Street Trash, 1987.
Directed by J. Michael Muro.
Starring Mike Lackey, Vic Noto, Bill Chepil, R.L. Ryan, James Lorinz, and Nicole Potter.
SYNOPSIS:
A liquor store owner discovers a box of bottles that contain a mysterious blue liquid and sells it to the local down-and-outs, not realising that the effects are toxic.
The ‘body melt’ genre is a weird offshoot of body horror that came to prominence in the 1980s, thanks in part to the notorious Troma Entertainment and their gloopy cult hits like The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High, but also to Street Trash, an energetic and very colourful morality tale about not consuming funny blue liquids without asking some questions first.
Although there is a central idea here – that of a liquor store owner discovering a box of bottles labelled as ‘Tenafly Viper’ and containing blue liquid which he sells to the various characters that wander into his shop – there are actually several smaller plots going on with the bottles of Viper being the connective tissue, but also the character of Fred (Mike Lackey), a vagrant who interacts with all of the misfits that dwell in this run-down part of the city and who just wants to drink his bottle of cheap $1 Viper but run-ins with the likes of Bronson (Vic Noto) – a deranged Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD who resides in a junk yard run by Frank (R.L. Ryan) – and tightly-wound cop Bill (Bill Chepil) are actually saving his life, while the rest of the drunks and winos appear to melt into puddles of blue and yellow liquid as soon as they touch the stuff.
A commentary of sorts in a similar vein to Larry Cohen’s The Stuff, Street Trash is pretty much the Daddy when it comes to the body melt genre, even more so than Body Melt, the 1993 Australian cult classic (although that one does have Ian ‘Harold Bishop’ Smith from Neighbours in it, which is never not amusing), and despite the stylistic similarities to what was coming from the Troma stable at the time (and the appearance of Troma regular R.L. Ryan), it is not a Troma movie.
What also marks it out from Troma is that it feels like there is a bit of craft going on. The acting isn’t all that great as everyone involved is an amateur, although R.L. Ryan is probably the most memorable face if you have seen any Troma movies from the period and is always funny when he is playing despicable characters, but director J. Michael Muro was also a camera operator on several James Cameron projects and went on to be a notable cinematographer, and his camerawork on Street Trash does get you as close to the action as possible, his lens taking in every gooey body part dropping off of its respective skeleton.
Also, the effects are surprisingly good for a movie of this type, the neon-coloured liquids notwithstanding. One character has a particularly nasty death by projectile gas cylinder and the practical model work is outstanding and way above the level of what you would expect – Troma would probably have stuck a latex mask over a football and shot it with a quick edit to get the effect, but here the camera lingers and takes in all the detailed carnage. Okay, it isn’t photo-real but it fits the tone of the movie and is still convincing enough.
But despite the OTT gore Street Trash is also a very mean-spirited movie. None of the characters here are anywhere near likeable and there is no ‘hero’ as such, although Fred is probably the closest despite not actually being a nice guy. As well as the drinking of toxic liquids and bodies dissolving, there are also rape scenes, gratuitous nudity and violence – including the amputation of a penis that gets thrown around the junk yard for the patrons to have a laugh with – that fill up the middle part of the movie, all of which push the boundaries of good taste for sure but it is done with a wicked sense of humour that will either make you laugh or make you sick – J. Michael Muro is probably not bothered which, just as long as it is one of them.
The most surprising thing about Street Trash, though, is that it has been given such a lavish 4K UHD treatment, seeing as there are countless other big-budget blockbusters that are still waiting to be upgraded, and that is what makes this release so good. The disc comes packaged in a limited edition VHS box for that authentic 1980s video shop vibe, packaged alongside character art cards, a beermat and a poster, all of which would be enough for collectors but the disc itself is also packed with extras, including two audio commentaries – one by Andrew Marshall-Roberts of The Nasty Pasty podcast, the other by author James Simpson and filmmaker Jason Impey – and an interview with producer Frank M. Farel.
Not enough? Okay, you also get Meltdown Memoirs, a two-hour archive making-of documentary, Melting in The Streets: The Legacy of Street Trash, a brand-new retrospective of the film and its influence, a video essay by Darrell Buxton about the history of melt movies, the short film Nightman Meltdown by Kieran Johnston & Jason Impey, plus deleted scenes, trailers and other nuggets that all add up to over eight hours of bonus material.
So is Street Trash deserving of such an attractive upgrade? Possibly not, but it’s got one nonetheless and it is a glorious thing to behold. Obviously, the lurid colours of the various body fluids look amazing in 4K and overall image has been cleaned up nicely so that is looks a lot better than it ever did on any other format, but it is a low budget exploitation movie from the 1980s so temper your expectations accordingly. The real selling point here is the packaging and the supplementary material, and Lightbulb Film Distribution have scored very highly in that department as this is a proper collector’s item that cult movie fans will want to own. As a movie, Street Trash is fun, disgusting, hilarious and repellant at the same time, but as a package, this release is truly excellent.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
