Street Trash is a 1987

1987 in film

-Events:*January 31 - The Cure for Insomnia premieres at The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois, to officially become the world's longest film according to Guinness World Records....

 comedy horror

Comedy horror

Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary and film genre, combining elements of comedy and horror fiction. The comedy horror genre almost always inevitably crosses over with the black comedy genre; and in some respects could be considered a subset of it.The short story "The Legend...

 film directed by J. Michael Muro

J. Michael Muro

James Michael Muro is an American BAFTA-nominated cinematographer and independent film director. He is known primarily for his Steadicam work...

 (credited as Jim Muro). It won the Silver Raven at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

The Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival , previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film was created in 1983 as a venue for horror, thriller and science fiction films. It takes place in Brussels, every year in March...

. The film has acquired a status as a cult classic

Cult Classic

Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...

 horror-comedy and is one of a number of movies known as "melt" movies.

Plot

The owner of a liquor store in lower Manhattan finds a case of cheap wine ("Tenafly Viper") in his basement. It is over 60 years old and has gone bad, but he decides to sell it to the local hobos anyway. Unfortunately, anyone who drinks this Viper melts away in a hideous fashion. At the same time, two brothers find different ways to cope with homelessness, while an overzealous cop (Bill Chepil) is trying to get to the bottom of all the deaths, all the while trying to end the tyranny of deranged Vietnam veteran Bronson (Vic Noto).

The movie is littered with darkly comedic deaths and injuries. It also contains the notorious "severed privates" scene where a group of homeless people play catch with the severed genital of one of their number, as he futilely attempts to recover it.

Production

Roy Frumkes

Roy Frumkes

Roy Frumkes is an independent filmmaker. Frumkes directed the 1985 documentary Document of the Dead, a film detailing the production of Dawn of the Dead.-Biography:The cooperation of George A...

 wrote the screenplay. In an NBR

National Board of Review of Motion Pictures

The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...

 profile he later said: "I wrote it to democratically offend every group on the planet, and as a result the youth market embraced it as a renegade work, and it played midnight shows." The movie was based on a ten-minute student film directed J. Michael Muro and starring Mike Lackey. Bryan Singer

Bryan Singer

Bryan Singer is an American film director and film producer. Singer won critical acclaim for his work on The Usual Suspects, and is especially well-known among fans of the science fiction and superhero genres for his work on the X-Men films and Superman Returns.-Early life:Singer was born in New...

 worked on the movie as a grip

Grip (job)

In the U.S. and Canada, grips are lighting and rigging technicians in the filmmaking and video production industries. They constitute their own department on a film set and are directed by a key grip. Grips have two main functions...

.

Deleted scenes include a junkyard dance sequence and a sub-plot involving the relationship between Fred (Mike Lackey) and Bronson, these sequences are included in the documentary Meltdown Memoirs.

Release

The film was given a limited release

Limited release

Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....

 theatrically in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by Lightning Pictures in June 1987. They also released the film on VHS

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 the same year.

In 2005, Synapse Films

Synapse Films

Synapse Films is a DVD/Blu-ray label owned and operated by Don May, Jr. and his business partners Jerry Chandler and Charles Fiedler. The company specializes in cult horror, science fiction, and exploitation films....

 marketed an all-new, digitally remastered version of the film. Humorously included with the DVD were sticker-type "labels" of the Viper wine featured in the movie. In 2006, a second release by Synapse Films was announced, featuring the documentary Meltdown Memoirs by writer Roy Frumkes. The feature includes interviews with most of the surviving cast and crew with the exception of Jane Arakawa. It also contains the original 16mm short version of Street Trash.

In 2010, Arrow Video

Arrow Films

Arrow Films is a UK distributor of classic, horror, and cult films on Blu-ray and DVD.-Arrow Films:Arrow Films is one of the UK's leading independent distributors of world cinema, arthouse, horror and classic films...

 released a 2 DVD set in the UK featuring the documentary Meltdown Memoirs along with a previously unavailable featurette with Jane Arakawa and the booklet 42nd Street Trash: The Making of the Melt written by Calum Waddell

Calum Waddell

Calum Waddell is a British writer and film critic.-Biography:His books include Minds of Fear, Taboo Breakers and the forthcoming work Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film and his work has been published in such magazines as Neo, Dreamwatch, Impact and Fangoria.In...

.