CULT – Street Trash

Published on: 27th September, 2009

CULT - Street Trash  | read this item

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Street Trash: the ultimate melt movie! So many flicks during the mid-1980’s were simple carbon copies of countless other films that had been released in recent years. There were generic slasher clones, mindless zombie features and a neverending supply of sequels. Street Trash perverted the horror genre in more ways than one; basing its action around a group of bums who live out in a salvage yard and cheat and steal from each other. They have no morality and only care about where they will get their next booze fix. The hero, if you could call him that, was a teenage runaway who cares for his younger brother whilst exploiting everyone else around him. The situation goes from bad to worse when a crate of mysterious bottles – labelled Tenafly Viper – is discovered in a liquor store and sold off for a dollar a go, prompting the homeless to get their dirty little hands on them. This strange liquid, however, caused its victims to melt, explode and literally fall to pieces, much to the amusement of their so-called friends. It goes without saying that there was no other movie like Street Trash when it was first released in 1987.

The genesis of the movie began in 1982 at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, New York. One lecturer there was Roy Frumkes, who had first entered the film industry in the early seventies when he worked as an assistant director on The Projectionist, which would also mark the acting debut of comedian Rodney Dangerfield. After The Projectionist, Frumkes would work with the director, Harry Hurwitz, on The Comeback Trail in 1982. Having enjoyed a brief appearance as a zombie who is attacked by a biker with a custard pie in George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Frumkes began work on Document of the Dead, a ten-year labour of love that explored the making of Romero’s zombie world. Whilst teaching at the school in Manhattan, Frumkes would make the acquaintance on two wannabe filmmakers who would attend him class: Jimmy Muro and Mike Lackey.

For their sophomore year, the two students would find themselves once again being taught by Frumkes. Muro had conceived an idea for a short film in which a mysterious liquor would cause all manner of despicable citizens of a rundown New York neighbourhood to melt and explode. The film, entitled Street Trash, was a fifteen-minute piece shot on 16mm with special effects crudely created by Lackey. These would include the gross-out finale, in which the liquor store proprietor’s head would begin to melt, forcing one of his eyeballs to pour out of his mouth. The actor that had originally been hired to play the lead role of ‘hero’ Fred had failed to appear on set due to an uncontrollable drug habit and so Lackey was promptly cast at the last moment. Always eager to assist his students, Frumkes would make a brief appearance at the end of the film as one of the customers who loots the store. Another name amongst the credits that is worth noting is Bernard Perlman, who would also appear in the feature length version.

The short had been an enjoyable experience for Muro, who immediately wanted to adapt the film into a real movie. Not wishing to simply rehash what they had already done and drag it out for ninety minutes, he approached Frumkes, who had previously penned The Comeback Trail, to produce an exciting and detailed screenplay. Enthusiastic, Frumkes would take many of the sequences that had been featured in the short and add various new elements, such as a Dirty Harry-style cop and a crazed Vietnam Vet who controlled the junkyard. The script would introduce an array of new and interesting characters, such as Frank Schnizer, the angry and mean owner of the yard; a two-bit gangster with a colourful repertoire of insults and obscenities; Ed, the cheap and no-nonsense owner of the liquor store. Fred would also be given a younger brother, Kevin, whom he watches over whilst they take refuge in a house made of tyres and cares at the back of the salvage yard.

Frumkes was determined to raise $500,000 for the production and sent out approximately three hundred prospectuses to potential investors. Muro, meanwhile, had become fascinated by the steadicam, a large and complex rig that had previously been used in the likes of Rocky and Halloween. This would lend an element of style and professionalism to the overall look of the movie, and Muro would later become a respected camera operator and cinematographer in Hollywood, assisting such directors as James Cameron, Kevin Costner and Michael Mann. The film allowed several months of pre-production, which would include detailed storyboards in which both cast and crew would be able to build a picture of what the movie would eventually resemble. Production designer Robert Marcucci would use them to help create the various sets that would be used throughout the shoot, which would feature the aforementioned tyre-house, in which countless car tyres had created a mountain in which Fred and Kevin live inside of, using the door of a car as the entrance. Glenn Andreiev, who would also take the minor role of Mario, would help construct the set.

Much of the cast used for Street Trash were first-timers and many of them would choose not to continue acting afterwards. Whilst Lackey would once again take the lead role, his on-screen brother would be portrayed by Mark Sferrazza, who had been hired as an assistant at the design studio of Denise Labelle, who had been hired as the art director for the movie. The role of Kevin had initially been created as a fourteen-year old, but the attorney warned the filmmakers that using minors could cause various issues a low budget production would not wish to deal with. Thus, the producers instead decided to search for an actor who was eighteen but would still pass for a youngster. Despite not being an actor, Sferrazza agreed to play the role, although Street Trash would mark his one and only performance.

Nicole Potter was offered the role of Winette, the sex slave of Bronson, the psychotic ruler of the bums, due to her thin appearance, as the role required someone who would appear anorexic. The part of Bronson would eventually go to Vic Noto who, ironically, would later appear as a character called Viper in The Sopranos. Pat Ryan, a veteran of the equally outrageous Troma offerings The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High, would play the mean Frank Schnizer. Sadly, due to his severe weight problems, Ryan would pass away from a heart attack in 1991 at the age of forty-four. For the role of the gangster, the producer contacted Tony Darrow, a Brooklyn-born performer who at that time was working in Atlantic City. Darrow would score success a few years later with his turn in Martin Scorcese’s classic Goodfellas, as well as enjoying acclaim with Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes, Law & Order and The Sopranos, in which he would portray Larry Boy Barese.

Muro had chosen not to invite the crew that had worked on his short film and had instead approached more professional talent. The cinematography was handled by David Sperling, who had prevously worked with cult director Ulli Lommel on the ‘video nasties’ Boogeyman and Boogeyman II. Along with Muro, Sperling would use polarizing filters to help enhance the colours and give the movie a unique look. Whilst Lackey would once again assist with the makeup, the bulk of the special effects were designed by Jennifer Aspinall, another veteran of Troma who had worked on The First Turn-On!! and The Toxic Avenger. Her collaborators would be Scott Coulter, who would later found Worldwide FX, and Dean Kartalas. The various costumes would be designed by Michele Leifer, who would also choose not to continue working on films after Street Trash.

Despite the film being shot in July, the production encountered problems on the first day when they were forced not to film due to torrential rain. This meant that the shoot was already behind schedule from the beginning and would force the crew to have to pick up the pace. Many of the actors would be allowed to improvise their dialogue, resulting in various humorous monologues from the likes of Darrow, Noto and James Lorinz, whose brief appearance as a doorman would be extended due to his quick-witted banter. With Lackey only being nineteen at the time, he gained a reputation on set as being rather cocky, although both cast and crew found him very likeable and entertaining. Amongst the crew was one young man who would eventually become one of the most popular directors in Hollywood. Twenty-year old Bryan Singer was hired as an assistant, whose main responsibilities were to negotiate with various restaurants and delicatessens to feed the cast and crew. The following year he would direct his own short film, Lion’s Den, but it would be his 1995 movie The Usual Suspects that would launch him into the A-list, resulting in such blockbusters as The X-Men, Superman Returns and the Tom Cruise flick Valkyrie.

The shoot was far from easy, with several hours of footage ruined when one of the camera magazines had allowed light in which had ruined the film stock. Although the original short had been shot on 16mm, Muro had wisely chosen to use 35mm for the feature, which would give the picture a crisp look. Upon its initial release, Street Trash would be a modest success and win the Silver Raven Award at the 1987 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film. Not all the critics got the joke, however, with The New York Times‘ Walter Goodman describing it as ‘the stuff that civil-libertarian nightmares are made of. It claims no redeeming social value, and you don’t have to be a Supreme Court nominee to question whether the Founders could have foreseen anything like it when they wrote the First.’

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