Streets is a 1990 American thriller/drama film directed by Katt Shea and starring Christina Applegate and David Mendenhall.
Dawn, a drug-addicted teen prostitute living on the streets of Los Angeles, and Sy, a teenage boy with dreams of becoming a rock star, become friends after Sy rescues Dawn from a violent john. Dawn takes Sy under her wing and gives him a guided tour of the seedy underworld of Hollywood.
Katt Shea later recalled: <blockquote>That was me just exploring the undersideâ¦I tend to really like to explore people I donâÂÂt know and so I started doing research on the streets and talking to people who lived on the streets. I did a lot of research and they thought I was a homeless person and I hung out with the kids and stuff and then wrote from that research. I knew a girl who was a heroin addict that we based "Dawn" on her. She lived on the street or sometimes she lived with a very rich boyfriend, which was very very strange.</blockquote> Streets led to Shea being offered to direct the film Poison Ivy.
Variety wrote, "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."
Streets was released on VHS in mid 1990s through MGM/UA Home Entertainment. A double feature DVD edition was released in 2011 as part of the Roger Corman's Cult Classics collection, through Shout! Factory.