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TITLE: Street Trash
DIRECTOR: Jim Muro
YEAR: 1987
COUNTRY: United States
DURATION: 102 mins
ALSO KNOWN AS:
Corps à vidanges
STARRING: Mike Lackey (Fred), Bill Chepil (Bill The Cop), Vic Noto (Bronson), Mark Sferrazza (Kevin), Jane Arakawa (Wendy), Bernard Perlman (Wizzy) |
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| THIS FILM CONTAINS DISTURBING SCENES OF
VIOLENCE AND SHOULD ONLY BE VIEWED BY ADULTS, BUMS & TRAMPS |
It looks like things in New York City
are
going down the toilet... |
| STREET TRASH IS ONE OF those rare exploitation films that is extraordinarily well made. The camera work, shooting style, lenses, editing, acting and special effects are all top notch. On VHS this may not have been totally apparent, such was the lo-fi nature of the medium, but on DVD the film looks amazing – especially the new Meltdown print from Synapse Films. |
| The film follows the misadventures of a couple of everyday American bums; tramps – whatever you want to call people who live in a car scrap yard – called Fred (Mike Lackey) and Kevin (Mark Sferrazza). And, while out, Fred procures a bottle of 'Viper' – a strange bottle of booze with 'splatter movie properties'. By that I mean: when you drink it, you die in a pool of pus and snot. The bottle of 'Viper' is stolen, its grateful new owner consumes it, and promptly dies dripping into a nearby toilet. Thus begins a twisted story of bum politics, violence, and plenty of hilarious bad behaviour. |
| Kevin, the younger of the two brothers, finds the affections of a young Asian girl called Wendy, who works at the scrap yard, and this is noted by the local psycho, a Vietnam vet bum called Bronson. This leads to a number of brutal action scenes where Bronson kills a cop and then removes his Tibia to sharpen into a knife. And in the final showdown is spectacularly decapitated with an Acetylene tank. |
| Street Trash is crammed full of inventiveness and is very well-written (producer/writer Roy Frumkes taught film at the time, and also made the highly-regarded Document of the Dead, a documentary on the set of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead), and director Jim Muro (who later went to be lead steadycam operator on James Cameron's Terminator 2) has made a film that looks so damn good, that this really is a film that is hard to ignore. Throw in a mention of the brilliant acting, and you have what is one of the best sick films ever made. |
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| Compared to 99% of its peers Street Trash is about as well-made a splatter film as you're ever likely to see. It's not Kubrick though! For me the stand-out scenes are the ones with James Lorinz (The Doorman) and Tony Darrow (Nick Duran), which are as funny as hell. The acting throughout is brilliant. |
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| From the moment Street Trash begins you know you're in for a fun ride. On the face of it: a film about derelicts sounds like potential boredom, but the film-makers have succeeded in creating something that is wildly entertaining. My favourite scene? The one where they take the sexy lady back to the scrap yard and give her one. Or two. Or twelve. And what happens to the resulting body is also an eye-opener. Brave film-making, and a lot of fun. |
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| I've seen sicker films, but can't say there are as many as well made as Street Trash. That said: this film is pretty twisted. The scene where the guy gets his dick cut off and the bums play (American) football with it attests to that. Also the Viper melt scenes are colourful too. They may not be the best FX in the world, but at least they are well shot and cut. They work. The whole film works. It's a classic. |
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| Fuck yes! Street Trash is a doozy... Brutal and funny at the same time. Where else would you see a cop stick his fingers down his throat and vomit over the head of his unconscious foe on the floor? Or have characters engage in necrophilia? Or carve human leg bones into knives? |
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