Evil Streets

Evil Streets is a 1998 American B movie indy horror film co-directed by Terry R. Wickham[1] and Joseph F. Parda,[2] starring SaRenna Lee, Joe Zaso, and Tina Krause.[4][7] The film is a horror anthology focused around three tales of urban terror,[8] desire, and hell in New York City.[3][9][10]

Evil Streets
Directed byTerry R. Wickham[1] & Joseph F. Parda[2][3]
Produced byTerry R. Wickham[4]
Joe Zaso[4][5]
Joseph F. Parda[4]
Michael Thomas-Knight[4][6]
Written byTerry R. Wickham[3][4]
Joseph F. Parda[3][4]
Michael Thomas-Knight[6]
StarringSaRenna Lee, Joe Zaso, Tina Krause[3][4]
Music byJay Alvino
Hollis Higgins[5]
Production
company
Cinema Image Productions
Knight Productions
Distributed byMantaRay Pictures
Release date
  • April 17, 1998 (1998-04-17)[4]
Running time
72 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States[4]
LanguageEnglish[4]

The film is best known for the appearance of the large breasted adult model SaRenna Lee,[11] and the film marked Lee's mainstream acting debut.[12]

Plot

The first story ("The Downfall of Johnny Garrett") begins with a young lady named "Sheila" (Nicole Bryl) getting revenge on street thug "Johnny Garrett" (Steve Rodriguez), who raped her, by contacting the spirit of her dead friend "Wendy" (Hillary Epstein).[3][6][9][10]

The second tale ("Szamota's Mistress") concerns an obsessed man named "Jerry Szamota" (Joe Zaso) who carries out his infatuation with "Jane K." (Tina Krause[7]) to a maddening degree of love.[3][9][10] The segment is based on short story of the same name by polish author Stefan Grabiński (Kochanka Szamoty, eng. Szamota's Mistress).

The last episode ("Stalk") stars big-bust model (SaRenna Lee[7]) as exotic dancer "Misty", who becomes the stalking target[3][10] of a muscular fanatic (David Greggo).[9]

Cast

Production

Development and themes

In 1996, guitarist/author Michael Knight asked Terry Wickham if he would be interested in directing a short film based on a short story Knight had written called “The Downfall of Johnny Garrett”.[8] Two years prior, Wickham had directed a music video for Knight’s song “The Phoenix” off his album called "Dreamscapes". Knight’s idea was that there was evil on the streets of the city, and he wanted to represent it with three films.[5] Knight's short story was adapted for film, and the original story only had two lines of dialogue in it. It ended up being filmed as a short, 15-minute segment in Evil Streets. The original story was themed like an old DC horror comics tale, a simple revenge story with a lot of visual aspects to it. Wickham's inspiration for one scene's shot in “The Downfall of Johnny Garrett” came from John Carpenter’s The Fog.[6]

One of the portions of the film came from Wickham’s friend Joseph F. Parda, who Wickham knew as a manager at a video rental store in Carle Place, New York. Parda would go on to work with producer/actor Joe Zaso and indie horror film star Tina Krause to create the David Lynch-like episode “Szamota’s Mistress.”[5]

Pre-production

Wickham had wanted to work with big-bust star SaRenna Lee on a feature film called Perishing Hearts after seeing her in Score Magazine, and he "made it clear to SaRenna he wouldn’t write one word without her coming onboard, because she was the only person he’d make the movie with". Lee then agreed to do the film.[5]

Open auditions were held at Mr. Electric Studios in Massapequa on October 25, 1996 for “The Downfall of Johnny Garrett”, which is where Wickham cast Steve Rodriguez. Wickham had already worked with Rodriguez, having directed Rodriguez's band’s “Fetish” music video.[6]

Filming

Wickham directed two episodes (“The Downfall of Johnny Garrett”[6] and “Stalk”)[1] and Parda directed “Szamota’s Mistress”[8] (with Joe Zaso serving as producer)[5] in the anthology.[2][3]

The segment “The Downfall of Johnny Garrett” was shot in eight days in Bellerose, Deer Park, East Meadow, Garden City, Queens Village, Massapequa, Merrick, Stonybrook, Uniondale, Wantagh, and New York City, New York, with the first night of shooting being on October 18, 1996. Scenes were filmed under the Bellerose Train Station on October 28, 1996, in an industrial park in Garden City Park (after the production had gotten kicked out of Roosevelt Raceway), at Hillary Epstein’s residence in Deer Park, NY on November 3, 1996, behind Mr. Electric Studios in Massapequa, NY on November 2, 1996, and behind Michael Knight's (at the time) music studio in Massapequa, NY. The crew had to utilize some unorthodox lighting by using lights that were actually powered by car batteries in some scenes, since they had little to no access to the electric grid. The crew was actually cut in half early on in the filming in order to minimize drawing the attention of the local police while shooting.[6]

Two of Michael Knight's friends (John Hoelzer & Ben Guzik) set up props and did the arm and bone prosthetics for an "arm chop" that occurs in “The Downfall of Johnny Garrett” and helped with lighting and as a production assistant respectively. Special effects artist Craig Lindberg set up the blood pump for the "arm chop", and Jason Alvino did the dead woman’s make up.[6]

The shoot for the rest of the movie was in 1997, and publicity photos were shot in an industrial park in Garden City Park, New York. One set ("Misty's Dressing Room") was actually built inside Wickhams's in-law's garage in Massapequa, New York. The climax scene of "Stalk" was filmed in Cold Spring Harbor High School's basement.[5]

"Szamota's Mistress" was filmed in black & white.[3]

Release

The movie's Spring 1998 premiere was held at the Malverne Cinema 4 Theatre in Malverne, New York, and the movie appeared at the 1998 Chiller Theatre Convention,[8] where some of the cast and crew were interviewed for a local cable television show.[5]

Critical response

Audience response

The movie has received widely-varying reviews online,[3] and the film has some gore in each part of the anthology, with the last of the three stories having a good deal of nudity.[10]

Home media

The movie was produced directly-to-VHS and sold by mail order for two years following its release.[8]

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References
  1. "Evil Streets Director to Release Found Footage Film Devil's Five". Dread Central. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  2. "Evil Streets". rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  3. "Evil Streets". The Video Graveyard. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  4. "Evil Streets (1998)". Cinema.theiapolis.com. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  5. "Evil Streets". MantaRay Pictures. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  6. Michael Thomas-Knight. "The Downfall of Johnny Garrett". mantaraypictures.com. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  7. Jeff Milne (20 July 2009). Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Complete Guide to the Movie Trivia Game. Jeff Milne. p. 1540. ISBN 978-0-615-28521-4. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  8. Michael Knight (2015-03-24). "Evil Streets 1998". Parlor of Horror. Retrieved 2015-08-24.
  9. Terry R. Wickham. "Evil Streets (1998)". IMDb. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  10. "Evil Streets 1998". buried.com. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  11. "SaRennas World - About Big Boob SaRenna Lee". SaRennas World. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  12. "SaRenna Lee". IMDb. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  13. Evil Streets (1998) - Full Cast & Crew - IMDb
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