By Todd Garbarini 

Marc Hall (Israel Broussard) is a shy, introverted teenager who is transferred to Indian Hills High School in Calabasas, CA because he played hooky too many times at his previous school and needs to be set on the straight and narrow. After shuffling awkwardly from class to class, he becomes friends with Rebecca Ahn (Katie Chang), a peer who dresses well, pays him attention, and is obsessed with celebrities and who loves to party. When they aren't in school, Marc accompanies Rebecca as she looks through unlocked vehicles for cash and anything valuable that she can resell. Mark later happens to mention in passing that a friend of his is currently out of town; naturally, he and Rebecca gain entrance to the friend’s house and search through the belongings. Mark is visibly nervous and wants to leave. Rebecca pilfers the keys to a Porsche and they go joyriding. Her attitude towards this behavior is troubling in the carefree and apathetic way that she conducts herself. She seems to have absolutely no problem taking other people’s property, even in broad daylight, and using it for how own amusement and gain. Rebecca begins to get restless and more daring, and while she and her friends are out socializing at a famous club also attended by Paris Hilton and Kirsten Dunst, she gets the idea to rob Ms. Hilton's home. Using all social media and mapping websites to her advantage, she locates the real home addresses of her favorite celebrities and, with Marc and several friends in tow (one of whom is Nicki, played by Emma Watson), goes on a massive five-finger discount that includes purses, expensive shoes, jewelry, Rolex watches, and thousands of dollars in cash. What is all the more amazing is that despite Marc’s hesitance and obvious reluctance, no one even thinks for a minute that they are being watched by closed-circuit security cameras.

If this story sounds familiar, it should. Based upon Nancy Jo Sales’s article The Suspects Wore Louboutins that was published in the March 2010 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, The Bling Ring (2013) is director Sophia Coppola’s fifth feature film (a made-for-Lifetime movie of the same name and about the same subject aired in 2011). Loosely based upon the true story of a pack of young celebrity gawkers who go to extreme lengths to emulate the style and fashion sense of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Miranda Kerr and anybody else they deem worthy of adulation and emulation was highly publicized some years back. As depicted in the film, these young adults don't appear to be inherently bad people. They are simply caught up in the excitement of the 24-hour a day, seven-day-a-week celebrity reporting that is constantly aflutter on the Internet; they give in to their temptation to break the law. Why they do what they do is not so apparent. They seem to want to be famous, just like the people they look up to. Several of them foolishly take photos of themselves at the scenes of the crimes and post them on their walls on their Facebook pages. It never occurs to them that what they are doing is wrong. They all seem to have the idea that the people’s houses they are burglarizing are so rich that they won’t even notice that most of these lavish items are missing. By the end film, however, the house of cards comes crashing down when the police get involved and they are all arrested and given prison sentences.

In some ways, The Bling Ring is the flip side of Mrs. Coppola’s previous film, 2010’s Somewhere, which was an introspective look at the life of a very famous actor miserable in his existence of fame and fortune. Somewhere, and 2003’s Lost in Translation, both were eloquent studies in loneliness (the former in one’s own surroundings and the latter in a foreign environment) and a case can be made for Marc in The Bling Ring. He’s a teenager who feels like an outcast; he’s a nobody desperately trying to be a somebody.

Mrs. Coppola imbues the film with humor, too. The character of Nicki and her home life is not a fabrication. She is based upon Alexis Neiers, a young model and actress wannabe who was the subject of the “reality” series Pretty Wild, which lasted nine episodes and depicted her home life and relationship with her sisters and mother. Alexis’s mom, one-time Playboy model Andrea Arlington, does her best under the circumstances trying to raise these young women, however she seems to rely on Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret a little too much in scenes that induce interior smiles. Her mom During the course of filming the show, Alexis was arrested for her participation in the burglaries.

Mrs. Coppola continues to bifurcate audiences into the love it or hate it camps. Unlike Somewhere (my vote for her best film so far), which illustrates the director’s love of Michelangelo Antonioni’s work, The Bling Ring is a far more audience-friendly film.

The extras, all in high definition, on the disc contain:

Making The Bling Ring: On Set with Sofia, the Cast and Crew featurette (22:51) is exactly what the title entails. The filmmakers talk about how the project came about (Mrs. Coppola read the Vanity Fair article on a plane and assumed that it was already optioned for a film), how the film was cast (the ringleader was the most difficult to cast), and some of the actors weigh in with their views of the film.

Behind the Real Bling Ring (23:46) is a very interesting featurette that discusses the actual case and the real names of those involved in the 2008/2009 events.

Scene of the Crime with Paris Hilton (10:37) Ms. Hilton gives us a tour of her house where the film was shot and bemoans the fact that most of her stolen jewelry consisted of irreplaceable pieces handed down throughout the years in her family. A humorous bit includes a mini tour of her mini doghouse for her seven pooches.

The theatrical trailer is also included and runs just shy of two minutes.

My only complaint is the lack of an audio commentary, something that Mrs. Coppola perhaps does not have an interest in doing, a trend that I hope she reverses.

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By Todd Garbarini 

Not too long after The Little Mermaid was released on Friday, November 14, 1989, I saw it at the Guild Theater (aka the Guild 50^th) next door to Radio City Music Hall in New York. It was a decent-sized theater that showed films from 1938 until 1999 when it was gutted and replaced with a Nautica store (The Little Mermaid’s Ariel would have felt at home here), and it is now an Anthropologie branch for women. Thinking about the Guild Theater made me miss the single screen showcases of New York such as the Biograph, the Festival, the Carnegie Hall Cinema, the 8^th Street Playhouse, The Beekman, the Cinema I and Cinema II, and the 68^th Street Playhouse to name a few (the Paris on 57^th Street is one of the few remaining such theaters). They were decent-size auditoriums and you had a very good chance of seeing something special there in limited release.

The Little Mermaid is one such film. It had been years since I had seen a Disney film exhibited theatrically and, like most of us, had very little inkling that the studio would be releasing a whole new slate of inspired and financially successful animated features in the years to come (especially The Lion King, which I originally saw in the form of an unfinished workprint at the Walter Reade Theater in New York in early 1994). Originally published as Den lille havfrue (The Little Sea Lady) by Hans Christian Anderson on April 7, 1837 in Fairy Tales Told for Children, The Little Mermaid tells the story of Ariel, a sixteen year-old mermaid who, like human females of that age, becomes restless living under the watchful eye of her father, King Triton, who only has her best interests at heart. Ariel is cautioned about humans and sternly told not to mingle with them. Of course, this only compels her to seek them out. Along with her friends Flounder and Scuttle the Seagull, she surfaces and sees a handsome man named Prince Eric on a ship that enters a dangerous storm. She is instantly smitten, and saves Eric’s life, singing to him and disappearing just before he awakens. Having heard her voice, Eric wants to find Ariel who, in turn, wants to be a part of the human world.

King Triton is suspicious of Ariel and he drills Sebastian (the most memorable character in the film, though it is up for debate if he is a crab or a lobster) for information about his daughter’s sudden change in behavior. When it comes out that she is in love with a human, her father reacts in rage and loses his mind. At the urging of two eels (Flotsam and Jetsam), Ariel goes to see a sea witch named Ursula to find out how she can be with Eric. Ursula is not out to help Ariel out of kindness, mind you. She wants Ariel’s voice, and convinces Ariel to allow her to make her human for three days in exchange for her voice. The plan is to get Eric to kiss Ariel before the designated time runs out, or else she will become a mermaid again and have to answer to Ursula (notions of Cinderella spring to mind!).

All of this action is set to some truly enjoyable songs, the most recognizable and popular of which are arguably “Part of Your World”, “Under the Sea”, and “Kiss the Girl”. It’s hardly a surprise that “Under the Sea” won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song, while the film also won both awards for Best Original Score. These are the kinds of songs that are very memorable, even to people who have just heard them and have not seen the film. Twenty-five years later, The Little Mermaid is one of the most well-known of the Walt Disney cartoons, gaining in popularity among young children thanks in no small part to its availability on home video. New generations of fans who were born years after the release of the film have sprung up and still dress up as the characters for Halloween, with Ariel and Sebastian being top favorites.

The new Blu-ray is comprised of an all-new, digitally restored picture. The image is a marked improvement over previous versions and just pops off the screen at you; this is clearly the best the film has looked on home video (I remember seeing it on VHS and most of the image’s detail was completely lost). While The Little Mermaid has been available on DVD in 1999 in a movie-only edition and in 2006 in a 2-disc Platinum Edition with a wealth of extras, those extras have been ported over to the Blu-ray in a special section called Classic DVD Bonus Features. In addition, the Blu-ray contains brand-new, exclusive extras shot in high definition and they are comprised of:

Part of Your World music video featuring Carly Rae Jepsen (3:39)

@Disneyanimation (10:45), a nice look at some of the many faces who have been working for years at Disney, such as John Musker and Ron Clements, in addition to more recently employed animators who were inspired by The Little Mermaid to follow animation as their career path. This is one featurette I would have liked to have seen last at least half an hour or more as I love hearing about what motivates these artists.

Deleted Character - Harold Merman (2:05) is a quick look at a character that was cut from the film. This segment is presented in sketch form.

Under the Scene - The Art of Live Action Reference (13:13) is a look at how the animators use real-life stand-ins who go through the motions of the main characters in the film, and then draw the movements of the performers to get the nuances of the animated characters. Animators John Musker and Ron Clements spoke to actress Kathryn Beaumont about her experiences acting out Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Wendy in Peter Pan to get an idea of how to draw the characters in The Little Mermaid. Ruben Aquino, the directing animator, talks about the challenges of making moving images into living and breathing characters that exude emotion. They also interview the real-life performers who acted out the lead animated roles for Eric and Ariel in footage shot in 1988.

Howard’s Lecture (16:27) is a look at the late Howard Ashman and his contribution to the film.

Part of Her World: Jodi Benson’s Voyage to New Fantasyland (4:45) smacks a little of self-promotion, but it offers up an exuberant Jodi Benson taking us through Disney’s New Fantasyland which showcases many of the later Disney characters.

Crab-e-oke Sing-Along is a cleverly-titled section that allows you to sing along with a handful of the film’s best-known songs.

The aforementioned Classic DVD Bonus Features (in standard definition) is here, too and it includes: deleted scenes; backstage Disney; music and more; an audio commentary with John Musker, Ron Clements, and composer Alan Menken; Disneypedia: Life Under the Sea; Behind the Ride That Almost Wasn’t; and Under the Sea Adventure: A Virtual Ride Inspired by Disney Imagineers.

This 2-disc diamond edition contains a standard DVD of the film and a digital copy. The bonus features included are: Part of Her World: Jodi Benson’s Voyage to New Fantasyland, classic deleted scenes, an alternate version of “Fathoms Below,” and a Fight with Ursula/alternate ending.

All in all, this is a great package of a now classic film, making the upgrade to Blu-ray well worth it. A great idea for Christmas!

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By Todd Garbarini

Horror film fans tend to have very memorable impressions of when they saw a thriller that impacted them strongly.  On Friday, May 9, 1980, I watched the John Guillermin 1976 version of King Kong on a rerun on NBC-TV and eagerly discussed it the following day with my Boy Scout troupe on our way into New York to visit the United Nations building. Walking through the New York streets was quite an education in many ways, not the least of which was our journey through the theater district along 42nd Street. On the way, we saw movie marquee displays for pornographic movies (yikes!!) and comedies such as Don Adams’ The Nude Bomb. Friday the 13th had just opened up the previous day, and a theater displayed lobby cards depicting images from the film. One of them contained an image of a woman screaming at a man who had been impaled on a wall with arrows. This was the first time I had seen such a graphic image and it really made me wonder what the rest of the movie consisted of. I remember being really disturbed by it. It would be another seven years before I would see Friday the 13^th on a local television station airing and I must admit that I found the film to be mediocre at best. John Carpenter's Halloween (1978), which I had seen five years earlier, was more my cup of tea. I found that film to be truly gripping and tense. Years later I caught up with the DVD release of Friday the 13th, however, my reaction was still the same. I suppose if I had seen the film when I was considerably younger it quite possibly would have terrified me. One person it did terrify was author David Grove, one of the world’s foremost authorities on this watershed horror film. He was just nine years-old when he caught a local television airing of the film. He hasn't been the same since!

On Location in Blairstown: The Making of Friday the 13^th is the excellent new book by Mr. Grove which should delight fans of the first in this now (in)famous horror film franchise. Illustrated with nearly 300 black and white photos and written with the cooperation of people both in front of and behind the camera, the book is an in-depth look at the making of a film that made horror fans out of young kids. What is remarkable is that they (like Yours Truly) are still horror film fans to this day. It appears to be a life-long love that doesn’t waver. If you have read the excellent behind-the-scenes look at Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) in JAWS: Memories from Martha’s Vineyard, this book is the product of the same labor of love.

Extremely well researched, the book takes the reader through the film's humble beginnings in 1979, from getting the cast and crew together, the script revisions to the final draft, to the start of filming the day after Labor Day in September. The author draws parallels between the film and the aforementioned predecessor, Halloween, and also points out the differences between the two.

The bulk of the book takes the reader to the actual physical locations where the film was shot. As a traveler who loves to go to the locations where my favorite horror movies were made, I only discovered roughly five years ago that this film had been shot in my home state of New Jersey! Yes, the Internet is a wonderful tool. Armed with screenshots from the film and directions from Google Maps, a friend of mine and I sought out as many of the locations that are covered in this book, with the exception of Camp NoBeBoSco, better known in the film as Camp Crystal Lake. Camp NoBeBoSco, where the bulk of the story takes place, is actually a Boy Scout camp, and I only got as far as the entrance. I have read about and heard from friends that the inhabitants of this camp do not appreciate outsiders trying to sneak in and have a look around, despite the film’s popularity. You would think that they would set it up so that people could pay to stay there; I would think that they would make a killing (pun most definitely intended). Then again, the camp would require an enormous amount of upkeep as a result of the inevitable visitors who would try to dismantle and take pieces of the remaining cabins as souvenirs!

Special makeup effects artist Tom Savini created what remains of Jason Voorhees, the poor soul who drowned at the hands of distracted camp sitters. He speaks at length of his experiences on the film. The book also nicely discusses where the cast ended up following the film’s wrap and subsequent release.

I may not be a fan of Friday the 13th, but I have to acknowledge its place in the history of the horror genre and give kudos to Mr. Grove for having written such an interesting, in-depth look at the making of this film. As a result of his tremendous efforts, I am going to revisit the film with a different point of view. My appreciation for Friday the 13^th and director Sean Cunningham’s inexorable quest to get it made has grown as a result of this book.

A must-have for Friday the 13^th completists and horror film fans alike.

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By Todd Garbarini

When George A. Romero's Day of the Dead premiered on Friday, July 19, 1985, it was released in the same fashion that his Dawn of the Dead was distributed seven years earlier, which is to say without an MPAA rating. The poster sported the caveat (or allure, depending on your point of view): “Due to scenes of violence, which may be considered shocking, no one under 17 admitted.” Widely considered as an independent maverick in the film industry, Mr. Romero once again decided not to submit his film to the ratings board knowing full well that they would demand extensive cuts, leaving most of Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero’s best work on the cutting room floor. One of the major problems with releasing a film unrated is that the perception is that it is, in fact, a self-imposed X-rating. An “X” generally means death at the box office, unless you’re Marlon Brando doing the tango in Paris. Also, most major newspapers refuse to carry ads for such fare. In addition, the film opened two weeks after Robert Zemeckis’s wildly successful Back to the Future, which was still doing incredibly well at the box office. As a horror fan four months shy of my 17th birthday, I was unable to see it theatrically. Like most of my contemporaries, I caught up with it on home video some years later. Having already seen Night of the Living Dead (1968) and it’s (in)famous sequel which takes place in a shopping mall, the aforementioned Dawn, I didn’t know what to expect from Day.

In some ways, it’s difficult to accept the fact that Dawn is sandwiched between Night and Day. Night, which was shot in black and white and tells the story from the lead character’s point of view by giving the characters information slowly just as the audience is taking in all of the dreadful occurrences that are happening to them, can also be viewed as a much more macabre version of an episode of The Twilight Zone. However, there is a grimness to Night that makes it one of the scariest movies ever made. Dawn, on the other hand, takes this same scenario of the zombies out for human flesh and adds a very humorous stance to it. There is even a sequence where a motorcycle gang throws pies in the faces of the slowly stumbling zombies. Day, on the other hand, is much more serious in tone and is clearly the most depressing of the three films. I must admit that at the time that I saw this film, I never would have guessed that over 20 years later The Walking Dead, a television series based upon a graphic novel wherein a select group of strangers band together against an unnamed contagion outbreak and are forced to fend for themselves, would go on to become one of television’s most gripping, entertaining, violent and popular shows. Audiences’s appetite for this type of horrific material only seems to be on the upswing.

I loved Day when I first saw it, and it is my second favorite after the classic Night. Most people choose Dawn as their favorite, however, probably because they saw it when they weren’t supposed to! Day introduces us to a completely different set of characters and actors. It begins with a brilliant sequence that jolts the audience out of complacency and puts them on edge for the rest of the film. Sarah (Lori Cardille), John (Terry Alexander), McDermott (Jarlath Conroy), and Miguel (Anthony Dileo Jr.) are part of an underground army compound in the Florida Everglades trying desperately to understand how to cure the contagion outbreak. They have limited resources and are being watched by Captain Henry Rhodes (Joe Pilato, in a performace that Siskel and Ebert labeled as shameless overacting, but he’s actually really terrific and has some of the most quotable dialogue in the film) and his lackeys Steele (Gary Howard Klar) and Rickels (Ralph Marrero). Meanwhile, Dr. Logan (the late Richard Liberty) is experimenting with live and dead zombies in an effort to understand them and control them so that they can become obedient. Dr. Fisher (John Amplas) is a scientist who also attempts to mediate between Dr. Logan and Capt. Rhodes, however communication between these parties begins to break down and supplies start to slowly run out. Mistakes are made, and Miguel is bitten by a zombie, leaving Sarah to amputate his arm and burn the wound to inhibit the spread of infection.

Dr. Logan continues his experiments, this time on a restrained zombie named “Bub” whose child-like behavior suggests that his memory works, at least partially. Sarah is disgusted to find that he is using body parts as food to reward Bub for correctly performing tasks; she plans to escape with her loyal confederates but is stopped by Capt. Rhodes who freaks out and kills Dr. Logan. All hell breaks loose and chaos ensues, resulting in some truly amazing makeup work by Tom Savini and Greg Nicotero.

Day of the Dead has been released in many different formats. The latest is a Blu-ray release this month from the fine folks at Scream Factory who never cease to amaze me with their tireless efforts on countless new Blu-rays of old horror favorites. Their transfer of the film in high definition is the best that Day has ever looked on home video. If you own the 2003 Divimax two-disc set from Anchor Bay, hold on to it because two of the extras from that fine set have not been carried over to the Blu-ray: the audio interview with Richard Liberty and the 39-minute original documentary The Many Days of Day of the Dead.

The Blu-ray contains:

Beautiful, exclusive and new cover art by artist Nathan Thomas Wilner and a flip-over cover which has the original one-sheet poster art.

World’s End: The Legacy of Day of the Dead (85:26), a brand-new high definition documentary that discusses the making of the film in Pennsylvania. Many of the people involved in the film’s production are interviewed here.

Audio commentary with George Romero, Tom Savini, Cletus Anderson (production designer) and Lori Cardille

(this is ported over from the Anchor Bay disc)

Audio commentary with film director Roger Avary, an admitted fan of the film (this is ported over from the Anchor Bay disc)

Day of the Dead: Behind the Scenes (30:42) – This is Tom Savini’s production footage that details his extensive makeup effects used during filming in late 1984 (this is ported over from the Anchor Bay disc, however the beginning is a little different). Shot in standard definition on either VHS, VHS-C or 8mm video.

Wampum Mine Promotional Video (08:12) is ported over from the Anchor Bay disc and was called Gateway Commerce Center Promo on that edition. It takes viewers on a tour of the underground location where Day was filmed. Presented in standard definition.

Underground: The Day of the Dead Mines (07:37) – Hosted by Ed Demko of Cult Magazine, this new, high definition look into the mines where Day was filmed makes one wonder how the cast and crew fared while shooting. Skip Docchio, a facility tech who worked in the mines for 32 years, was on hand during shooting and recounts his memories. Mr. Demko humorously recites some of the film’s dialogue.

Theatrical trailers (05:55) – There are four trailers provided here, and several of them seem like promotional items at film festivals.

TV Spots (01:35) – There are three spots here, all making a point to emphasize that the film has not been rated.

Stills Gallery – this consists of behind the scenes shots, locations where the film was shot, posters/lobby cards (remember when they made those?), and a miscellaneous section that includes images of past video releases.

This disc is highly recommended. It would be wonderful if Scream Factory could get their hands on Mr. Romero’s Creepshow. I have the Region 2 two-disc special edition DVD and the documentary is almost as long as the film itself. Creepshow needs a Blu-ray release and Scream Factory is the company to do it!

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TV Horror:Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen

by Lorna Jowett and Stacey Abbott

I.B. Taurus

270 pages

Paperback

ISBN: 978148856189

By Adrian Smith

Television can easily be dismissed as being an unsuitable medium for the horror genre, having to please the moral majority and unable to be as red in tooth and claw as those horrific offerings on the silver screen. Jowett and Abbott's new book does its best to prove this argument wrong, demonstrating that in many ways television has been able to explore the darker recesses of horror in far more depth than can be done in a single two hour movie. Shows such as The Twilight Zone and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have embraced the limitations of the small screen to present some truly chilling, unsettling moments. Long-running shows like The X-Files were able to have story arcs that lasted several seasons, building complex characters and even more complicated plots.

Jowett and Abbott draw on examples from both American and British television, looking at the grotesque excesses of comedy shows like The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville, both of which draw heavily on a tradition of film horror. We seem to be in something of a golden age of television horror right now, from the gothic influences evident in Doctor Who to the extreme violence and gore of Dexter or Hemlock Grove. The authors are able to identify a recent shift in production practise which has to some extent fragmented audiences, such as the advent of cable television production in the States, or internet streaming services like Netflix who now produce original programming. This means that more shows can be available, but are perhaps seen by smaller numbers of people.

Although the tone is a little dry, the book is a fascinating and indepth look at TV horror, a genre often considered inferior to it's cinematic older sibling in most writing, and it has been fairly neglected in academic evaluation until now. Some of the examples here will bring joy to fans of television as well as chilling reminders of some of the more difficult and nostalgic shows, with Dark Shadows, Twin Peaks, Stephen King's It, Kingdom Hospital, The Outer Limits, Boris Karloff's Thriller, Night Gallery, The Quatermass Experiment and Blood Ties all getting a thorough analysis.

Ultimately books such as this offer the reader two things: an insight into the minds of the authors, and an attempt to tell us something about the audiences who consume all this material. Unless it is an encyclopedia, a single investigation into TV horror is not going to cover everything. As such TV Horror: Investigating the Dark Side of the Small Screen could potentially leave some readers disappointed that their favourite show does not get a mention, but Jowett and Abbott have covered considerable ground here, proving that the genre is ready for reassessment. The small screen has offered up some seriously scary programmes over the last sixty years, putting the forbidden and the frightening right in your living room as an assault on all that we hold dear. This book will help to explain why we need it there.

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By Todd Garbarini 

There are certain movies that you see on substandard formats such as VHS and you enjoy the film and think nothing of the technical prowess that went into making it. When you see that same film given the proper respect of being telecined, color-corrected from the original camera negative, properly framed in the original aspect ratio and displayed on a 1080P monitor/television, the difference is mind-boggling and literally makes you wonder how you managed to suffer through such mediocre viewings in years past. James Munro’s Street Trash (1987) is a colorful, vile, over-the-top contraption featuring dirty and reprehensible characters in Brooklyn, NY who dwell in an automobile graveyard and have fashioned stacks of tires, empty vehicles, and just about anything else that they can get their hands on into shelter and a way of life. They commit petty crimes, steal from one another, and in short do anything to ensure their own survival. To what end, it remains a mystery, however judging from their behavior their miserable existences are probably more preferable to them than the unknown of what lies in the great beyond. As the film opens, a bespectacled local liquor store owner, who looks a lot like the bespectacled bad guy chasing Louis DeFunes through much of Gerard Oury’s The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), finds a case of “Tenafly Viper” (presumably whiskey or bourbon) in his basement long after the concoction’s expiration date has passed and elects to sell it in his store for a dollar a bottle. The results are disastrous for those who consume the poisonous drink as they begin to slowly turn into defragmented, messy, colorful blobs that would make Rob Bottin, the effects master on John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982), cringe. Fred (Mick Lackey, who also did special make-up effects on the film) owes money here and there and will steal from anyone to get it. Bronson (Vic Noto) is an imposing individual who appears to hold sway over everyone who lives in the junkyard and demands money (probably rent) from them. Shot in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, NY in 1986 long before gentrification of the neighborhood, the opening of the film sports a schizophrenic sequence of fast-moving Steadicam shots of Fred out-witting other bums for money. Names like Vandervoort Avenue, Meserole Avenue, Moultrie Street, Norman Avenue, and Humbolt Street populate the screen. Fred takes to the steps of the abandoned and graffiti-covered Greenpoint Hospital Outpatient Department on Maspeth Avenue (now the fully functioning Greenpoint Renaissance Center), and another bum, Paulie, bemoans the fact that his son is wasting his life on computers! If only he had a crystal ball…

Like David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977), Street Trash virtually defies description. That is part of the film’s charm, if a film like this can possess charm! There are some wildly hilarious moments, particularly in the opening scenes involving Fred and flatulence. Another scene involves a group of squeegee men (people who wash car windshields at red lights and demand payment under the threat of vandalism). Bronson takes this bit of intimidation to the extreme by extricating a stereotypically-dressed nerd, with glasses and bowtie, from his car and throwing him headfirst into the windshield as his girlfriend screams in horror. Bronson is unhinged from the get-go and it comes to light that he once fought in Vietnam. This point is driven home in a sequence wherein he has a flashback and is attacked by the Vietcong. Bronson no doubt inspired the character of Wynyard, the drug-addicted frog in Peter Jackson’s hilarious 1989 Muppets send-up Meet the Feebles (years ago, Anchor Bay promised a deluxe DVD of the Feebles, however it soon disappeared from their “future” list. It has been no doubt delayed due to Mr. Jackson’s involvement in getting his Tolkien fantasies shot, but this would be a perfect film for Synapse to release). Another funny sequence takes place in a supermarket wherein a panhandler stuffs nearly a quarter of the store’s inventory down his pants and is offended when the store manager calls him out on it. The film's craziest sequence, however, involves the removal of a bum’s private part as others use it to play a game of catch, tossing it amongst themselves. It looks like it’s paying homage to the tossed bone in the air in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). It’s humorous but it goes on a little too long. One fellow reviewer referred to this film as “the greatest movie Troma never made,” and he’s absolutely right. In fact, Troma has been making so many crazy, off-the-wall parodies of other movies for nearly four decades that I initially thought that films like Street Trash and Peter Jackson’s wildly entertaining Bad Taste (1986) were made by them. The pacing of the film is a bit off, and it might have worked better as an 80-minute film rather than its full 101 feature-length running time. The timing of the film’s release following Larry Cohen’s The Stuff (1985), about a company that packages industrial waste into the form of a snack, is either deliberate or entirely coincidental, as that film concerns people who, after ingesting The Stuff, have awful things happen to them. If you are a fan of Street Trash, this new Blu-ray from Don May, Jr.’s excellent Synapse Films is a no-brainer. The transfer is absolutely gorgeous.

The film has been released many times before on VHS and laserdisc (both here and in Japan). Synapse Films released it in the US in 2005 as a single DVD disc, then in 2006 as a special edition two-disc set the following year. It is that set that is replicated on the single Blu-ray with the following extras:

The Meltdown Memoirs (2:04:00) I love when DVDs and Blu-rays offer documentaries that are occasionally longer than the feature film that they are discussing. Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary on Steve Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) is a case in point. The documentary on Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1995) runs roughly four hours long, as does the one on the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, Never Sleep Again. The same is true of the documentary on Rob Zombie's Halloween (2007) on Blu-ray. While some people may find this excessive, true diehard fans, including yours truly, love these added values. The Meltdown Memoirs is no exception. It runs just over two hours in length and is everything that a film documentary should be: entertaining, informative, and comprehensive. Just about everybody who appears in the film can be seen here as well. There is plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, discussions about the cast and financing the film, discussions about special effects, illustrations of conceptual art, the gloriously colorful cinematography and production design, etc. In short, this is just about everything that you need to know about this movie. The original cut of Street Trash ran nearly three hours (gulp!).

Audio commentary number one with writer/producer Roy Frumkes. It is a real pleasure to listen to Roy as he discusses many facets about the making of the film. Usually, special editions offer commentaries as well as interviews which tend to contain the exact same information just packaged differently. The idea behind this, I assume, is to give fans who like watching short interviews but do not like to listen to full-length commentaries the same information, however in truncated form. There is very little repetition in the way of what is mentioned in the audio commentary on this disc, as opposed to the documentary. This is really designed with the hardcore fan in mind, the person who’s going to watch and listen to every extra that the disc boasts.

Audio commentary number two with director James Munro. Director Munro speaks about this film from a technical standpoint which is helpful to people who work behind the camera. If you have already watched the two-hour documentary and listen to Mr. Frumkes, you can probably skip this track and not miss out too much. However, if you’re a completist, there are interesting anecdotes to be sure.

The original Street Trash 16mm short that inspired the feature-length film. This short runs approximately fifteen minutes in length and is interesting to see in contrast to the feature-length film.

The original Street Trash promotional teaser.

Deleted scenes and outtakes. Seven minutes of short scenes are featured here in a sequence that is exclusive to the Blu-ray.

Jane Arakawa interview. A nine-minute interview with one of the actresses from the film that is also exclusive to this Blu-ray.

Theatrical trailer. This runs about two minutes.

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