The Toxic Avenger (film)

The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 American superhero black comedy splatter film directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman (credited as Samuel Weil) and written by Kaufman and Joe Ritter. It is the first installment of The Toxic Avenger franchise. The film was released by Troma Entertainment, known for producing low budget B-movies with campy concepts and gruesome violence. Virtually ignored upon its first release, The Toxic Avenger caught on with filmgoers after a long and successful midnight movie engagement at the Bleecker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village in late 1985. It is now regarded as a cult classic.

The Toxic Avenger
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Produced by
  • Michael Herz
  • Lloyd Kaufman
  • Stuart Strutin
Screenplay by
  • Joe Ritter
Story by
  • Lloyd Kaufman
Starring
Cinematography
  • Lloyd Kaufman
  • James London
Edited byRichard W. Haines
Distributed byTroma Entertainment
Release date
  • May 1984 (1984-05) (New York)
  • April 11, 1986 (1986-04-11)
Running time
79 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$500,000[2]
Box office$800,000

The film has generated a media franchise including three film sequels, a stage musical production, a video game and a children's TV cartoon.[3] Two less successful sequels, The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, were filmed as one. Director Lloyd Kaufman realized that he had shot far too much footage for one film and re-edited it into two. A third independent sequel was also released, titled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. An animated children's TV series spin-off, Toxic Crusaders, featured Toxie as the leader of a team of mutated superheroes who fought against evil alien polluters. The cartoon series was short-lived and quickly cancelled. New Line Cinema had planned a live-action film based on the cartoon, but the project was never produced.

In 2019, it was announced that Legendary Entertainment would be producing a reboot of the film, with original creators Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz of Troma Entertainment serving as producers, and Macon Blair serving as writer and director.[4]

Plot

Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl) is a 98-pound weakling who works as a janitor at a health club in the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey, where the customers—particularly Bozo (Gary Schneider), Slug (Robert Prichard), Wanda (Jennifer Babtist) and Julie (Cindy Manion)—harass him constantly. His tormentors become more violent, even deliberately killing a young boy on a bike with their car and taking photos of the carnage afterward. One day, they trick Melvin into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep. He is chased around the health club and out a second story window. He lands in a drum of toxic waste, which sets him on fire. After running down the street in a ball of flames, Melvin douses the flames in his bathtub. The chemicals cause him to transform into a hideously deformed creature, but he is also gifted with superhuman size and strength.

A group of drug dealers, led by the criminal Cigar Face (Dan Snow), are harassing a police officer named O'Clancy (Dick Martinsen), trying to buy him off. When he refuses to accept the money, Cigar Face and his gang prepare to castrate him. Melvin appears out of nowhere and violently kills the criminals, then leaves a mop on their faces as a call sign. Cigar Face manages to escape, promising to return to take revenge. Melvin then tries to return home, but his mother is terrified of him and will not let him in the house; so Melvin, publicly dubbed "The Monster Hero" (also known as "The Toxic Avenger" or "Toxie") and hailed as a hero, builds a makeshift home in the junkyard.

Elsewhere in Tromaville, a gang of three men are holding up a Mexican restaurant and attack a blind woman named Sarah (Andree Maranda). They kill her guide dog and attempt to rape her, but are stopped by Melvin, who wreaks bloody vengeance on them. Toxie takes Sarah back to her home, where they begin to get to know one another and subsequently become romantically involved. Melvin continues to fight crime, including drug dealers and pimps for underage prostitutes, and also takes revenge on the four tormentors who caused his transformation. First, he attacks Wanda in the health club's sauna and burns her backside on the heater. He later returns to the club, pursues Julie into the basement, and cuts off her hair. He then confronts Bozo and Slug after they brutally stole a car, ending in Slug getting thrown out of the moving car and Bozo driving off the side of a cliff, killing him.

As Melvin gives aid to the people in the city, Mayor Belgoody (Pat Ryan Jr.), the leader of Tromaville's extensive crime ring, is horrified of what is happening to his goons. He is worried that it will lead back to him and wants Melvin to be taken care of. A group of men, led by Cigar Face, surround Melvin with guns. Just before they fire on him, he leaps up to a fire escape, so that they end up shooting each other.

When Melvin kills a seemingly innocent old woman in a dry cleaning store (she is in fact a leader of an underground human trafficking ring), Belgoody uses this opportunity to call in the United States National Guard. Back in his junkyard home, Melvin is terrified of what he has become, and he and Sarah decide to move away from the city and take a tent into nearby woods. They are eventually discovered, and the Mayor and the National Guard come to kill him, but the people of Tromaville will have none of it. The Mayor's evil ways are revealed, and Melvin proceeds to rip out Belgoody's organs to see if he has "any guts". The movie ends with a reassurance that the Toxic Avenger will continue to combat crime in Tromaville.

Cast
  • Mitch Cohen as The Toxic Avenger
    • Kenneth Kessler as Voice of The Toxic Avenger
  • Mark Torgl as Melvin Ferd III
  • Andree Maranda as Sara
  • Pat Ryan Jr. as Mayor Peter Belgoody
  • Sarabel Levinson as Mrs. Ferd
  • Dan Snow as Cigar Face
  • Dick Martinsen as Officer O'Clancy
  • Gary Schneider as Bozo
  • Robert Prichard as Slug
  • Jennifer Babtist as Wanda
  • Cindy Manion as Julie
  • Chris Liano as Walter Harris
  • David N. Weiss as Chief of Police
  • Doug Isbecque as Knuckles
  • Charles Lee, Jr. as Nipples
  • Pat Kilpatrick as Leroy
  • Larry Sulton as Frank
  • Michael Russo as Rico
  • Al Pia as Tom Wrightson
  • Dennis Souder as Drug dealer
  • Steven J. Zmed as Gaseous Maximus the human trash can
  • Xavier Barquet as Man shot in Restaurant
  • Reuben Guss as Dr. Snodburger
  • Matt Klan as Boy Hero
  • Dominick J. Calvitto as Skippy, Boy on Bicycle
  • Rick Hochman as the Hoch
  • Marisa Tomei (Director's cut) as Girl in Locker Room

Production

The Toxic Avenger was the film that "built the house of Troma",[5] and was Troma's first horror film. Previously the production company focused on sex comedies such as Cry Uncle! and Squeeze Play!. Subsequently, Troma focused almost exclusively on horror films.[2]

In 1975, Lloyd Kaufman had the idea to shoot a horror film involving a health club while serving as the pre-production supervisor on the set of Rocky. At the Cannes Film Festival, Kaufman had read an article that said horror films were no longer popular, so Kaufman claims that he decided to produce his own version of the horror film. The film's final outcome was less a bona fide horror film and more of a campy superhero-spoof with extreme violence embedded throughout. The setting of the movie in a health club and the movie was given a working title of Health Club Horror.[2][6]

Filming

Principal photography for The Toxic Avenger took place at various locations in New Jersey, including Jersey City, Boonton, Paramus, Harrison, and Rutherford during the summer of 1983.[7] Filming was later reported to be completed in 1983.[8]

The car chase scene was inspired by the final truck scene in George Miller's film Mad Max 2.[9]

Release

Home media

The Toxic Avenger was released by Troma for the first time on DVD on March 25, 1998. It was later re-released by Troma on November 20, 2000 and again on September 3, 2002; with the latter release of the film being a part of a 4-Disk Toxic Avenger movie pack. The film was later picked up for distribution by Prism, who later released the film on February 2, 2004. Troma later released a 21st Anniversary Edition version of the film on March 29, 2005. On March 7, 2006; the film was released by Koch Entertainment. The film would not receive another home media release until Troma released a "Japanese Cut" of the film on December 11, 2012. Troma would release the film for the first time on Blu-ray on August 12, 2014. On November 18, later that year, it was again released on Blu-ray by Import Vendor.[10]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Toxic Avenger holds an approval rating of 70%, based on 20 reviews, and an average rating of 5.5/10. It's consensus reads, "A silly and ribald superhero spoof, Toxic Avenger uninhibited humor hits more than it misses."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "Mixed or average reviews".[12]

Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, calling the film, "A funny spoof... Not without violence and gore but still entertaining."[13] Stephen Holden of The New York Times rated the film a score of 3/5, complimenting the film for its " maniacally farcical sense of humor", while also noting that the film itself was trash.[14]

The film was not without its detractors. TV Guide gave the film a negative 1/5 stars, writing "Though it is silly, sleazy, and graphically violent, The Toxic Avenger does hold a bit of warped charm for fans of this sort of thing."[15] Keith Phipps from The A.V. Club was highly critical of the film, writing, "As for the movie itself, it's still a piece of trash, if a marginally entertaining one: It's too self-consciously parodic to be good kitsch, and too gross to be all that fun."[16]

Reboot

According to Kaufman, due to the remake of Mother's Day, major motion picture companies were interested in doing remakes of other Troma films. Among the titles that were in negotiations was The Toxic Avenger.[17] On April 6, 2010, a remake of The Toxic Avenger was announced.[18]

The remake, said to be aiming for a family-friendly PG-13 release similar to the Toxic Crusaders television series, is to be co-written and directed by Steve Pink.[19] In May 2013, Arnold Schwarzenegger entered talks for a role in the film.[20] Sometime in late 2013, Schwarzenegger dropped out to work on Terminator Genisys, but, as of February 2015, plans for the remake continued to circulate.[21] On September 12, 2016, Variety reported that Conrad Vernon will direct the film with executive producers Guillermo Del Toro of Double Dare You, Bob Cooper and Alex Schwartz of Storyscape Entertainment and Akiva Goldsman and Greg Lessans of Weed Road. Mike Arnold and Chris Poole are on board to rewrite the screenplay by Pink and Daniel C. Mitchell.[22]

On December 10, 2018, it was announced that Legendary Pictures has won the rights to reboot the film, with Kaufman and Herz to serve as producers.[23] In March 2019, Macon Blair was announced as director of the upcoming reboot.[24]

References
  1. "THE TOXIC AVENGER (18)". British Board of Film Classification. November 5, 1986. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  2. "The Original Toxic Avenger". Troma Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  3. Westbrook, Caroline (2003-11-07). "Lloyd Kaufman". Something Jewish. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  4. "Macon Blair to Direct and Write 'Toxic Avenger' Reboot for Legendary". Variety.
  5. Baumgarten, Marjorie (2001-05-30). "The Toxic Avenger: The Unrated Director's Cut". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  6. Leitner, Lucy (23 November 2004). "Read your own damn story - about making your own damn movie". The Pitt News. Archived from the original on 2011-06-22. Retrieved August 3, 2006.
  7. The Star Ledger. October 26, 2014. pg. E7
  8. "Catalog - The Toxic Avenger". AFI.com. American FIlm Institute. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  9. The Toxic Avenger DVD - Lloyd Kaufman commentary track
  10. "The Toxic Avenger (1984) - Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman". Allmovie.com. Allmovie. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  11. "The Toxic Avenger (1984) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixter. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  12. "Critics Reviews for The Toxic Avenger - Metacritic". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  13. Jonathan Harchick (28 October 2013). Leonard Maltin's 2014 Movie Guide: Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. Createspace Independent Pub. p. 1448. ISBN 978-1-4936-2083-8.
  14. Holden, Stephen. "FILM: 'TOXIC AVENGER' - The New York Times". New York Times.com. Stephen Holden. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  15. "The Toxic Avenger - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings". TV Guide.com. TV Guide. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  16. Phipps, Keith. "Toxic Avenger: The Unrated Director's Cut". AVClub.com. Keith Phipps. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  17. Lloyd Kaufman interview with Micro-Shock.com regarding the potential Toxic Avenger remake @ Cinema Wasteland, Strongville Ohio, October 2009 Archived September 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  18. "The Toxic Avenger Gets Remade". Craptastic Movies. Archived from the original on May 13, 2010.
  19. "Steve Pink to Reboot 'The Toxic Avenger'". ComingSoon.net.
  20. "Arnold Schwarzenegger in Talks to Star in 'Toxic Avenger' Remake". The Hollywood Reporter. May 13, 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  21. "Toxic Avenger Remake Still "Trying to Happen", Without Schwarzenegger". Nuke the Fridge. February 14, 2015. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
  22. Kroll, Justin (February 14, 2016). "'Sausage Party' Co-Director Conrad Vernon to Helm 'Toxic Avenger' Remake". Variety.
  23. Pearson, Ben (December 10, 2018). "Toxic Avenger Remake Still Developing as Legendary Scoops Up the Rights". SlashFilm.
  24. Kroll, Justin (March 21, 2019). "Macon Blair to Direct and Write 'Toxic Avenger' Reboot for Legendary". Variety.
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