Street Trash (2024)

Hugs and kisses to the Rat King!

Opening with an eye-bleeding and gut-retching scene, Street Trash - much like the original film from 1987 - challenges the decent taste of its audience.  This time, though, director/co-writer Ryan Kruger infuses a bit more hilarity into the hallucinogenic offerings as the homeless are once again targeted by a corrupt agency.

"challenges the decent taste of its audience"


This is rock ‘em schlock ‘em entertainment through and through and special effects supervisor Kevin Bitters (Mad Max: Fury Road, Tenet, F9: The Fast Saga) gives body horror fans plenty of scenes to go bananas over as Mayor Mostert (Warrick Grier) initiates his plans to liquidate - and I mean that quite seriously - the homeless in Cape Town, South Africa.

With numerous dick jokes and plenty of disgusting effects in between every scene mentioning a discarded dildo, Street Trash is a relatively straight-forward narrative with plenty of cracked-out characters sprinkled in this every-man-for-himself scenario as melting human flesh becomes the new normal.

Its over-the-top entertainment and hounds of horror, needing their fix of practical effects, will be completely satiated by the events as the homeless population begins to disappear.  Suddenly, a gang of drug addicts and deviants find themselves uniting for their cause.Street Trash (2024)

And the results are gloriously goopy as this Troma-like story unfolds with all of the ridiculousness you’d expect . . . if it were the 1980s.  But it’s not.  The narrative takes place in the year 2050 and, boy oh boy, are we ever a cruel lot by that time.  This is guilt-free and blameless entertainment; the type of film that exists solely to entertain anyone who has dared to imagine the unfiltered desire to EAT THE RICH . . . or at least melt them all into a messy puddle of their own flesh.

Maybe, this version of Street Trash is too aware of itself.  It’s possible, considering some of the narrative derailments, but it’s not a bad entry when it comes to practical effects.  It’s just the mantra of “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” makes perfect sense here and, yes, skid row was a bit better when J. Michael Muro was unapologetically behind the camera.

The curious can stream Street Trash now in the U.S. including Screambox, Amazon Video, and more. Street Trash had a limited theatrical run in the U.K. beginning January 10th, with digital being made available starting on February 17th.

3/5 stars

Film Details

Street Trash (2024)

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
85 mins
Director
: Ryan Kruger
Writer:
Ryan Kruger; James C. Williamson; Roy Frumkes
Cast:
Sean Cameron Michael; Donna Cormack-Thomson;Joe Vaz
Genre
: Comedy | Horror
Tagline:
Melt the Rich
Memorable Movie Quote: "Bring in volunteer #85"
Distributor:
Cineverse Entertainnment
Official Site:
Release Date:
November 19, 2024
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:

Synopsis: A group of homeless misfits must fight for survival when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the city.

Art

Street Trash (2024)