". Dread Central . Retrieved 2016-07-08.
  3. ↑ Roy Frumkes' interview with the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
  4. ↑ "Motion Picture Purgatory: Street Trash". October 2012.
  5. ↑ "Bryan Singer Biography".
  6. ↑ "Deleted Scene - Junk Yard Dance". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
  7. ↑ "Interview with Roy Frumkes - CHUD.com".
  8. ↑ Frumkes, Roy; Simonelli, Rocco (2002). "The Sweet Life". Shoot Me: Independent Filmmaking from Creative Concept to Rousing Release. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN   1-6215-3121-X.
  9. ↑ Corupe, Paul. "Street Trash". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on 2006-09-01.
  10. ↑ Corupe, Paul. "Street Trash - Meltdown Edition". DVD Verdict. Archived from the original on 2007-05-28.
  11. ↑ "Street Trash". Arrow Video.
  12. ↑ Street Trash (Blu-ray). DVDCompare.net.
  13. ↑ "Street Trash 1987, Horror". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  14. ↑ Bowen, Chuck (16 July 2013). "Review: James Muro's Street Trash on Synapse Films Blu-ray". www.slantmagazine.com. Slant Magazine. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  15. ↑ "Street Trash Review (1987)". www.allhorror.com. AllHorror. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  16. ↑ Eggert, Brian (10 March 2021). "Street Trash". deepfocusreview.com. Deep Focus Review. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.