Posted in: Horror, Movies | Tagged: Cineverse, ryan kruger, Street Trash

Street Trash Director on Bringing Back Over-the-Top 80s Special FX

Director, writer and actor Ryan Kruger (Fried Barry) spoke to Bleeding Cool about his latest body horror film "Street Trash" for Cineverse.

There's something to be said about the golden age of practical effects in the 1970s and 80s, especially when it comes to horror and action-comedy films that were heavily in transformations and body horror. Some of the best examples of this are John Landis' An American Werewolf in London (1981), Tom Holland's Fright Night (1985), David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986), Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987), and Jim Michael Muro's Street Trash (1987). As a writer, filmmaker, and star, Ryan Kruger wanted to bring back the glory of that era of filmmaking in his legacy sequel film of the same name in 2024, with original 1987 writers Muro and Roy Frumkes' blessing and co-writing the latest incarnation with James C. Williamson.

The 2024 Street Trash takes place in the same universe as the Muro film and is set in 2050 when global economic turmoil has destroyed the middle class in Cape Town, South Africa, which is now divided between the ultra-rich and the displaced. Ronald (Sean Cameron Michael) and a group of fellow houseless friends uncover a plot by the local government to 'wash away' the houseless population with a sinister chemical agent called 'V.' Now, they must risk everything to expose the truth and resist a society that's determined to erase them. Kruger spoke to Bleeding Cool about honoring the 1987 original film while creating his standalone feature, collaborating creatively with Muro, Frumkes, and Williamson, the most difficult sequences to film, and the future.

Street Trash Director Ryan Kruger on His Labor of Love to the Practical Effects of '80s Films

Bleeding Cool: What intrigued you about 'Street Trash' and how did the 1987 original influence you?

It was one of the first things I didn't know I would do the film. I didn't set out to do it. I think from the release of 'Fried Barry' (2020), the producers, Justin [A. Martell] and Matt [Manjouides] approached me and asked, "Would you like to do 'Street Trash' and write a script?" That excited me because I was a fan of the 1987 original. At the same time, I wanted to push it as a sequel. For a new audience and be a standalone film, but for the fans, it's a sequel, and we mention the original film in our movie.

I wanted to bring something new to the film, bring a new audience in, and change it up. As a fan of the original, I wanted to give some nice, good nods to the original and references, but at the same time, bring something new and different to the film franchise and have those strong characters that people love. It's important we have a lot of prosthetics and not CGI. As a fan of the original and 80s films, we grew up with prosthetics. We want prosthetics and love that in-camera stuff. I was a fan of 80s movies, and the fact we shot on 35mm was also awesome. It gave that 80s look as well, which was awesome.

What was it like working with Roy, Jim, and James on this, and what were they like as creative partners?

They were more like creative partners. We got their blessing. They liked the script, and it was more of a nice approval from them, which is great. As I said, I wanted to do my own thing and didn't want to copy it. That's why it was important to bring the elements, what the fan base likes, like the prosthetics and that whole 80s feel, like the Steadicam and all that. It was important to have that, but I'll say it's nice to have it in Cape Town, South Africa, and in the distant future.

How do you break down the casting, and were there any faces in the original you wanted back specifically?

Not really. When it came to the casting, because it was set in South Africa…at one point, we thought about trying to get somebody from the original. [Our film is set] on that same timeline, but later, in South Africa. It was more like I said; it was more of a mention of where the original came from.

What was the most difficult sequence to pull off?

The most difficult part was probably one that involved all the prosthetics, where it's one scene you do in a single take. Once the prosthetics are gone, then you've got a reset, and sometimes a reset might take an hour and a half or longer. The hardest one was probably the dumpster guy. When he melts, his arm comes off, his leg snaps, and then his face melts off. To get some of the timing right, that was probably the hardest. Overall, we did some pickup shots for that scene because we wanted to push more with the prosthetics. Actor-wise, it was freezing, like we were shooting in winter, so that pipes leaked goo on the people, and it was freezing there. It was hard for the actors, but again, it was a lot of fun after they got cleaned up.

What's next for you? Is there something you want to possibly expand upon in the future with another 'Street Trash?' Would you want to work on something else, perhaps something in the Troma Universe or something else?

I love all genres of movies. If something comes my way or I get approached with something, I'm keen to write it; then I'll do it. I don't want to stick to just one thing. I have access to so many different scripts, whether it's time travel, this, or that. There's a possibility I might do a 'Fried Barry 2.' There are a lot of people who have seen 'Street Trash' who have asked me if I would do a sequel. I'm always open to it, and then it's all about getting the right story and doing that. It's always important instead of rushing it and making a film for the sake of doing it.

Thank you for your time. You do great work, and I don't think we see enough strict use of practical effects in cinema with the painstaking hours it takes. Everything is so streamlined, and I feel appreciation for the work that gets lost in the process. It's sped up and feels like the soul goes completely out of it.

That's exactly it, and here's the thing. There are not enough of these amazing prosthetics guys out there, and when they do it a lot of times in modern films, it's still split with CGI and edited fast. We wanted to feel and breathe that. There are not enough films doing that. As a big 80s lover, going back and doing all these prosthetics was awesome. It was so fucking cool. I missed seeing movies like that as a young kid, watching that kind of stuff and sitting in my room with my little TV, watching [the original] 'Street Trash' with my friends. There's something about that time we don't have that anymore. I try my best to recreate that, have those nods to the 70s and 80s films, and try to bring that back as much as possible.

Cineverse's Street Trash, which also stars Donna Cormack-Thomson, Joe Vax, Lloyd Martinez Newkirk, Shuraigh Meyer, Gary Green, and Warrick Grier, is available on digital.

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