Sean Parker
If you’re at all interested in Fried Barry director Ryan Kruger’s Street Trash remake, it’s likely because you have fond memories of the 1987 J. Michael Muro body horror B-movie. The original film had some incredible special effects of body melting and oozing as well as some jaw-dropping scenes like a man corroding into a toilet and an amputated appendage passed around like a football. If you’re a horror fan who hasn’t seen it, it’s a pretty good slice of ’80s cheese, filled with trashy characters, most of whom aren’t the homeless characters at its center. By today’s standards, Street Trash is a film that should not be able to be made today, if only in the way it treats its characters, which is why I’ve been excited about Kruger’s project since it was first announced early this year.
Kruger’s Street Trash actually serves as a bit of a requel (reboot + sequel), where the events of the 1987 film have already occurred. The film begins with an underground experiment, reintroducing us to the effects of Tenafly Viper as homeless people are experimented on in an underground lab. After a successful test indicates the viability of the substance, the maniacal mayor’s (Warrick Grier) plans to exterminate the homeless population goes into action. Caught in the crosshairs of this dastardly plot is a group of well-to-do vagabonds with nothing left to lose, and if they’re gonna go down, they may as well go down fighting.
The imaginative new film doesn’t do much more than retrieve Tenafly Viper and play an ode to the 1987 film’s most ludicrous scene, but it also puts us in a retrofuture of the 1980s. Street Trash may have been filmed in South Africa. Still, it almost feels like the start of Robocop or Total Recall, with the affluent mayor getting ready to crack down on the homeless by unleashing robo-drones to enforce a curfew before eventually opening camps. As the film continues, big nods to Carpenter’s Escape from New York and They Live are also easily identifiable.
While the makeup and effects of the new Street Trash film harken back to the eighties’ entry, the way the film handles its homeless impetus very differently. Not to say that Muro’s original didn’t have likable characters, but Sean Cameron Michael’s Ronald, and Joe Vaz’s Chef in Kruger’s film are far more amiable, complementing Donna Cormack-Thomson’s Alex in various ways. Sure, one could argue there’s a certain amount of male saviorism in their initial confluence. Meanwhile, Lloyd Martinez Newkirk, Shuraigh Meyer, and Gary Green round out the cast. Gary Green’s 2-Bit has mental health issues, seeing a sexually explicit and vile-rhetoric-spewing little blue man who acts like an untethered part of the character’s personality. The character is a bit odd and stoic otherwise, like seeing the actor provide a non-sequitur carryover of his titular performance in Fried Barry. Still, the idea of found family and helping those more downtrodden becomes a central and socially relevant theme.
To that end, the characters become somewhat relatable. Ronald and Chef are not homeless by choice, but the shrinking gap between wealth and poverty has forced them into the streets. Both seem like they’re working their asses off to keep their heads above water, even if it means degrading themselves to exploit other people’s dependencies to get food or drugs to get through another day. The parallel moral point of these advantageous escapades is that this is the stripped-down equivalent of the real-world labor class, many of which are holding multiple jobs where they’re doing the work of numerous people to afford healthcare and inflated groceries. Meanwhile, companies appease shareholders with record profits and do little to ease workers’ burdens.
Essentially, wiping out the lowest classes would be detrimental to the wealthy, but everyone seems to be feeling the squeeze. This past summer, Martha’s Vineyard housing costs were so high that the island struggled to hire workers in shops and restaurants, and public safety organizations had trouble retaining theirs due to excessive burnout and long commutes. The average vacation home costs $6,500 a week in the summer, and many housed together to lower individual costs. Ferrying from the mainland has also become a deterrence as the impact of pricey and time-consuming trips isn’t worth it. (Source: Steve Brown, WBUR)
If anyone wants to infer I’m politicizing the film, I assure you that it’s effectually political. Kruger’s film comes to Screambox at an opportune time. This Friday, after the gifts have been opened and the looming anticipation of daunting credit card bills starts, fans of goopy, body-melt films will be treated to Street Trash’s class revolution. The film also releases to the streamer just weeks after the fatal United Healthcare CEO shooting that has pushed alleged murder suspect Luigi Mangione into the spotlight. While Street Trash doesn’t go after healthcare, it is symbolic of the “Eat the Rich” counterculture that has turned the case’s suspect into a folk hero. Also, Mayor Mostert looks a lot like a certain billionaire president-elect whose policies consider adjacent discrimination against the majority of lower-class minorities, immigrants in particular, which he’s suggested detaining in camps.
Street Trash is a good time, but it could be better. There are interesting plot lines that don’t seem to go anywhere, one concerning an underground Rat King who’s slowly succumbing to illness felt divertive. And, for as much time as Kruger spends character-building, some could be better rounded. In his limited screentime, the evil mayor seems like a cartoonish mustache-twirling villain when Grier’s terrific performance could provide a more Hans Gruber boss-fight buildup. Generally, it felt like pieces may have been cut to keep the film at a tight eighty-five minutes. I’d be interested in what ended up on the cutting room floor based on some small transitional moments that rely more on dialogue than visual reference.
Ultimately, if you were a fan of the 1987 original, you’ll probably have a good time watching the massively entertaining practical effects, gross-out gags, and gory violence. That being said, there’s a lot of downtime at the start of the film that eventually builds up, but it leaves the experience a bit middling. Kruger’s vision for a new Street Trash is undoubtedly ambitious and audacious, and while it doesn’t exactly hit the mark, it’s still a fun throwback that works well enough to enjoy.
Street Trash begins streaming stateside on Screambox on December 27. UK Cinemas will see the release in cinemas on January 10.
Street Trash | Red Band Trailer
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