As a child Owen (Adrian Grenier) survived a fire that killed his parents and disfigured his sister Pearl (AnnaLynne McCord). He was raised by a hateful maternal grandmother Violet (Fionnula Flanagan). He ran away as a child and hasn't been home since.Owen is in therapy and has an off and on serious girlfriend Isabel (Angela Trimbur). Owen is apathetic and volunteers too much information which is part of the fun. Isabel is pregnant and threatens to abort the baby unless Owen straightens up and meets her demands, one of which is to re-unite with his estranged family...the one that blames Owen for accidentally starting the fire and really doesn't want to see him either.This is a cult film. It contains dark quirky humor. It has very little "horror" in it. All the characters are flawed and enjoyable. Not for everyone.Guide: F-word. Bad sex. Nudity (Angela Trimbur).Winner of Audience Award Boston Underground Film Festival 2016

'Trash Fire' reminded me a little of 'Tusk'. Very different films (both of which I happened to love), but with one common similarity at the centre of them - the characters have some actual depth to them. The first half of 'Trash Fire' I couldn't work where exactly the horror tag IMDb had attached to it was coming from. It seemed purely like a relationship-drama and a character-study of sorts. What I didn't realise was that all of that was purely character development and set-up, something almost unheard of in your average horror movie.Even after completing the movie, using the term horror might be stretching things a little. There are certainly particular scenes that would fit right into a horror movie, but I think the whole thing is intended more as a very dark comedy/drama. In fact, very dark indeed. I liked it a lot though. Each and every one of the characters was fascinating in its own way. Almost all of the dialogue is excellently written and quite thought-provoking. The acting was also immensely impressive from the entire cast. I went in with low expectations and was treated to a nice surprise.

There's a quote that this movie reminds me of - "Horror is not a genre, but an emotion." Is this a typical horror movie? No. Is this an atypical horror movie? Absolutely.From the beginning, the dialogue and characters pull us into their unhealthy relationship...all stemming from the protagonist feeling guilty for burning his parents to death, and leaving his sister disfigured. Not only is he unable to form healthy, loving relationships as an adult, he also has seizures periodically (one of which is in a classic bedroom scene). When his girlfriend tells him she's pregnant, the idea does not go over well, but he does have a revelation that he wants to really try to love. She demands they visit his grandmother and sister so he can make reprimands and learn to become a healthy family. From the second they arrive, the relationship with the religious zealot Grandmother is tense...and it only gets worse from there. The emotions boil over, and once we see the true misguided darkness in the Grandmother. Everything is balanced with humor. The climax builds slowly, and the final scene explodes. This is definitely not a horror movie for those wanting mindless slashing and brutality. I would have given this horror movie a 9 or 10 if the ending had a little more power, like the director's previous work, "Excision." But I felt the final scene lacked a little shock value. Other than that, the movie is fantastic...horror, but not typical. If you liked "Excision," you won't be disappointed.

Saw this last night at TAD. It came after one of the best, if not the best, films we've ever seen there -- "Under the Shadow". Coming out of "Under the Shadow" we said the next show has a tough act to follow. Oh boy! Should have known we were in trouble when they play the director comments and he mock apologized for the angst we were about to feel at the ending. He should have apologized for the whole thing and we should have left right then and there. We suffered for the first half hour of mean, nasty and pointless urban couple bickering. Think of the worst couple conversations you've heard on the subway in the course of your life and you get the idea. It was horrible, but not horror (unless you think "Heart of Darkness" where Kurtz sums up the whole African experience for him as "The horror! the horror!").Anyway, the rating sums it up. 1 star because you can't give 0 stars.