In 1987 audiences were exposed to a new kind of splatter-punk horror in the form of lowbrow comedy, Street Trash.
The film is a try hard to shock journey among the denizens of a Brooklyn, New York junkyard and the surrounding neighborhood. Homeless people are everywhere usually fighting over bottles of booze or a chance to force themselves on any unfortunate women who stay too long in one spot. When the owner of a liquor shop finds an old box in the basement containing some expired booze, he immediately starts selling it dirt cheap to the local bums. Unfortunately for the bums the booze turns out to be poisonous causing anyone who drinks it to melt into a pile of icky slush.
Various subplots are littered throughout, including the kindhearted junkyard clerk, played by Jane Arakawa, taking time to help homeless youth, played by Mark Sferrazza, while his older brother Fred, played by Mike Lackey, is unwittingly spreading the poisonous booze amongst his homeless colleagues. Complications are abundant with a vicious homeless Vietnam War veteran, played by Vic Noto, who has declared himself leader of the junkyard forcing his will on any who cross his path, the junkyard owner, played by R. L. Ryan, who isn’t above rape and necrophilia lusting after his employee, and a tough guy cop, played by Bill Chepil, who is investigating the oozing deaths of the local homeless population. There is also a mobster, played by Tony Darrow, who starts poking around after his drunk girlfriend runs off with Fred.
Several scenes meant to shock aside from the booze victims melting include gangrape, necrophilia, and a game of keep away as the homeless of the junkyard toss around a severed penis.
Noteworthy among the cast are R.L. Ryan who appeared in several Troma movies such as The Toxic Avenger. Though Street Trash is not a Troma movie it certainly plays like one. Tony Darrow making his screen debut in this splatter comedy caught the eye of director Martin Scorsese who, upon viewing Street Trash, felt Darrow was right for a role in Goodfellas. Darrow would then go on to play a mobster in the hit television series The Sopranos before getting himself involved with real mobsters being convicted of extortion in 2011 along with other members of the Gambino crime family. Also popping up in the cast as the Weekend Warrior is Julian Davis who competed in judo at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Vic Noto is the one cast member who has been consistently working since the early 1980’s appearing in uncredited roles the television series Miami Vice and the Charles Bronson action flick Death Wish 3. Noto would go on to appear in the vampire comedy Innocent Blood, The Sopranos, and in the Netflix series of Marvel’s Daredevil.
Street Trash with its colorful melty ooziness isn’t without a few chuckles which may be due to the writing of producer Roy Frumkes who has specialized in gore comedy since first appearing as a zombie taking a pie to the face in George Romero’s 1978 classic Dawn of the Dead.
Jim Muro directed the film, utilizing the junkyard his father owned Statewide Auto Parts. Muro would capitalize on the notoriety of Street Trash to become a Steadicam operator on several James Cameron films starting with 1989’s The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and the 1997 Best Picture Oscar winner Titanic. He also worked on the 1990 Best Picture Oscar winner Dances with Wolves going on to become a cinematographer for Kevin Costner westerns Open Range and Horizon: An American Saga parts 1 & 2. Muro was nominated for a BAFTA for best cinematography on the 2005 Best Picture Oscar winner Crash.
An added bit of trivia – controversial director of such films as X-Men and The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer, worked as a grip on this film.
The film was remade in 2024.