Within the vastness of the horror genre, there are myriad subgenres which group together similar films, few as niche as 'melt movies.' The very limited genre is kind of like body horror that's specifically devoted to the gory melting of faces and bodies. Slime City, The Stuff, The Blob, The Incredible Melting Man, Body Melt — these are some of the slime fests that have earned the infamous nomenclature over the years. This also includes Street Trash, a certain American cult classic from 1987 which was just reimagined by actor and filmmaker Ryan Kruger for an all-new feature that he produced in South Africa.
The basic ingredients can still be found in the 2024 version of the same name, which will be released on digital on Nov. 19, 2024. Protagonists from the homeless community, characters melting in horrific fashion, severed privates, and anti-totalitarian rebellion all run rampant in Kruger's Street Trash, a tried and true B-movie that may also acquire a cult following. The more mainstream and commercial-friendly audiences need not apply.
Unhoused Rebels, Unite!
In the year 2050, global economic turmoil has destroyed the middle class in Cape Town, South Africa, which is now divided between the ultra-rich and the displaced. Ronald and a group of fellow houseless friends uncover a plot by the local government to 'wash away' the houseless population with a sinister chemical agent called 'V.' Now, they must risk everything to expose the truth and resist a society that’s determined to erase them.
- Release Date
- November 19, 2024
- Director
- Ryan Kruger
- Cast
- Sean Cameron Michael , Donna Corcoran , Gary Green , Warrick Grier
- Runtime
- 1h 25m
- Writers
- James C. Williamson , Ryan Kruger
- Distributor(s)
- Cineverse
- The themes of the movie are more relevant than ever.
- Cheeky humor and likable characters, with some unexpected, bizarre moments.
- Street Trash is overshadowed by the original in most ways.
- A disappointing lack of gore and slime for a "melt movie."
First, a word about the award-winning O.G. source material from '87. Directed by J. Michael Muro, its wildly silly premise centers on a Brooklyn liquor store that sells poisonous booze to naive, unhoused folks in the area. The local epidemic leads a small group of Vietnam War veterans to band together as a sort of gang to battle the toxic chemicals — and also certain fellow homeless individuals who are growing increasingly villainous and hostile after imbibing the poison. Watch out for a vomit-inducing sequence involving one of their private parts becoming severed, leading to the grossest game of catch you'll ever see.
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And while the plot of the 2024 version takes its own direction with the ragtag team of homeless heroes, Kruger makes sure to pay homage to the original in a number of ways. First, the quick John Wayne Bobbitt-type moment in his film certainly is a hat-tip to the aforementioned sequence in the original. Plus, the overall grainy look of the updated Street Trash purposefully makes the feature feel ripped right out of the '80s, instead of taking on the normally glossy look of remakes.
In Street Trash (2024), there's a pair of brothers living on the street just like in the original — but Kruger reimagines them as a pair of drug-addled, warmhearted twins (Lloyd Martinez Newkirk and Shuraigh Meyer). They've joined with other well-meaning unhoused folks, such as protagonists Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael) and pal Chef (the excellent Joe Vaz), who decide to start a modern-day ragtag squad to rebel against the local government.
Specifically, they're both after and targeted by the villainous and all-powerful Mayor Mostert (Warrick Grier), who wants to take action amid the growing homelessness issue around him. How? By melting them away in an act of eugenics and population control. Yes, Mostert believes extermination is the answer to the overwhelming unhoused presence, and his team of lab rats has even developed a horrifying procedure that quite literally liquifies human beings upon contact, ultimately disintegrating them down to nothingness.
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This Street Trash Needs More Slime
Once Chef and Ronald catch wind of such sadistic plans from the powers-that-be, they expand their team to include the likes of a gun-wielding female dominant named Alex (Donna Cormack-Thomson). For extra support on the side — mainly in the form of comic relief — there's aging homeless lad 2-Bit (Gary Green) who has a mesmerizing sidekick in the form of a small, smurf-like alien that talks like a wise-guy mobster, and who may or may not be a figment of their collective imagination.
And this purposefully off-putting extraterrestrial component undoubtedly serves to be a fitting level-up from the foundation laid out in the original film. A talking smurf might "take you out of it" for some, but for a "trashy" movie like Street Trash, we encourage you to embrace the bizarre. If you aren't willing to do that, don't even bother tuning in.
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Unfortunately, the rest of the production can't seem to shake the vibe from its 1980s predecessor, despite the storylines distinctly standing on their own in each. Sure, South Africa provides an excitingly different backdrop, charming accents and all. Kruger even graces us with a brief musical number via Ronald and Chef. But an inglorious B-movie like this relies first and foremost on the "melt movie" slime, and not to sound like a kook, but one can't help but wonder why there isn't a higher quantity (and quality) or such sequences.
The butt-kicking third act, fueled by gas masks and heavy-duty artillery, dutifully wraps things up with a bang, but fans of these kinds of movies might just find themselves wondering why this was even made. If you revisit the original, you might find yourself thinking this is yet another instance of the old axiom, "nothing beats the original." From Cineverse, Street Trash will be released on digital platforms on November 19.
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