Lightbulb Film Distribution opens Street Trash in UK cinemas on January 10, and on digital and Blu-Ray on February 17.
Straight horror isn’t usually my thing, so my only experience with J. Michael Muro’s 1987 cult classic, Street Trash, is an official trailer on YouTube. I watched it to have something to help gauge a little more the latest iteration directed by Ryan Kruger which, fairly, easily takes plenty of its cues from the original hit, and quite possibly delivers the goods on multiple ends.
Kruger’s Street Trash lands us squarely in a dystopian version of Cape Town in South Africa, where we Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael), and his ragtag group of homeless streetmates, along with the newest addition of Alex (Donna Cormack-Thomson) who he rescues after she’s confronted by henchmen working for the Rat King. The two, along with fellow homeless mates Chef (Joe Vaz), 2-Bit (Gary Green), Wors (Lloyd Martinez Newkirk), and Pap (Shuraigh Meyer) work together to survive their nightmarish city run by a malfeasant mayor who, little do they know, is devising a ruthless plan to rid the city of its homeless population using chemical warfare through food and drink consumption, and even straightforward drone attacks.
It takes just under an hour until this discovery is revealed, while the group is busy dealing with the ruthless Rat King’s henchmen, and the relentless Gestapo tactics of the militarized police. Most of the script, however, deals in a lot of over-the-top silliness bookended with fart jokes, wild opinion takes on “Peter Pan” and “Pinocchio,” perverted humor, and all the nebulous, neon-colored splattergore using copious amounts of paint, fake blood, and practical FX that truly wink to its target audience. The final twenty minutes of the film is a little more action-packed than I thought it would be, and allowed for a more stimulating finale.
Taking on Kruger’s 2020 feature debut, Fried Barry, was a choice even I didn’t expect at the time, and I’m glad I did. Kruger lends another name to the list of must-watch directors of my time as a critic and consumer, and I’m pleased that his take on a property unfamiliar to me contributes to that. I’m not sure if that means I’ll look at the original, but Fried Barry already garnered Kruger my attention. With Street Trash, he still has it.
