Street Trash

Hitting you harder than slamming a pint of Tenafly Viper is the multi-colored slime carnival Street Trash, directed by Ryan Kruger and written by Kruger and James C. Williamson. This is the authorized sequel to the 1987 cult classic by Roy Frumkes and J. Michael Muro, who serve as executive producers. Set in South Africa, it concerns the homeless population in Capetown that Mayor Mostert (Warrick Grier) is trying to get rid of. We open with Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael), a raggedy stew bum, running through the streets, being pursued by Officer Maggot (Andrew Roux). Ronald gets by by turning tricks with male sex addicts for money to give to his drug dealer, Society (Jonathan Pienaar). Ronald steps in when he sees the minions of the Rat King (Suraya Rose Santos) cornering Alex (Donna Cormack-Thomson), who is fresh on the streets. Ronald cuts a deal with the Rat King’s gutter enforcers, buying some time for Alex before she is summoned.

“…multi-colored slime carnival…sequel to the 1987 cult classic…”

Alex is introduced to the crew Ronald hangs with, including Chef (Joe Vaz), 2-Bit (Gary Green), Pap (Shuraigh Meyer), and Wors (Lloyd Martinez Newkirk). 2-Bit is so fried off hard drugs that he has a hallucination of a little blue man, Sockle (Ryan Kruger), who follows him around, exposing himself though only 2-Bit can see or hear him. Meanwhile, hoboes are coming up melted in the street, with mysterious men in gas masks cropping up. Turns out that a sample of Tenafly Viper from the New York outbreak in the 80s was preserved and the formula identified, allowing the people melting chemicals to be transferred from liquor to poison gas in grenades to melt crowds of undesirables, South African style.

First off, great news for everybody: Street Trash is definitely a worthy follow-up to what still is one of the greatest indie triumphs in history. Kruger achieves this through the key ingredient to any horror sequel or reboot, which is undying respect for the source material. It is obvious how highly regarded the director holds the original movie, as you can easily see the new one as a shrine to the cult classic. Kruger also made the class move to craft this as a direct sequel to the first one instead of reimagining it. There are also several homages to the first movie built-in, which reflects the reverence without becoming derivative.