‘Street Trash’ (2024)

A spiritual successor to its 1987 namesake, ‘Street Trash’ is a horror comedy that follows a misfit group of tramps. Trying to get by in the not too distant future dystopia, the assortment of hobos try to survive when they learn of a conspiratorial plot to exterminate all homeless people.

To those well versed with niche cult splatter horror B-movies, ‘Street Trash’ will be a familiar title. Generating interest over time and cultivating a following, the 1987 film was an early pioneer in dark humor splatter films. With an almost singular purpose of offending anyone and everyone, the 80’s film serves as inspiration to its 2024 successor.

Setting the tone of the feature, the film opens on a tramp being strapped to a chair. Seemingly having agreed to some undisclosed experiment for some money, he is injected with a substance that causes his body to break down violently. With an explosion of colorful goop dripping and shedding from his body, ‘Street Trash’ pays homage to the original and signals that it intends to be more gruesome than what's come before it.

Following on to a chase sequence, where hobo Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael) is being pursued by a cop to retrieve a battery he had stolen, we’re introduced to the 2050 dystopia that our protagonist lives in. Via TV news exposition we learn that unemployment is at an all time high, people are fighting over resources and martial law is in effect.

Escaping the cop and meeting up with Chef (Joe Vaz), Ronald sees a woman, Alex (Donna Cormack-Thomson), in distress and helps her escape two local gang members. Bringing Alex back to their hide-out the rest of the group are introduced, comprising of brothers Wors (Lloyd Martinez Newkirk) and Pap (Shuraigh Meyer) and 2-Bit (Garry Green). An odd mix of weirdos, the group show Alex the ropes and teach her how to survive as a tramp.

Setting the premise and tone of the venture, the opening sequences include violent experimentation on hobos, brutal fighting, rampant drug use, the use of someones head as a football and even the dismemberment of a man’s genitalia. Throwing everything Ryan Kruger could think of at the screen in terms of how gross a film can get, the writer and director of the feature both pays homage and reinforces his admiration of the grotesque atmosphere of the original.

Showing Alex about, the group gather to collect free government issued food parcels. Unwittingly picking up packages with poison in them, developed by the city’s mayor in an effort to rid the streets of those he deems undesirable, the group lose Chef and are subsequently picked up to be brought to holding cells for extermination. Mounting a resistance, Ronald leads the others in an effort against the rich and powerful of the city, using the poison developed to fight against their oppressors.

With outstanding practical effects, the creators of the film achieve a high level of sickening depictions of peoples bodies exploding in an array of colorful pustules, exploding boils and melting faces. Gruesome and hilarious, the film delivers a number of nauseating deaths that parallel the original. Containing more levity and with a softer tone however, the film pales in comparison to the original. As the new film delivers its gross-out scenes, it fails to deliver the same level of shock that the original did, resulting in a fun yet more tame commentary of the current state of affairs.

Disgusting, dirty and ridiculous, ‘Street Trash’ is a malformed amalgam of one gross-out sequence leading to the next, strung together loosely by an unwieldy group of hobos fighting their way forward against a caricaturistic depiction of evil. Silly at its best, the film shines every time an unlucky person is exposed to the poison, reducing them to a smoldering puddle of gloop, having expired in the most spectacularly gross fashion possible. Worth the watch purely because of the death scenes, ‘Street Trash’ is an apt title for the spirit and tone of the film.

Score: 2/4