Horror in Bowery Street

Street Trash is an amazing little surprise of wonderful cinematography, hilarious satire, cheesy performances, fantastic old school special effects and gore, and total entertainment!

This is what the 80's was all about, true independent film making that didn't need to follow rules and still manages to entertain more than most of the Hollywood crap that comes out today.

UK based distributors, Arrow Label, have released such a beautiful DVD and Bluray package that includes reverse sleeves, original artwork, with a host of extras and digitally remastered version of the classic!

I really enjoyed Street Trash. It is exactly what it says on the tin, bright and colourful, loud and nasty, hilarious and gross.

Well worth the watch!

Liquor store owner Ed (M. D'Jango Krunch) is nosing around in his basement when he finds some VERY old booze labelled "Tenafly Viper". He figures, what the hell, he'll sell it to his customers for $1 a bottle. But this booze is deadly stuff: when people drink it, they explode into goop in all colours of the rainbow. While the body count rises, the story focuses on two street denizens who are brothers: Fred (Mike Lackey) and Kevin (Mark Sferrazza) who take up residence in a spacious auto junkyard along with various other hobos.

"Street Trash" marks, to date, the only theatrical directing credit for James M. Muro, who went on to Hollywood and became one of the most in-demand Steadicam operators in the business. Basing this movie on a short subject he'd made, he clearly has some real fun with the material. The Manhattan-based production makes some excellent use of locations, and has some very striking characters. Among them is the almighty Bronson (Vic Noto), a psychotic Vietnam veteran with a bunch of flunkies. Sexy Jane Arakawa, a gal with a great pair of legs, is the secretary who takes sympathy on Fred & Kevin and their cronies. Pat Ryan ("The Toxic Avenger") is her horny, scuzzy boss. And Bill Chepil is the surly, hard driving detective working these streets.

The makeup effects are wonderfully gross and effective. There are scenes here so memorable that they remain favourites for fans: Burts' impromptu shopping trip, and the entire "penis keepaway" sequence. One brilliant gag occurs early on when Bronson manhandles a nerdy motorist. The two best characters are thuggish restaurant owner Nick Duran (Tony Darrow) and his smart mouthed doorman (James Lorinz of "Frankenhooker"). Muro and company know that their scenes are some of the funniest here, so they keep their story going during the end credits.

While "Street Trash" took about 13 weeks to shoot, its journey to movie screens took about three years. It proves that filmmaking finesse isn't always everything: sometimes gung-ho enthusiasm and the willingness to pull out all the stops can go a long way too.

Eight out of 10.

Ah, the Summer of 1985, when college kids my age were home from school drinking till they dropped cuz Spuds McKenzie told them to, rap music was that new, quirky sounding stuff and you could still go to movie theatres to catch midnight movies like STREET TRASH. I spent that Summer working on STREET TRASH in Brooklyn. I was there to watch director Jim Muro (now one of the leading Stedicam operators in the business) dictate where and when winos were to melt. The film has lots of gore, but surreal gore. People pull apart and melt in crazy primary colors in this film, so it's a blender-mix of Hershel Gordon Lewis and Salvadore Dali.

If you can, catch it on DVD, because I worked hard on the film, I think it came out great, and it's alot of fun.

I genuinely wish I'd discovered "Street Trash" when it was originally released in 1987. Finally watching the film, some 20 years after it hit the big screen, I can't help wonder why I never tracked a VHS copy down in the good old days of the "video nasties".

"Street Trash" is horror on a shoestring budget and its atmosphere and characters could be compared to those of one of the better Troma productions. The film is filled with crude, juvenile humour, is politically incorrect and contains some of the most technicoloured, surrealistic, over-the-top gore spurting scenes you will ever see splashed on the screen.

While none of the characters are particularly likable, the film has a great energy despite its loose plot and it's easy to understand why it has a strong cult following.

8 out of 10. Rubbish but great rubbish. Fans of this film may enjoy the equally strange "Bride of Frank".

One day someone said, "I'd like to make a movie featuring a bottle of hooch that makes people melt into multi-colored ooze. I think I'll also add "sub-plots" about insane homeless vets, murder, necrophilia, gang-rape, castration, and police brutality. Oh, and it's a COMEDY."

Anyone who blasts the movie probably had no idea what they were getting into. Yeah, the story - if you want to call it that - is flimsy at best, but the film is punctuated by some inventive effects, some nice camera work, and a hysterical mostly-improvised Doorman character played by James Lorinz.

Summed up, if you like your movies dispicable, reprehensible, obnoxious, offensive, crude, and downright nasty, pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.