Tonight’s movie is the independent horror comedy “Street Trash” from 1987. Made on a budget of $100,000 ($274k in today’s money), making it at the cheaper end of the horror scale. Horror comedies are pretty easy to do at this price range since you can get away with goofy effects and bad acting providing the film is actually fun to watch. This one has been on my radar for a long time. The movie is directed by J. Michael Muro, a professional that mostly works as a camera operated. In that capacity he’s actually a James Cameron regular and has worked on films like “Terminator 2” and “Titanic”. This is the only movie he ever directed. The film is written and produced by Roy Frumkes. David Sperling provides cinematography and Rick Ulfik the soundtrack.
A liquor store own frequented by street bums finds a box of “Tenafly Viper” in his basement. Seeing it as trash, he decides to sell it at $1 a bottle to the local tramps. Unfortuantely for them, it kills anyone instantly that drinks it. Meanwhile, the bums have their own problems. They are unwelcome residents of the junkyard they inhabit. They are lorded over by a crazed Vietnam vet with a tendency towards psychotic outbursts. After a passing commuter is murdered and a few of the Viper killed corpses turn up, the cops also get involved and last but not least a local gangster has a grudge against the group after they gang rape and murder his girlfriend.
Brothers, Bums and Booze
One of the first things I noticed about the movie is how almost none of the plot actually revolves around the “Viper” booze, which from the trailer you’d think is the main story. This isn’t the story of the deadly booze, it’s just sort of there and not much of the story relates to it. But then that’s the kind of story this is. This is really just a story about a bunch of crazy hobos, being crazy hobos. The conclusion to the story is basically two hobo brothers dealing with the psycho boss hobo. The brothers are the closest thing to protagonists this film has, but it’s an ensemble cast really
Because of the chaotic plot and the ensemble cast none of the characters really have any kind of charm or appeal to them. But then they are all hobo’s so they probably aren’t meant to. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting character depth here. Another thing I wasn’t expecting was James Lorinz to turn up in a random small role and steal the show. You’d be forgiven for going “Who?” to that, and I would too had I not recently watched “Frankenhooker“, where he stars. This was his first movie role and it likely got him that job. Another cameo highlight is Tony Darrow also in a minor role, as a mobster (Naturally).
Conclusion
While these cameos are good, there’s also some pretty poor acting from other characters. Nothing that wrecked my enjoyment. Even though this isn’t a Troma Studios film, it is at that level. The humor, the gore, the sex, the acting are all what you’d expect from that studio. Basically it’s trash, but trash you can have fun with. Speaking of the gore, style of gore here is apparently known as a “Melt movie” and that is certainly an apt description. But it’s not just hobo’s melting, there’s also a severed penis being thrown around at one point too, because why not I guess.
This is a chaotic and ridiculous film. The plot feels like it was written by a hand grenade. The acting quality is all over the place and the special effects are deliberately silly. The music is actually quite good, in a cheesy 80’s sense. The cinematography is actually pretty solid but then Muro is primarily a cameraman and cinematographer so that makes sense. Basically, the title is accurate, this is tras. But it’s the kind of trash you can have fun with. Especially if you are drinking, though I’d avoid the Tenafly Viper. 5/10