Streets of Death is one of 4 horror films from the hilariously-named director of the ultra-sleazy Victims!, Jeff Hathcock. Streets of Death is only semi-sleazy and considering it's about hookers and snuffers this is pretty disappointing. Like other SOVs from this era such as 555, Blood Cult and L. A. AIDS Jabber is seems to want to be an actual "film" by adding character development and boring police procedural scenes. We get a love story between two cops, one going undercover as a prostitute. A little after the 40 minute point an ex-detective/alcoholic cop character shows up all to shoehorn in a pointless redemption story for this person no one will care about. This is all to extend the running time with boring investigation scenes and endless walking around sleuthing. The movie ends up being a nearly unforgivable 94 minutes, the 70-80 minute range would be more than adequate for something like this.
It's not all bad though, this is much better filmed than your backyard SOV films and the acting is competent and there's some well done cinematography considering the limitations of the format. The kills are kind of bloody though there isn't much in the way of actual gore and there's some nudity. A film about hookers and snuff films needed much more nudity and some down and dirty sex scenes not to mention more brutal kills. Tommy Kirk shows up to lend this some "star" power. Larry Thomas better and only known by most as the Soup National Socialist in Seinfeld plays one of the snuffers. He's decent here though neither of these guys come off as sadistic killers and appear to be doing it more for the money. It's not even good money as they are supposed to get $4000 for 8 snuff tapes, that's $500 per victim and $250 per snuffer. There's got to be an easier way to make a couple of hundred bucks than to murder a person and film it. The film would have been much better if at least one of them was a leering, sadistic, psychopathic butcher prone to horribly mutilating and necrophiling with the victims. Later on it's implied that Thomas' character might be gay and the other guy might be impotent as they seem doubtful about being able to add sex to their latest video as the distributor requested. There's not nearly enough sleaze or violence to enliven this movie though it does pick up with the final battle in a factory at the end. By then it's too late as the film has been bogged down with relationship drama and character development. This isn't terrible but like L. A. AIDS Jabber it's more of a promising idea that turns out in a overlong slog instead of an offensive filth-packed cult classic.
A film like this doesn't really deserve a slipcovered Blu-ray release but I'm glad it got one from Culture Shock. There's an interview with Larry Thomas on the disc and he seems to be somewhat fond of the films now. Years ago he was deeply ashamed of these little horror films and tried to keep them out of his filmography while also being busy suing people selling ladles with the likeness of his Seinfeld character. He seems to have mellowed out in his old age as I haven't even heard of him trying to sue Andrew Ho yet, who sounds like a pretty awesome dude. It's also possible he realized his only known character would be deemed "unacceptable" in today's climate and it's better to be remembered for cheap little horror films including one where he kills women on camera for a cheap payday.
