Street Trash — Ryan Kruger

Grindhouse aficionados likely need no introduction to J. Michael Muro and Roy Frumkes’ 1987 splatter-fest Street Trash, a grungy cult-favorite about tainted liquor melting the homeless people unfortunate enough to drink it. It’s a pitch-black comedy of sorts, an eager affront to good taste featuring gang rape, necrophilia, and an infamous sequence where a man’s severed penis is passed around in a grotesque game of hot potato. It’s difficult to criticize a movie that so gleefully embraces the vulgar — it’s offensive, but that’s also the point. Nevertheless, from the vantage of 2024, the whole endeavor mostly leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Here’s a movie that hates women, hates the unhoused, and, worst of all, is frequently boring. While purists might object of the idea of a remake, director Ryan Kruger has jettisoned everything except the most basic outlines of the plot and reimagined the film as a, wait for it, boldly political work about the people left behind by neoliberal politicians and the rampant inequality of capitalism.

Kruger himself has noted in interviews that he considers his film a sequel or continuation of the original, not a remake. In his version, co-written with James C. Williamson, the deadly liquor has been weaponized by the corrupt politicians of a vaguely futuristic Cape Town. Led by corrupt Mayor Mostert (Warrick Grier), the government first tests and then distributes the neon booze to various unhoused communities, eager to rid the streets of what they consider an unsightly stain on “progress.” This newer, gentler Street Trash spends a fair amount of time introducing its community of vagrants, giving them actual personalities and exploring the various setbacks that have led to their inability to fit neatly into “proper” society. There’s the ostensible leader of the group, Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael), who meets Alex (Donna Cormack Thomson) and decides to welcome her into his group of merry weirdos, which includes the gregarious Chef (Joe Vaz), 2-Bit (Gary Green, star of Kruger’s previous feature Fried Barry), Wors (Lloyd Martinez Newkirk), Pap (Shuraigh Meyer), and a little green imaginary puppet named Sockle (voiced by Kruger himself) that only 2-Bit can see or hear. The men occasionally butt heads with the Rat King (Suraya Rose Santos), a local warlord who runs her own community of misfits and outcasts. But for the most part, everyone keeps to themselves and spends their days staying warm and looking for food.

Kruger devotes a big chunk of the film to hanging out with this group, creating various comedic episodes as Alex is ushered into the “lifestyle”; some of this is extremely juvenile (the puppet is very horny, and has a large green phallus), but the group dynamic is by and large charming. But the specter of the diabolical Mostert haunts the proceedings; no matter how amusing the antics, Mostert’s homicidal crusade hangs over our protagonists. The mayor insists that he simply wants to “clean up the streets,” and rather than invest in shelters, job centers, or substance abuse counseling, he chooses instead to unleash a deadly poison onto an unsuspecting, vulnerable population.

If this makes Street Trash sound too much like straight up drama, have no fear, as Kruger honors the goopy, gory spirit of the original. There’s a bit of (dodgy) CGI here and there, particularly in establishing shots of the Cape Town skyline, but largely this is a practical affair; the film begins with secretive government scientists testing the concoction on an unwilling suspect, as Kruger lets audiences know right off the bat that he means business. Skin peels and drops off of bones, pustules grow and pop with alarming speed, and there are veritable geysers of green, pink, and yellow neon goo that run out of orifices. It is, undoubtedly, disgusting. Cinematographer Fabian Vettiger captures both the vibrant colors and grimy textures of the street, while special effects supervisor Kevin Bitters & prosthetics designer Adrian Smith do fine work with what was undoubtedly a limited budget.

Eventually, Ronald and Alex lead a full-blown rebellion against the ruling class, turning their own weapon against them. It’s a glorious cacophony of exploding bodies, a Verhoeven-esque spectacle of social upheaval (imagine the melting-man image from Robocop, except repeated a dozen or so times). It’s an edifying, cathartic “fuck you” to the 1% types that have decided human life isn’t as important as the stock market or real estate holdings. Street Trash is a goofy, gloopy movie that has more to legitimately say about how we live now than any number of “socially relevant” prestige Oscar-bait dramas that dominate theaters this time of year. Come for the vote, stay for the politics.