Just 4,000 copies, and not one of them on Amazon. Synapse Films is releasing a two-disc 4K restoration of Street Trash, James Muro’s 1987 melt movie, the week of December 7, at $49.95.
The transfer is a new 4K remaster struck from the original 35mm camera negative and presented in Dolby Vision, and Synapse credits original cinematographer David Sperling with supervising and approving it. The label bills the set as the only 4K release signed off by both Sperling and producer Roy Frumkes. Audio comes as a lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix alongside the original 2.0 theatrical mono, and artist Wes Benscoter designed the side-loading chipboard hardbox the discs sit in.
Two Hours of Documentary on a 102-Minute Movie
Most of the package is archival, and as with the Repo! The Genetic Opera 4K, the documentary is a large part of the draw:
- Two audio commentaries, one with Frumkes and one with Muro
- The Meltdown Memoirs, a two-hour documentary on the making of the film
- The original 16mm Street Trash short that the feature grew out of
- Jane, an interview with star Jane Arakawa
- A conversation with writer and producer Roy Frumkes
- The original promotional teaser and an “In Production” advertisement
- Anniversary cast and crew Q&As, deleted scenes and the theatrical trailer
The discs are region free and run the uncut 102 minutes. Synapse is selling the set direct and through DiabolikDVD, OrbitDVD and select Vinegar Syndrome storefronts, and skipping the big retailers, so there is no point waiting for it to surface on Amazon. Orbit has preorders open at $49.99, while Synapse’s own listing was already showing sold out at the time of writing.
Frumkes wrote and produced the film in 1987 around a single idea: a case of forty-year-old liquor called Tenafly Viper turns up in a liquor store cellar, sells for a dollar a bottle, and dissolves anyone who drinks it into colored sludge. It is a title that lives or dies on how the goo reads on screen, which is the whole argument for a fresh scan of the negative rather than another upscale. Anyone searching after the 2024 film of the same name should note that this is the original, not the remake.