A step up in terms of production value and effects, and an even smaller step up from acting and plot than the likes of Troma's The Toxic Avenger and The Class Of Nuke 'Em High, was Street Trash. But whilst it had these advantages over the Troma films, it's still not as widely known as they are.
Upon finding a case of mysterious alcohol called 'Viper' in his cellar, a liquor store owner decides to sell it to the local homeless community for a dollar a bottle, unaware that something has happened to the substance over time, causing whoever drinks it to melt. Two homeless brothers are involved, and they cross paths with an angry hobo Vietnam vet, who is slightly unhinged to put it mildly, and the owner of the junkyard that all the local homeless seem to live in.
Street Trash starts strong, with a stunning set piece where a hobo, having consumed some 'Viper', sits down on a toilet and melts into it, and continues the body count until it just drifts onto the conflict with Bronson (Vic Noto), the 'Nam veteran who acts like a hobo king (he even has a throne in a tyre pile!)
As we drift away, we encounter the brothers, Fred and Kevin, and their respective encounters with women, and their troubles with Bronson. We also meet a cop (handily called Bill the Cop) who is investigating the presence of the mob, and the strange melting deaths. Yep, there's also a mobster, Nick Duran (Tony Darrow) , whose subplot seems pretty unconnected to the main story.
It just seems like the film forgets what it's about for a while in the middle. Yeah, I know it's not like I'm reviewing The Godfather, and films like this are never meant to make a whole lot of sense, but I had almost forgotten about 'Viper' till it comes back into play in the last act. Although, anyone would forget about the story, when the film stops for an extended sequence involving a hobo having his penis cut off, then thrown about from person to person in a bizarre game of catch!
But when the film enters that last act, it takes a massive step up, and the melting death scenes (which, after all, is why we are all here) are nothing short of superb, and still look good today.
As Street Trash is a DVD release from Arrow, you get all the usual bells and whistles on it, the reversible sleeve, the booklet, the poster, but on the second disc you have a fantastic documentary called The Meltdown Memoirs, lasting 2 hours that tells the story of how the film was made, but in a diary retelling style format.
The documentary is made by Street Trash's writer and producer Roy Frumkes, and goes into great detail about every facet of the films production, and shows us what a lot of the cast are doing now, and some of them are absolute lunatics. Vic Noto seems legitimately insane, Bill the Cop (Bill Chepil) seems like a total oddball too. Even Bryan Singer (yes, that Bryan Singer), who was a production assistant on the film, turns up to tell some classic anecdotes about the making of the movie.
A particularly interesting revelation in the documentary is that director Jim Muro really doesn't like the film or it's over creators much, but he still appears to talk about it! The Meltdown Memoirs is worth the price of the DVD on it's own.
Street Trash is a great gore packed film, that has such great effects, it lets itself down slightly when things get silly. It's fine when Troma do it, everything looks cheap on their films, but it just distracted from the progress of the film here. Stunning finale, though.
***
Top notch gore action, let down by a silly, but not un-watchable, middle section. And the documentary, The Meltdown Memoirs, would get 4 stars. Hunt out the DVD today!
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