10 Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)
4. Street Trash Flushed The Stuff's Greatness Away
There’s no denying that the special effects work and Steadicam operation showcased in J. Michael Muro’s debut feature (and to date only film) Street Trash are impressive. It’s equally hard to deny that they’re the only impressive elements in the film.
Where most horror comedies of the eighties, a halcyon period for the subgenre, leaned toward the lighter side, Street Trash is unremittingly bleak while also paradoxically being utterly un-scary. The film lingers on horrible degradation and mean-spirited cruelty without any particularly funny gags to ameliorate the downbeat tone, but fails to actually offer any substantial scares since it’s supposed to be a “funny” gross out flick.
The result is a mess about as enjoyable as imbibing the Tenafly viper which leads the titular vagrants to melt into pools of human goo, and few remember the film as more than a nasty curio of the era when prosthetics reigned supreme.
However, the film clearly owes a massive debt in both concept and execution to satirical horror maestro and general exploitation movie legend Larry Cohen’s The Stuff, and checking out the former film can tip you off as to where Street Trash flounders.
Cohen’s film also has a streak of jet-black humour throughout, as the inherently goofy premise necessitates, but the brunt of his humour is levelled at greedy corporations, mindless consumers, and eventually the famously inept military.
Probably a group more deserving of mocking than, say, homeless alcoholics, assault victims, and PTSD-suffering veterans? Just a thought.