Our next contributor to this year’s Halloween Horrors series is Paul Ashford. Paul is far from being a stranger to this event, having contributed to the series every year since its inception way back in 2015. As many of you may know by now, Paul is also the Brain Gremlin behind the popular Facebook page Little Rubber Monsters, which is essentially a playhouse for fans of Ghoulies, Critters, Trolls (the Charles Band variety), aliens named Mac, and, yes… Gremlins. There a few other pint-sized terrors hanging around there too!

For this year’s series, Paul will be getting this site more than a little messy with a look at 1987’s neon-tinged goo-fest, Street Trash. While I’ll let Paul talk about the film, this piece presents something of a cycle. It starts with a nostalgic look at a young horror fan’s discovery of what has become a personal favorite for them, then culminates in their efforts to introduce others to not only this particular film, but also the horror genre in general, albeit with somewhat mixed results. I’m sure many other devout horror fans have attempted to introduce friends and family to their favorite film only to experience similar, if not less-welcomed, results. 

When not playing “keyboard monkey” for Little Rubber Monsters, Paul can also be found rallying fans of the Ghoulies films at the Facebook group, Ghoulies Unflushed. Links to both pages follow: Little Rubber Monsters Facebook   Ghoulies Unflushed Facebook Group

Street Trash

It was in the late 90’s when I actually got to see Street Trash for the first time. I had collected VHS for many years beforehand, but when I finally turned 18 in 1996 and got my driving licence on the very same day, my ways of hunting movies down expanded massively. I found myself driving to small towns hunting through video rental shops and secondhand stores that I had previously been unable to get to. For me, it was a very exciting time!

One such trip was a visit to Southampton, a city famous for its Titanic connections. However, I was there for one thing only… to hunt for horror VHS! I knew of a street in the outskirts of the city that had many 2nd hand shops and a comic book store, and it was here I headed to. The street was called St. Mary’s Road. It was a quiet area hidden behind an old shopping mall. The place was pretty dirty and downtrodden, full of house clearance shops and off licences… and to my surprise there was a small market on it too! It was here that I got my hands on a slightly grubby ex rental VHS of Street Trash.

I would have picked up many videos that day, but it speaks volumes that Street Trash is the only one I remember from that trip. It’s one of those special few movies for me that I remember acquiring and watching for the first time.

Sure, I had read some reviews and articles through the years in Fangoria or other horror magazines I had found, but nothing really prepared me for watching this movie for the first time. One thing that really stuck in my mind watching it was how similar the setting in the movie was to St Mary’s Road… the very place I picked it up from. To me at the time, the movie felt real and that it could really happen, even in Southampton! I think that just added to my love for this film.

So, what is the plot? Basically, it’s about a liquor store owner in New York who discovers an old crate of booze called Viper hidden behind a wall in the basement. He then proceeds to sell it off to the homeless bums that frequent his store for a dollar each, not knowing that the contents of the Viper bottle instantly melts anyone unfortunate enough to drink it.

Throw in a side plot of a tough cop investigating the deaths and fighting a crazed Vietnam vet called Bronson, plus a gangster plotting a hit on whoever killed his girlfriend, and you’ve got it. Except you haven’t, because this movie really is all about people melting in the goriest, craziest ways possible! The gooey, slimy effects for me are the star of the show, which are of course all practical. They really do shine in what is obviously an ultra-low budget production, although saying that would also be doing a disservice to the wonderful humour and camera work that is present throughout.

Have you ever wanted to see someone sitting on a toilet and melting into a pile of goo while flushing themselves down said toilet? Well, you only need to wait mere minutes into the running time of Street Trash!

Ever seen a cop humiliate his dead victim by puking on his head? Then take a look!

How about a dance number featuring all of the homeless bums? Nope, sorry… that was actually cut from the final movie!

How about a group of bums playing catch with a severed penis around a junkyard? Yup, it’s in here too!

So, as you can tell, this movie is a whole lot of fun! The gore effects are superb. The actual look of the movie is great too. It just doesn’t look like a low budget film. The camerawork is very well done, the acting from everyone involved is totally spot on, and just the whole quality of the production really shines through.

Street Trash is labelled as a “melt movie” and I would say that’s a fair assessment due to the amazing melting scenes, but there is a lot of other elements to this movie too. Of course, there’s copious nudity thrown in, but you also get an exciting opening chase scene of Fred the bum being chased through the streets of Brooklyn before he makes his escape on the back of a garbage truck. Filmed with a steady cam, this scene really shines and sets up the movie well.

There’s some great acting and one-liners between a gangster, played by Tony Darrow, and the club doorman, James Lorinz. A lot of this was obviously off script, but they work off each other so well… “Kiss your prick? It’s running down the stairs!” In fact, from these performances, they both went on to work on Goodfellas and Frankenhooker respectively. Darrow himself was also a nightclub singer and even got to sing the song that plays as the credits roll.

I picked up the Synapse blu-ray release several years back, and I can’t believe how great the picture quality is. It really allows the vivid colours from the effects and the production quality to shine through. You can tell this film was made with a whole lot of love! I know it’s had several releases since on other labels and I would highly recommend picking up a copy on blu-ray!

So, how can I tie this movie in to Halloween Horrors? Well, fast forward some 25 years or so from me first finding the VHS to present day and, in the build up to Halloween this year, I was extremely lucky to find a 35mm screening of Street Trash at a local Cinema here in the UK. Never in a million years would I have expected to see the grubby VHS movie I once discovered to be shown on the big screen!

Of course, I booked tickets straight away and I was able to drag my girlfriend, Julia, who had never seen the movie before, along for the ride. As she had never seen the movie before and was very new to the horror genre, I was very excited to see her reaction to the movie.

The screening was so much fun! The audience really enjoyed it, with lots of laughs and reactions throughout. As the lights came on after the credits had finished, I turned to Julia and asked her what she thought. She looked at me a little puzzled, and her first words?

“Well, the acting was better than Friday the 13th Part 3“

High praise indeed!