User reviews

Yes, I actually thought this was better than some recent horror/comedies I've seen. Certainly superior to Urban Legend or Scream. I'm positively stunned by the fact that people would see the cover for this movie, read the title and synopsis, watch it, and then complain that this flick is offensive. For crying out loud, what do you expect from a film whose promotional literature shows a melted transient's head in a toilet bowl? Casablanca? Anyone dumb enough to see this movie and be taken aback by its admittedly sordid contents has exactly what they have coming to them.

'Street Trash' the most offensive film ever made? Quite possibly. This baby is exceedingly hard to locate, which is unfortunate, because it is an outlandish, unapologetic delight with a wonderful streak of black, black humour. Director Jim Muro has since become one of the most respected Steadicam operators in the business, and has worked his magic upon some pretty big pictures. I believe he was the Steadicam operator on 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day', but I might be wrong.

When an enterprising liquor store owner in New York's Lower East Side(?) finds a dusty crate of something named Tenafly Viper stashed behind a brick wall in a back room of his place of business, he decides to sell it cheaply to the bums in the neighbourhood who are his chief customers. But Tenafly Viper is strong stuff indeed; strong enough to melt one's body! And you thought hangovers were bad.

Pretty soon, the homeless population around the liquor store is dwindling as more and more of these unfortunates consume this deadly drop and promptly disintegrate. The first bum to imbibe the killer stuff does so while seated upon a filthy lavatory. He melts into the commode, pulls the chain, and flushes himself away! Truly tasteless, n'est pas? Two more memorable scenes from 'Street Trash' come to mind: in one, a man has his penis bitten off; in the other, a man is spectacularly decapitated by a flying gas cylinder. I read in Fangoria(?) that this scene required eight special effects crew members to pump blood! 'Street Trash' reminds me of Peter Jackson's wonderful 'Bad Taste' which, while far superior to 'Street Trash', is in the same outrageous vein. I guess it might also be likened to 'The Incredible Melting Man', although the special effects makeup in that picture was provided by the legendary Rick Baker - his first film? - and so is much better than anything in 'Street Trash'.

'Street Trash' is an excellent title, because trash is what this film is all about. Its milieu is grimy and bleak, and everything about the whole affair is inherently unclean. Oh yeah, I just remembered another memorable scene: a cop fights a man in a men's room, and beats him to the ground. Then the cop sticks two digits down his own throat and vomits upon the prone man! Pretty sick (excuse the pun)! This film also makes me think of John Waters in its examination of white trash, something Waters did with films such as 'Desperate Living' and 'Pink Flamingoes'. Like those flicks, 'Street Trash' serves up plenty of gross-out gags so, if that is what floats your boat in a movie, then you will certainly enjoy this. I hope 'Street Trash' has a huge cult following, and I suspect it does. And deservedly so.

When oh when oh WHEN is the DVD Special Edition going to be released?! I for one await it with great anticipation. By the way, if you do find this film, do not miss the song which plays over the end credits - very funny stuff! The last time I watched 'Street Trash' I was laughing because one of the bums reminded me of Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes fame. Sorry, Mr Robinson... no offence intended!

Or whatever package it was contained in, when you purchased it. You watched it online/digital/via your implanted eye? Damn that movie is still being seen in a 100 years? Not bad at all (congrats Imdb for also still existing in whatever form that may be). But all jokes aside, this is not a masterpiece, it couldn't be on any scale or measure.

Having said that, the movie has so many merits it's tough to not like it though. If you have a heart for low budget filmmaking or films at all that is. Editing is key here, in combination with guerilla filmmaking at its finest. I can only assume that quite a few shots in the movie were made without permission. A lot of favors cashed in, framing that makes you forget what time of day it is, resources used to its fullest (especially when it comes to location) and quite the special effects ... really well made. The story and characters are paper thin at best ... but this is sleaze, this is trash and so are they. Be aware of what you watch and don't judge it on a different scale. This is not Citizen Kane (that's still a thing people say, right?)

One day someone said, "I'd like to make a movie featuring a bottle of hooch that makes people melt into multi-colored ooze. I think I'll also add "sub-plots" about insane homeless vets, murder, necrophilia, gang-rape, castration, and police brutality. Oh, and it's a COMEDY."

Anyone who blasts the movie probably had no idea what they were getting into. Yeah, the story - if you want to call it that - is flimsy at best, but the film is punctuated by some inventive effects, some nice camera work, and a hysterical mostly-improvised Doorman character played by James Lorinz.

Summed up, if you like your movies dispicable, reprehensible, obnoxious, offensive, crude, and downright nasty, pick this one up. You won't be disappointed.

STREET TRASH is one of the better known, zero budget B-movies of the 1980s. It has that reputation thanks to a series of incredibly splattery effects scenes in which homeless people melt from the inside out in spectacular displays of multi-coloured goo. Sadly, these excellent effects scenes are absolutely the only thing the film has going for it, and otherwise it's a complete dud.

The viewer is forced to sit through endless and unending scenes of sub-par comedy involving various street characters and their machinations. The opening chase scene is high energy but everything else falls flat, particularly the lowbrow attempts at comedy. There doesn't really seem to be much of a script to speak of, and the acting is strictly amateur. Those special effects are grand indeed, but there aren't enough of them to sustain the running time, and like the Australian flick BODY MELT, this is all effects and no substance.

Street Trash (1987) deserves 10+ stars for its movie poster art alone - a splashy and grossly exaggerated masterpiece of a poisoned wino melting and flushing himself down a crusty warehouse toilet. The movie itself is cheap, sleazy, vile, disgusting, florescent, stinky, slimy, perverse, insane, and retarded...which is why it must be viewed by everyone. You must watch this movie.

Street Trash personified the essence of crappy, late 80's horror slop, but also achieved legendary status within hip underground horror circles. What drew me to the movie were the colorful images of the make-up and special effects that gleamed from the pages of Fangoria and GoreZone Magazine. This is truly one-of-a-kind cinema and resides in the outer realms of art-house oddities/gore flicks. They certainly don't make 'em like this anymore!

I've wanted to see Street Trash ever since it figured in Empire Magazine's 'Top Ten Goriest Moments' list some time ago...and now that I finally have, I've been left with mixed feelings. The movie gets off to a promising start, which sees a shop owner find a box of old booze (called 'Viper'), which he decides the local bums will lap up for a dollar a bottle. It's not long until the first gore scene - which sees an unlucky drunken tramp take a sip of the drink, and finds himself melting down the toilet (not before pulling the chain!), but then the movie doesn't know what to do with itself; and although the unappetising drink makes up the main plot; it doesn't figure very often, and James Muro's film doesn't really know where to go from there. The rest of the plot focuses around a bunch of bums who live on a rubbish dump. Just like high society, low society has its rules and regulations; and the main focus is on two brothers (one who wears a silly hat), as they struggle against local law enforcement, shop keepers and of course, other bums.

James Muro actually does a good job with the atmosphere on this film, as it's always downtrodden and dirty, and very much suits the tramp underbelly that Street Trash captures. The fact that this movie is about tramps does give it a certain degree of originality, as there aren't many movies that take place in this area of society. Of course, the reason that most people will see this movie is because of the gore. The gore effects are extremely stupid and impossible to take seriously; but then again, you can't go into a movie called 'Street Trash' expecting it to be serious. The set pieces don't show a great deal of originality, but there is something captivating about seeing someone melt away inside their clothes. Street Trash is supposedly the 'king' of "melt movies" - so I hope I don't ever see a 'bad' one. The acting is pretty awful; but the movie does feature one great performance, from Frankenhooker star James Lorinz in the role of 'doorman'. I really wish this guy would get more roles - he's hilarious! In a movie about people melting, the best scene is one that involves him talking to a copper...

I was hoping for a Toxic Avenger quality flick. The cover looked awesomely disgusting so it looked promising. Straight up, Street Trash has some of the coolest gross-out effects I've ever seen. The hobos really looked like bums. I'm still wondering if some of them were picked up on the spot, or at least bought the clothes off their greasy backs.

Unfortunately, Street Trash scraps everything else. There's no story, character development, or dialogue. Apart from the hilarious "keep away" scene, there's hardly a reason not to push the fast-forward button. Burton, the gas-mask wearing bum, was the only guy with any charisma. Too bad he only played a supporting role to the main character, if you can even call him that.

Toxic Avenger is legendary not just because of the grotesque special effects; it worked because characters were actually funny and likable. We empathize with Toxie when he's shunned by his mother and has to live in the dump. A lot of these Troma-inspired directors concentrate exclusively on the shocking deaths and forget to give us a reason to watch the remaining 75% of the movie.

Street Trash is cool if you're just in it for the effects (which are awesome). Everyone else will be let down. Damn, this movie had such great potential.

Street Trash is an amazing little surprise of wonderful cinematography, hilarious satire, cheesy performances, fantastic old school special effects and gore, and total entertainment!

This is what the 80's was all about, true independent film making that didn't need to follow rules and still manages to entertain more than most of the Hollywood crap that comes out today.

UK based distributors, Arrow Label, have released such a beautiful DVD and Bluray package that includes reverse sleeves, original artwork, with a host of extras and digitally remastered version of the classic!

I really enjoyed Street Trash. It is exactly what it says on the tin, bright and colourful, loud and nasty, hilarious and gross.

Well worth the watch!

A liquor store owner finds a crate of Viper alcohol in his basement which he sells to dirty bums for a buck per bottle. But the brew comes with the nasty side effect of causing the drinker to melt. The film also has to deal with bums who live in a junkyard, a local mobster, and a sociopath Vietnam vet. I first saw this as sometime in my early teens, the penis keep away, and the bum melting into the toilet stayed with me. So when I saw it out on DVD, being the splatter horror moviephile that I am, I didn't hesitate to pick it up. Knowing that a 2-disk special edition was on the horizon, but I just couldn't wait anymore. Sadly it wasn't as great as I remembered, it kinda drags horribly in some places and could definitely by trimmed down a bit to tighten it up, yet there's still more then enough good points to recommend it. Great gore, some hilarious dialog, totally UN-PC (which I always applaud) and while the 'plot' seemed like it was just scrawled on a bar napkin one drunken night, I didn't seem to mind much. A fun LOW low budget splatter film although in the end, i like 1993's "Body Melt" a bit better.

My Grade: C+

Eye Candy: full frontal by a man and woman as well as a topless woman near the beginning; Miriam Zucker as a drunk slut shows all; and Jane Arakawa gets topless as Wendy

DVD Extras: only a theatrical trailer

Notes: comes with Viper sticker labels, which is neat

"Street Trash" tries so hard to be a cult movie with it's nonsensical storyline, the over the top gore and violence and the weird characters. That's the main problem with this film. Instead of being a charming little b-movie it turned out to be a somewhat annoying and seemingly endless obscurity. Example: there's a scene where a bum gets his penis cut off and a bunch of other guys start playing Piggy In The Middle with it. Do you get the picture? This movie is begging to be loved by people who love the gross and the absurd and it's all too obvious. Besides, "Street Trash" never seems to get anywhere. It starts of with a guy farting in another guy's face, then some guy's literally melting away and we think, okay, that's what the movie's going to be about. Then this storyline is completely abandoned and for hours and hours (or so it seems) we witness the everday life of a bunch of bums who live in little self made flats at a car dump. Obviously, for most parts this movie isn't meant seriously (there's a hilarious Robert DeNiro-like character called Nick Duran who curses in a ridiculously rude manner and who even gets to sing his own little song when the credits roll) but on the other hand the makers also seemed eager to gain the respect of horror audiences. As a horror movie "Street Trash" falls flat on its face. The gore effects are nicely done and there's interesting steady cam work to be found here (I hear the director went on to work for James Cameron), but the epic length and the stupid plot of this film prevent this from being a success. If you just have a casual interest in the genre, avoid "Street Trash" at all costs and even if you're a die hard-fan think twice about watching it. Sitting this one through really is a toughie.

The thing I like about B-movies is that can go all the way, well at least within their budget. Sometimes you see big budgets that have all the money and know how and yet keep their films boringly safe and thereby uncreative. I loved Street trash, particularly the cinematography, good composition and use of color(not referring to the gluey stuff that comes out of the bodies here). The music might have been a wee bit too spoon feeding and the use of dirt of the characters faces, at times the make up was a wee bit overdone. I wonder why that nice chick did not bother taking that dirty kid she fancied home, first and foremost for, privacy, safety and so as he may have a wash before going down on him.

6.1 for this Boring Garbage ? in 100 Minutes Runtime there are only 4-5 Gore scenes. The remain is just meaningless dialogues and pointless characters and the jokes aren't funny at all. The Incredible Melting Man is way better than this (though it's also not a great movie).

A cop deliberately throws up on a 'suspect', a tramp urinates on a cop after taking him out, the same tramp cuts someone's penis off and then plays catch with his mates with it, a girl is drunk, gets screwed to death by a bunch of tramps and then her corpse screwed by a fat horny guy. I haven't even started on the booze that makes you melt or explode. The title tells you everything that you need to know. Trash would be my one word. Tramps are obsessed from booze is what I learnt. This movie is pretty funny, not a trash classic like Brain Damage (1988) or Maniac Cop (1988) but full of great melting and a tramp community that is far from normality. A million times better than The (far from) Incredible Melting Man (1977). I do like the gritty eighties theme that is also present in Vice Squad (1982), They Live (1988) and to a lesser extent in The Toxic Avenger (1984). That was a long review for such oddly entertaining trash that is actually a bit boring and lacks depth but who thought it wouldn't? This is pure trash. You're reading this so you'll probably enjoy it because you like trash. Never forget playing piggy-in-the-middle with a tramp's severed penis. Also "get a mop" takes on a new meaning.

When a liquor store owner discovers a crate of 60 year old alcoholic beverage called Viper hidden in his basement, he decides to get shot of it by flogging it to the local hobo population for $1 a bottle. Rather than cough up a buck, filthy tramp Fred swipes a bottle of Viper (although why he doesn't nick something better is beyond me) but can't seem to hang on to his booze long enough to sample it. This turns out to be rather fortunate for the light-fingered vagrant, since Viper turns out to have the tendency to melt anyone who drinks it!

A low-budget, Troma-style comedy/horror that aims to mix outrageous scenes of bad taste with gloopy special effects and broad comedy, Street Trash has attained something of a loyal cult following since its initial release in 1987. Personally, I can't quite see what the fuss is about: director Jim Muro occasionally achieves a satisfying balance of tastelessness and gross-out humour, but for the majority of the running time, his movie just isn't offensive enough to be shocking, bloody enough to be horrifying, or clever enough to be funny.

Furthermore, the narrative structure for Street Trash is almost as messy as one of its melted tramps, with its tale of dissolving drunks clumsily intertwined with several other random story lines: there's a dreary sub-plot featuring a hard-as-nails cop who is out to capture a psychotic Vietnam veteran, an unlikely romance that blossoms between Fred's teenage brother and an Asian chick sporting nasty 80s hair and makeup, and some rubbish about a smart mouthed doorman who runs into a spot of trouble with his mafia boss.

As for the much trumpeted 'melt' scenes, they are (with the exception of one impressive exploding hobo) very unconvincing, the victims dissolving into piles of what looks like fruit puree and multi-coloured paint.

Still, I suppose a viewing of this movie is still worthwhile thanks to its classic 'piggy-in-the-middle-with-a-severed-penis' scene, the moment where a hugely overweight, bald sleaze-bag indulges in a spot of non-explicit necrophilia (always good for a laugh), and the OTT finale in which a character is decapitated by a flying compressed-air cylinder.

I genuinely wish I'd discovered "Street Trash" when it was originally released in 1987. Finally watching the film, some 20 years after it hit the big screen, I can't help wonder why I never tracked a VHS copy down in the good old days of the "video nasties".

"Street Trash" is horror on a shoestring budget and its atmosphere and characters could be compared to those of one of the better Troma productions. The film is filled with crude, juvenile humour, is politically incorrect and contains some of the most technicoloured, surrealistic, over-the-top gore spurting scenes you will ever see splashed on the screen.

While none of the characters are particularly likable, the film has a great energy despite its loose plot and it's easy to understand why it has a strong cult following.

8 out of 10. Rubbish but great rubbish. Fans of this film may enjoy the equally strange "Bride of Frank".

In a world where the homeless fight each other and will do just about anything for food and booze, we come across "Street Trash". All is fine and good until the day a long lost case of Tenafly Viper, a cheap wine, is uncovered and sold to the bums... one sip of this stuff, and you're history.

I have heard of this film talked about highly for some time now, and I finally saw it. Oh my! The blood, gore and nasty black humor is unbelievable. What can this film be compared to? Not much... maybe some of Troma's better films ("Terror Firmer"?), or "Frankenhooker". It stands alone as the ultimate bum fight movie.

The special effects really take the cake. Melting bums... exploding bums... bums that get ripped in half... this is the kind of thing that takes the best minds in the makeup industry to perfect, and they've done it. Sure, the colorful ooze might not be realistic... but I don't think that was the point here. It's just messy!

If you haven't seen this... see it. Like, now. Like, this day. Seriously. Don't watch anything else. If you do, that is a big mistake. Thank you, Synapse Films for releasing this... if a better copy exists, I don't know about it. But then, what do I know? I hesitated too long on seeing this and deserve to be punished.

Liquor store owner Ed (M. D'Jango Krunch) is nosing around in his basement when he finds some VERY old booze labelled "Tenafly Viper". He figures, what the hell, he'll sell it to his customers for $1 a bottle. But this booze is deadly stuff: when people drink it, they explode into goop in all colours of the rainbow. While the body count rises, the story focuses on two street denizens who are brothers: Fred (Mike Lackey) and Kevin (Mark Sferrazza) who take up residence in a spacious auto junkyard along with various other hobos.

"Street Trash" marks, to date, the only theatrical directing credit for James M. Muro, who went on to Hollywood and became one of the most in-demand Steadicam operators in the business. Basing this movie on a short subject he'd made, he clearly has some real fun with the material. The Manhattan-based production makes some excellent use of locations, and has some very striking characters. Among them is the almighty Bronson (Vic Noto), a psychotic Vietnam veteran with a bunch of flunkies. Sexy Jane Arakawa, a gal with a great pair of legs, is the secretary who takes sympathy on Fred & Kevin and their cronies. Pat Ryan ("The Toxic Avenger") is her horny, scuzzy boss. And Bill Chepil is the surly, hard driving detective working these streets.

The makeup effects are wonderfully gross and effective. There are scenes here so memorable that they remain favourites for fans: Burts' impromptu shopping trip, and the entire "penis keepaway" sequence. One brilliant gag occurs early on when Bronson manhandles a nerdy motorist. The two best characters are thuggish restaurant owner Nick Duran (Tony Darrow) and his smart mouthed doorman (James Lorinz of "Frankenhooker"). Muro and company know that their scenes are some of the funniest here, so they keep their story going during the end credits.

While "Street Trash" took about 13 weeks to shoot, its journey to movie screens took about three years. It proves that filmmaking finesse isn't always everything: sometimes gung-ho enthusiasm and the willingness to pull out all the stops can go a long way too.

Eight out of 10.