DVD review: Street Trash (1987)

In the sleazy, foreboding world of winos, derelicts and drifters in lower Manhattan, two young runaways - Fred (Mike Lackey) and his younger brother, Kevin (Mark Sferrazza), live in a tire hut in the back of a vast auto wrecking yard. Life is hard for these two, but by far the most leathal threat to the boys is the case of Tenafly Viper in Ed´s liquor store window. Ed found the cheapo wine behind a wall in his basement. The stuff´s forty years old, and it´s gone bad... real bad! Anyone who drinks it melts within seconds! And it´s only a dollar a bottle!! The bums are lining up for their deaths like moths at a flame, and Fred is standing right there among them. Street Trash is written by Roy Frumkes and J. Michael Muro.The acting is decent but special praise goes to Vic Noto as Bronson, a crazy Vietnamveteran who is lord of the hobos and plauged by nightmares. Street Trash is a bizarre mix of horror and comedy and the comedic elements are often vulgar and not for the squemish. The camerawork and editing is good, I love that it seems frighteningly realistic as it´s shot on location at actual junkyards, construction sites, alleys, and street corners. There is a sub-plot that in my opinion is nastier and darker than the rest of the film, it about the girlfriend of a Italian restaurateur who goes off with Fred to the junk yard (she too drunk to have any idea who is carrying her or where she's going). And after she and Fred are finished having sex she is taken away and is raped to death by the other bums who live at the auto wrecking yard. It isn´t shown, you just see her being dragged away screaming and how her lifeless naked corpse is found the next day. It´s gory and over the top, the make up-fx which are all practical stuff is good but I have mixed feelings and keep wondering how cool it would have been if the filmmakers had gone with red blood in all the meltdown scenes and not the cartoonish pasty colors (bright blue, bright green, and bright yellow) that they use now... The is T & A, including both female and male full frontal nudity, sex, gang-rape and necrophilia.
This review is based upon the region1 DVD release from Synapse Films.
Rating: 6½ out of 7. Street Trash is totally unpredictable and that is why I like it.  Needless to say, this film is not for all tastes but it´s recommended for fans of splatter and those with a morbid sense of humor.

/JL