Despite its B-film framework involving a maniacal killer stalking street kids, Streets transcends its genre with a gritty and affecting portrait of a teenage throwaway struggling to exist in LA’s demimonde. Director Katt Shea Ruben, who scripted with her producer-husband Andy Ruben, clearly had more ambitious things in mind than just another Concorde thriller in which nubile girls are stalked and murdered.
Christina Applegate’s solid performance in her first starring feature as the jaded but still sensitive Dawn, who sells sex to survive and shoots up heroin to get through the day, speaks volumes about the scuzzy side of LA life. Working with a minimal budget and a 19-day shooting sked, Ruben conjures up an impressive, subtly fantastic atmosphere.
Yet since this is a Roger Corman production, neorealism isn’t enough, and there has to be a psycho killer (vampirish policeman Eb Lottimer), who preys on street kids and becomes obsessed with eliminating Applegate. Although without much insight into the character of the killer, Streets has a compelling pattern of visual suspense.
