Tag line : The Ultimate Melt Movie!

Set in a run down area of Brooklyn, New York. "Street Trash" is an everyday story of the highs and lows of the daily lives of the areas resident street bums which inhabit the nearby junk yard, much to the chagrin of its owner.

Filmed in a similar style to some of those Troma films we all know and love, the main thrust of the plot centres around a stash of mystery booze, named "Viper", which a local Liquor store owner uncovers in his basement and decides to flog off cheaply to the local bums. Unfortunately, it seems this stuff has gone decidedly bad whilst in storage, causing anyone who drinks it to melt into a pile of day-glow toxic sludge.

Needless to say it isn't too long before the areas street population starts melting into puddles of goo, which has the local police scratching their heads as to what's going on. Also thrown into the mix are a series of loosely connected sub-plots about a couple of tramps trying to dodge the local mob boss, who blames them for the death of his wife, who was raped and murdered after she went off with one of them. A psychopathic ex-Vietnam veteran who likes mugging people. Then there's the junk yard owner who's trying to get rid of all the hobos squatting in his yard and a hard nosed police detective who's trying to find out why people have been melting into pools of goo.

Hugely funny, with something to offend possibly everyone, the film really has some moments of pure comedy gold, the scene with one of the bums trying to steal frozen chickens from a supermarket by shoving them down his trousers, and the 'piggy-in-the-middle" scene with a severed member springing immediately to mind.

So if you like Troma sort-of films, then you'll have a blast with this. Highly recommended!

Overall marks : 7/10.

Terrifying Trivia.

• Alternate tag lines "It Melts", "Things in New York are about to go down the toilet", "Just when you thought you had seen it all", "If you've never seen a melt movie before.... be prepared"!

• The films budget was $700,000.

• The Junk Yard used in the film was actually owned by Jim Muro's parents. Unfortunately (according to a US legal website), the business was shut down by the authorities in 1991, following allegations of stolen car racketeering (oh dear!).

• To date, this is the only feature film that Jim Muro has directed. His only other credit being a 2010 episode of the US TV crime series "Southland". He does however still have an active role in the film industry as a cameraman, and has worked on over 60 Hollywood movies.

• Writer Roy Frumkes has a brief role in the film as a businessman who's face gets burned by a "melted" street bum who's dissolving on an overhead fire escape.

• The movie was based on a 10 minute short film director Jim Muro made back in his student days.

• Actress Nicole Potter had difficulty filming the scene where her character is gang raped and killed by a group of bums, as she had been violently mugged by a street gang some years previous and the scene brought memories of the event back.

• Writer Roy Frumkes claimed he wrote the film to offend "every group on the planet".

• The original UK video suffered 6s of cuts, mostly to the scene where the bums are playing 'piggy in the middle' with one of their friends severed members. These cuts were re-instated for the films DVD release in 2000.

Cast & Crew.

Cover Gallery

Buy the UK DVD

Buy the US DVD

Notes on affiliate sites.
 

Reviews A-Z.

Reviews index. Home. Menu.