Blu-ray Review: STREET TRASH (1987) - Special Meltdown Edition (Synapse Films)

STREET TRASH (1987)

Special Meltdown Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Synapse Films

Region:  All Region ABC
Rating: Unrated
Duration:  102 minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Original Mono with Optional Englisg Subtitles 
Video:  1080p Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director:  James Muro
Cast:  James Lorinz, Mike Lackey, Mark Sferrazza, Bill Chepil


Now here's a VHS rental from my youth that just never wears out it's welcome, a true cult classic of 80's horror. The winos and derelicts of Manhattan's Lower East Side start melting into puddles of neon-goo when the owner of Ed's Liquors finds a dusty case of sixty year old  Tenefly Viper Wine in the basement and puts it for sale at just $1 a bottle. What ensues is one of the greatest gross-out black comedies of the 80's as demented winos disintegrate in mere seconds leaving behind a fluorescent puddle of glop. Quickly the strange putrid deaths catch the attention of a stern cop named Bill (Bill Chepil) who investigates the series of melty-murders leading him to a local salvage yard inhabited by a colorful cast of homeless character beginning with a menacing  'Nam vet named Bronson (Vic Noto) who rules over the scrap yard from his mountain of trash complete with scuzzy henchmen and a sex-slave girlfriend. Bronsons's wound a bit tight in the cranium and suffers from post traumatic stress and is prone to 'Nam flashbacks and violent outburst, he's quite a nasty bit of business, and the bums fear him for good reason. 

While the film doesn't paint a very compassionate picture of the homeless community not all the characters are awful pieces of shit, there are two runaway brothers at the scarp yard just trying to survive day to day in a shitty situation. We have the older bearded brother Fred (Mike Lockey) who is a fucking gas to watch, the opening scenes of him thieving a bottle of Teneafly Viper from Ed's Liquor's and the ensuing chase are pretty great, he's the one who introduces the poison hooch to the other bums, quite by accident. The younger Kevin (Mark Sferrazza) brother is a bit sweeter and naive he's sorta dating an Asian girl named Wendy (Jane Arawaka) who works at the scrap yard. The film paints a drab picture of living on the streets and the shit that they have to endure from day to day, if it's not falling victim to the brute Bronson or just scraping by looking for a meal it's something worse... melting into a technicolor pool of goo. 

The main draw of the film is the gore and crude humor, there's no shortage of bad taste on display with rape, necrophilia, murder and some great low-budget gore effects, it's a hot sloppy mess. The effects are low-budget but pretty awesome, sorta like the best Troma film you've ever seen, it's definitely along the lines of Nuke 'Em High only way better and with a splash of early Peter Jackson thrown in! Street Trash (1987) is without a doubt one of the best 80's splatter comedies, seeping with nasty violence, sick humor, rape jokes and more technicolor puke and goo than you might be able to stomach, it's just wonderful. 

The acting is not exactly stellar, which is not to say the character weren't fun, they were a blast. There's a great cast of cracked and degenerate characters, some of my favorites were the older bums, some fun performances from old dudes, who mostly all end up melted into toilets or exploding in a technicolor geyser of gore. A character Burt enters a grocer store and stuffs chicken and Kool-Aid down his pants until he's accosted by an old lady and he creates quite a scene, fun stuff. Some amateur acting doesn't derail the film, throw in enough outrageous gore and weirdness and I can forgive just about anything and this film more than makes up for it's shortcomings with it's over-the-top awesomeness, but your mileage may vary depending on your tolerance for gang-rape and necrophilia jokes, plus there's an awesome severed-cock scene featuring an unfortunate bum caught in a sadistic game of of monkey-in-the-middle with his own junk!

Street Trash (1987) is a fairly attractive film which might be a bit of a shock considering it's a low-budget 80's production, definitely a step-up from the usual Troma trash we were getting at the time. Some of this might be due to director Jim Muro who just a few years later would go onto to a successful career as a steadi-cam operator on Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) among others, you can definitely see his talents at work even on this splatter cheapie. Plus, there's some great art direction and set designs using natural locations, it's a dingy and scummy looking film by design, there's not a clean surface in the entire film, I needed a shower after watching it in 1080p. On top of that, it's a pretty tight little film that manages to chug along at a good clip and keeps you plugged in for the duration, it's a nasty bit of fun from start to finish. 

Blu-ray: Synapse Films have upgraded their previous DVD edition of this 80's splatter classic with a new 1080p Special Meltdown Edition presented with an MPEG-4 AVC encode, it's a fantastic hi-def transfer, you've never seen Street Trash's grotesque meltdowns like this before, it's quite pleasing. A sharp image with nice clarity and a healthy amount of grain and fine detail - the neon colors are eye-popping! Sourced from the original camera negative this transfer is very clean with only minor specs, no complaints here about the image, yet another superb Synapse transfer. 

We have two audio options, the original mono mix and a newly created DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with optional English subtitles. The mono is quite good and will please the purists but the 5.1 really opens it up, dialogue, score and effects are balanced and strong, it's a very crisp audio presentation. 

Looking at the extras let's begin with the carryovers from the standard-def DVD. We have two audio commentaries beginning with writer/producer Roy Frumkes, a name you might recall from his film Document of the Dead, a documentary about the making of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), it's a great listen and well thought out as Frumkes details his involvement on the project, covering it's genesis  the locations, special effects, cast and the dialogue, even pointing out some of the ad-libbed dialogue he didn't write, it's a great commentary. 

Director Jim Muro's commentary is a bit more technical in regard to composing shots and some of the great effects work, he definitely enjoy watching the film and laughs quite often, it's not quite as anecdotal as Frumkes but it's a good listen.. 

There's an over two hour documentary titled The Meltdown Memories from writer/producer Frumkes and it's pretty damn entertaining with interviews from Frumkes, special effects man Mike Lackey, director James Muro, producer Jim Marucci, art director Denise Labelle, actors Glenn Andreiev, Nicole Porter, Vic Noto who played Bronson and Frankenhooker's James Lorinz who has a small but memorable part in the film, love the end-credits sequence. The piece is narrated by Frumkes and features some vintage interviews from Muro and Porter. At over two hours it's 23 minutes longer than the damn film and covers all the bases, if it's about Street Trash it's covered here to some degree.

We have the original 16mm Street Trash short film that runs just over 15 minutes, it's a cool extra and it's interesting to note the small differences between it and the feature film, the main idea is intact but it's a bit different.  

Along those same lines is the original Street Trash promotional teaser created to assist in raising funds for the feature length film, there's also a theatrical trailer. 

New to this Blu-ray edition are an Jane Arawaka video interview, the actress recalls her time on the film, it's film's cult status and her remembers her co-actors on the project. Interestingly she went on to live quite the rock n' roll lifestyle post-Street Trash having married the bass player for The Rolling Stones! There are also a selection of deleted scenes totaling just over seven minutes, there's nothing to earth shattering but it's pretty cool to have 'em on the set, plus we get a very neat Tenefly Viper Wine sticker inside the Blu-ray case. A few items not ported over from the previous DVD are a pic gallery and a booklet but the new exclusives are quite cool.

 Special Features:

- High-Definition Transfer from the Original Camera Negative
- 5.1 Surround Remix Created Specifically for Home Theater Environments
- Two Audio Commentaries Featuring Producer Roy Frumkes and Director James Muro
- THE MELTDOWN MEMOIRS – Feature Length Documentary on the History and Making of STREET TRASH (2:03:59) 
- The Original STREET TRASH 16mm Short Film That Inspired the Movie (15:05)
- The Original STREET TRASH Promotional Teaser (3:07)
- Original Theatrical Trailer (2:10)


ALL-NEW BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVES: 
- Jane Arakawa Video Interview (9:15) 
- Deleted Scenes (7:12)
- Create Your Own Bottle of “Tenafly Viper” Wine with the Enclosed Label Sticker!

Verdict: Street Trash (1987) is a true cult classic, a nasty 80's splatter-comedy that should be on every horror enthusiasts shelf and Synapse's superb Blu-ray is worth a double-dip with a sweet 1080p upgrade and some great extras. Synapse have yet to disappoint with any of their Blu-rays, this is a great package! 
4 Outta 5  

Blu-ray Review: DEAD ALIVE (1992)

DEAD ALIVE (1992)
aka BRAINDEAD

LABEL: Lionsgate
RELEASE DATE: October 4th 2011
REGION CODE: A
DURATION:97 mins
RATING: Unrated
VIDEO: MPEG-4 AVC 1080p Anamorphic Widescreen (1.66:1)
AUDIO: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo
DIRECTOR: Peter Jackson
CAST: Timothy Balme, Diane Penalver, Elizabeth Moody
TAGLINE: Some things won't stay down... even after they die.

Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE which is known as BRAINDEAD pretty much everywhere else in the world outside the U.S. is the puke-inducing follow-up to his incredibly strange comedies BAD TASTE and MEET THE FEEBLES. It is regarded as one of the goriest fright films of all-time and I'll certainly not dispute that fact, this is a gore-tastic masterpiece, the stuff cult classics are made of.

The film's pre-credit sequence opens on Skull Island (a place Jackson would revisit with KING KONG) as an intrepid explorer collecting live specimens for a zoo makes a hasty retreat with cage in hand from depths of the island towards the coast, fierce island natives nipping at his heels. The origins of the native's dismay? That the poor man's Indiana Jones is absconding with a vile simian creature known as the Sumatran Rat-Monkey, a creature that according to legend was spawned when plague rats escaping a sinking slave ship arrived on the island and raped the island's tree-monkey population - what's not to love? Stewart makes his way to an awaiting Jeep but during the commotion he is bitten and scratched by the rat-monkey. The guides on this expedition notice the bite mark on his hand and immediately pin him to the ground hacking off his right hand with a machete. Then they notice a bite mark on his left arm - WHACK! His upper torso nearly limbless is a pitiful sight to behold but the worse is yet to come when a scratch is sighted on his forehead - yup, that's it for him - CHOP! Cue his dying scream and roll opening credits. Alright, we've got a splatter-classic on our hand here folks.

Suddenly we find ourselves in picturesque Wellington, New Zealand in the year 1957. Wellington is the epitome of a quiet, conservative 50's community in every respect. Lionel Cosgrove (Timothy Balme, PLANET MAN) is a sadly aloof young man domineered by his mother Vera (Elizabeth Moody, HEAVENLY CREATURES). It's painful how completely he's lorded over by the maternal nightmare, but her control over the weak-willed lad is threatened when Lionel falls head over heels for a pretty shopkeeper named Paquita (Diana Penalver, BENEATH STILL WATERS) and don't think for a moment that his meddlesome mum will abide it quietly. She immediately sets out to sabotage the spark of romance before it can ignite into flames of passion and stalks the two love birds to the Zoo where she hides in the bushes along a cage containing what else? The Sumatran Rat-Monkey which was shipped to Wellington following the pre-credit events. While she skulks in the shadows that rat-monkey takes a chunk of flesh from her arm and the blue-haired hag maddened at the indignity of being bitten by the foul vermin squashes it with the heel of her pumps, it's a gruesome display as blood and brains ooze forth from it's eye-sockets. Ever the dedicated son Lionel rushes to her aid when she screams out in pain, taking her home treating and bandaging her nasty wound.

The next day the wound only worsens becoming a pulsing mass of gooey grossness, she's develops mouth sores and liesons and is just not looking good in any respect. Despite her worsening state she refuses medical attention and when the president of the Ladies Welfare League Mrs. Matheson arrives with her husband in tow for tea and biscuits she rises to the occasion albeit with her flesh literally falling from her face, held in place with strong adhesive. During the luncheon Vera starts to turn a bit more ghoulish before her guests very eyes leading to some awesome gross-out visuals. While custard is being served the ripe pustule on her arm ruptures squirting a thick ropey spray of puss into Mr. Matheson's dessert which he unwittingly consumes exclaiming "Mmm... rich and creamy, just the way I like it." Definitely some bad taste awesomeness that's hurl inducing. Vera's own ear rots right off her face falling into her bowl of custard which she eats with some difficulty just before falling unconscious face first into her dessert, fun stuff. In the annals of gross-out cinema this entire scene is pretty damn high on the list.

With Vera's zombie-fication nearly complete she scarfs down Paquita's pet pooch Fernando resulting in Lionel shoving his fist down her throat and pulling out the nastiest hairball you've ever seen. The progressively carnivorous act forces the ever-caring Lionel to keep her locked in the basement and sedated with a strong animal tranquilizer which he acquires illegally from a vet whom surely is an escaped Nazi scientist. There he keeps and cares for her unbeknownst to Paquita but despite his best efforts mum escapes and is soon consuming the quaint folk of Wellington turning them into flesh-crazed zombies, too. Lionel dutifully gathers the wayward zombies and stashes them in the basement along with mum away from the prying eyes of neighbors, tethering them to the dinner table and spoon feeding them. When his sleazy Uncle Les arrives on scene smelling filthy estate lucre it gets harder to keep the secret under wraps. As things continue to spin wildly out of control Lionel, Paquita and Les find themselves holed up at his house immersed in a grisly zombie siege that will either make you puke from laughter or laugh until you spew chunks from your nostrils.

At it's heart Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE is the timeless tale of boy meets girl, boy's mom meets rat-monkey, boy mows down hordes of zombies with a re-purposed lawnmower, you know, that old chestnut. The storytelling is here and gets perhaps a bit too melodramatic at times but it's buried under a ton of awesome gore effects that don't disappoint, and like many of the classic splatter flicks of the 80's the effects hold up quite remarkably for the most part. There's reanimated intestines, dozen of distinctive zombies, hundreds of sight gags, gallons upon gallons of glorious blood, a claymation rat-monkey, rib cages ripped from torsos, the skin pulled off a face like a dirty tube sock and old Vera shoving her son back into her womb only for him to finally tear himself free of her maternal shackles in a very Freudian manner as he emerges a through a hot pile of motherly effluence. The effects are of the blood-drenched old school practical variety and are too numerous to recount and too awesome to properly describe, it's just pure carnage and when Lionel takes on an insurmountable mob of zombies with a re purposed lawnmower it just don't get any better.

Aside from the phenomenal gore we get strong performances from leads Timothy Balme and Diane Penalver there are distinctly memorable performances in abundance; the kung-fu priest Father McGruder (Stuart Devente), pervy Uncle Les (Ian Watkins) and the low-life greaser Void (Jed Brophy).

In 1992 if you had told me that the mad genius behind the demented lunacy of MEET THE FEEBLES, BAD TASTE and DEAD ALIVE would go onto helm THE LORD OF THE RINGS and KING KONG I probably would have thought you silly in the head. That said, there's a lot of Jackson's talent onscreen here and not just of the knee-deep-in-gore variety.

BLU-RAY:DEAD ALIVE makes its high definition debut just in time for Halloween in what's being touted by Lionsgate as the 20th Anniversary Edition. The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) with a MPEG-4AVC encode that looks to have been sourced from the same master as the previous TriMark DVD from some years ago. The film definitely benefits from the higher resolution resulting in finer detail, deeper black levels and more pronounced color saturation but it is also a bit dirty, mighty grainy and white speckling is present throughout. The close-ups reveal more texture in the faces and the make-up effects, plus we see more gore than ever before, no doubt, but this isn't going to be the spleen-busting upgrade that you may have been hoping for.

The lone audio option is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 stereo track that that's kinda flat and doesn't offer much in the way of channel separation. Also included are option English SDH and Spanish subtitles. While it definitely isn't gonna give your fancy surround sound home theatre a workout it's adequate and comes through clearer and with a spot more depth than the previous DVD edition.

The lone special features are the Original Theatrical Trailer (1:49) and a selection of Lionsgate trailer. Just like the TriMark DVD this is unrated but not the 104 min. original cut of the film but Peter Jackson's preferred version at 97 mins.. While I appreciate having this splatter classic in the glory of 1080p I cannot help but feel it could have been more glorious. A newly minted HD transfer, some minor restoration and a newly created DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround sound mix could have done this wonders. As for the paltry bonus content a newly commissioned featurette, a Peter Jackson commentary, some interviews, a branching version of the original cut or just the addition of the excised seven minutes of film would truly be fitting of this gore-tastic classics's 20th anniversary.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Original Theatrical Trailer (1:49)
- Lionsgate Trailer Gallery: THE HOUSE OF A 1000 CORPSES, CABIN FEVER, DESCENT, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, PYSCHOVILLE

VERDICT: When it comes to gore-comedies few are as pickled in the briny stew of blood, guts and splatstick as DEAD ALIVE. The film's a tried and true rite of passage for horror fans that's easily on par with Saim Raimi's EVIL DEAD 2. I have some minor quibbles with the presentation and supplements that could have been improved upon but honestly it's superior to the DVD in every way. What I have to ask myself is that if I hadn't received this screener would I have bought it knowing what I do now? The answer is unequivocally yes, why? It's fucking Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE on Blu-ray, the most gut-drenched black comedy ever filmed and that's not just hyperbole.

DVD Review: Death Warmed Up (1984)

PURE TERROR 50 Movie Pack (2010)
Mill Creek Entertainment

DEATH WARMED UP (1984)
 "I'll get you, I'll get you all."

RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 78 Min.
DIRECTOR: David Blyth
CAST: Michael Hurst, Margaret Umbers, William Upjohn

THE FILM: At the start of the film teenager Michael Tucker (Michael Hurst) is brainwashed by the evil Dr. Howell (Gary Day), who's hell bent on defeating death itself and creating a army of the living dead ...I think, it's a bit confusing to be honest. The plot and narrative are not this films greatest strength. That night Michael goes home and bloodily shotgun blasts his mum and dad to death under the direction of Dr. Howell's reprogramming. Afterwards he is sent to an asylum for the criminally insane. Seven years later he is released and sets out to exact revenge on Dr. Howell. Along with three friends he returns to the remote island where the evil doctor has continued his pursuit of creating a zombie army using corpses from the psychiatric brain-surgery center he runs. This low-budget export from New Zealand has the distinction of being the first NZ-horror film, it would be several years before Peter Jackson's BAD TASTE (1987), and I have to imagine this would have been a major influence on the young director. David Blyth makes great use of existing locations, fun set pieces and garish lighting to give us something cheap, fun and interesting while not altogether coherent. What struck me 1st about the film was the great use of colored lighting reminiscent of 80's films like DEMONS (1985) that were influenced by Dario Argento and master of the macabre Mario Bava before him. We get a lot of  great gore and splatter, including several awesome exploding heads, brutal impalement, and power drills to the head. Definitely a splatstick comedy with a bit of zaniness that will appeal to fans of Peter Jackson's 1st two films or the more recent BLACK SHEEP (2006). The finale, much like the rest of the film, is disjointed and a bit ambiguous, but a fun watch nonetheless.

DVD: This comes to us by the way of Mill Creek Entertainment's PURE TERROR 50 movie pack. The transfer leaves quite a bit to be desired and looks to be taken from a full frame VHS cassette, not great, but it'll do as it is the only Region 1 release of the film. The audio is mono and there are no special features. I would love to a properly transferred wide screen version of the film.

VERDICT: If you enjoy madcap b-movie splatter films in the vein of Peter Jackson's early stuff I think you'll find a bunch to enjoy here, just don't expect the Citizen Kane of splatter films, this is a strictly lo-budget affair with on-the-cheap effects and a visible boom mic, but it's fun, fast and wonderfully demented. Definitely check out the PURE TERROR 50 Movie Pack, if you're a fiend for b-movies, schlock, euro-horror and obscure awesomeness there's great stuff in there including MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE, THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE, HANDS OF STEEL, HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMBS, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY, including several Paul Naschy films. **1/2 (2.5 Out of Five Stars)

- MCBASTARD