‘Street Trash’: Gross-Out 1987 Horror Classic is Getting a Remake!!

Break out the Tenafly Viper – horror cult classic Street Trash is getting a remake. Fried Barry helmer Ryan Kruger will direct the remake, which will debut on Screambox next year.

Variety reports that South African director Kruger, whose Fried Barry premiered on Shudder in 2021, will move the action of Street Trash from the slums of New York to his home country. Says Kruger, “Our reimagining of Street Trash takes place in Cape Town, South Africa where the growing divide between rich and poor has changed the world as we know it.” The new film will have more of a political message than the original, which was largely concerned with the horrific liquefaction of the human body, as it details an attempt to exterminate Cape Town’s homeless population. However, it certainly won’t skimp on the body horror, as Kruger promises “Our version of Street Trash will be raw, hilarious, packed with vibrant characters and multi-colored explosions of gooey greatness.”

Released in 1987, Street Trash centers around a New York liquor store owner who finds a case of decades-old “Tenafly Viper” booze in his basement. He sells the long-expired hooch to the local vagrant community–who quickly discover that anyone who drinks the toxic swill painfully and gruesomely melts into slime. A local cop tries to solve the mysterious deaths, while also contending with an unhinged Vietnam veteran who’s assembled an army of homeless veterans at the local junkyard.

Largely ignored upon its release, Street Trash became a cult classic on VHS, thanks to its impressively horrific special effects and the unique performances from its largely-unknown cast, although cast member R.L. Ryan also turned up in the Troma classic The Toxic Avenger, and Tony Darrow would go on to play Larry Barese on The Sopranos. Street Trash was directed by Jim Muro, and was the only feature he directed; however, he has gone on to helm episodes of Shameless, SEAL Team, and Longmire, and worked as a Steadicam operator on films like The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Point Break, and The Fast and the Furious.

Muro and Roy Frumkes, who wrote and produced the original Street Trash, will executive produce the remake alongside Bad Dragon and Vinegar Syndrome. Justin Martell and Matt Manjourides of Not the Funeral Home will produce, with Chris McGurk, Brandon Hill, Brad Miska, and Yolanda Macias executive producing for Cineverse.