Horror Fest V Day One: Street Trash

Wow... I don't even know how to describe Street Trash in a way that adequately prepares you for the film. Tonally, you could maybe compare it to Basket Case, if Basket Case were a film about homeless people on the outskirts of Brooklyn. Instead of Belial, maybe you could say that Viper wine is the "killer," as the forty-year-old spirit causes people to literally dissolve from the inside out (often in neon colors and in fantastically gruesome fashions). So it's not really like Basket Case, save for maybe the slightly off-kilter world the characters inhabit.

I'm giving all of the credit in the world to director James Muro and writer Roy Frumkes (who you may know as the director of Document of the Dead, the epic making-of documentary on the Dawn of the Dead Ultimate Edition set). Muro's camera work, choice of angles, and general mise-en-scene creates a heightened reality from the get-go, a world where our heroes live in a tire hut and work for a shell-shocked Vietnam veteran that carves knives out of femur bones. That Viper's effects on consumers isn't the strangest thing in Street Trash is a testament to the madcap, often surreal, world presented to audiences.

There's a strong undercurrent of Vietnam-related trauma throughout the film, not limited to the main villain (if you don't count a wannabe mob boss introduced halfway through the film), and at least two dream sequences / hallucinations that directly influence how characters relate to each other in the film. There's also some oddly effective commentary on race relations, class intersections, and one of the least practical police departments this side of Pieces (who, after all, allow a suspect to help in the investigation!).

Street Trash isn't a "horror" movie, per se, as it really isn't scary at any point. Disgusting, absolutely. I'd be much more likely to put it in the "cult" movie section than with the horror films, even though it does feature decapitation, necrophilia, some pretty wicked gore, and a game of catch involving a severed penis. And that's the tip of the iceberg, to be honest with you. If you can stomach some seriously goopy gore, aren't easily offended, and like wondering what the hell it was you just watched, then by all means seek out Street Trash immediately.