The Toxic Avenger (film)

This article is about the film. For the musical stage adaptation, see The Toxic Avenger (musical).
The Toxic Avenger

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Michael Herz
Lloyd Kaufman (as Samuel Weil)
Produced by Michael Herz
Lloyd Kaufman
Stuart Strutin
Written by Lloyd Kaufman
Joe Ritter
Starring Mitch Cohen
Mark Torgl
Andree Maranda
Pat Ryan Jr.
Cinematography Lloyd Kaufman
James London
Edited by Richard W. Haines
Distributed by Troma Entertainment
Release dates
  • May 1984
Running time
 87 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $500,000[1]
Box office $800,000

The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 American dark superhero film 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 famed Bleecker Street Cinemas in New York City in late 1985. It now is regarded as a cult classic.

The film has generated three film sequels, a stage musical production and a children's TV cartoon.[2] 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. A fourth sequel entitled The Toxic Avenger 5: Toxic Twins is planned for a future release. 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 deal fell through.

Plot

Melvin Ferd III, a stereotypical 98-pound weakling, works as a janitor at the Tromaville Health Club in the fictional Tromaville, New Jersey, and is regularly tormented by club customers Bozo, Slug, Wanda and Julie. The Mayor of Tromaville is Peter Belgoody, who, unknown to the citizens of the town, is also the leader of a massive Tromaville crime ring, but hides this fact by promoting good will and proposed justice to the town as a cover-up.

As days go by, Melvin's tormentors grow more and more violent, even deliberately running over a young boy on a bike with their car just for thrills and taking photos of the carnage afterwards. Finally, one day they trick Melvin into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep. He is chased around the health club by other customers and, jumping out of a second story window, lands in a drum of toxic waste which immediately causes severe burns and disfigurement. Despite the burning chemicals even causing him to burst into flames, Melvin survives and stumbles home. Drawing a bath to try and scrub some of the chemical residue from his horribly scarred flesh, Melvin begins his transformation into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength, and an instinctive ability of locating evildoers.

Elsewhere, a group of drug dealers led by the criminal Cigar Face are harassing a police officer by the name of O'Clancy, trying to buy him off. When he refuses to accept the money, Cigar Face and his gang attack and brutalize him. Then, just as Cigar Face prepares to castrate Officer O'Clancy with his gun, a large creature comes out of nowhere and violently kills Cigar Face's goons Knuckles and Nipples, and leaves a mop on their faces as a call sign. Cigar Face survives, but has had his testicles smashed by the creature before escaping. O'Clancy is initially terrified, but the creature approaches him and politely apologizes for his behavior. Belgoody is shocked at the deaths of some of his goons, but is still confident that the Monster will not come looking for him, hoping that one of his goons will kill him eventually.

The officer's rescuer, dubbed the "Monster Hero", is the now-profoundly mutated Melvin, who, while he retains his good heart, now displays a penchant towards extreme violence against evildoers. He tries to return home, but his mother ends up panicking upon the sight of him. Wracked with sorrow, Melvin builds a makeshift home in a junkyard. Later on, three men named Leroy, Frank and Rico hold up a Mexican fast food restaurant. Leroy kills one of the patrons and Frank attacks a blind woman named Sara after Leroy kills her guide dog. But then the miscreants are attacked by Melvin, who wreaks bloody vengeance on the three men and takes Sara back to her home, where they begin to get to know one another and progressively fall in love. Melvin returns to the Health Club, killing a drug dealer and attacking Wanda, searing her rear end on the hot stove of a sauna; afterwards, he fights a pimp and his goons who are trying to push a 12-year-old girl on him. The Monster Hero soon starts building up a friendly reputation in Tromaville by doing all sorts of "superhero" work, from saving two younger boys from being run over by Bozo's car to even helping the elderly to cross the street.

Meanwhile, Belgoody is becoming more and more aware about what is happening to his goons, as not only are they being killed by the Monster Hero, but some of them are also turning themselves over to the police for their own safety. He is now worried that his operations will be exposed, and wants the Monster Hero to be taken care of. One night, Cigar Face returns (covered in bandages and casts) and brings along a new group of Belgoody's goons to surround the Monster with guns. Before they fire on him, he jumps up to a fire escape and they end up shooting and killing each other. The Monster Hero returns to the Health Club again and attacks Julie, forcingly depriving her (offscreen) of her hair. Soon afterwards, he confronts the last of his tormentors, Bozo and Slug, who have attacked an old woman and stolen her car after Julie didn't show up. Bozo and Slug try to run him over, but the Monster jumps on top of the car, kills them both and crashes the vehicle, walking away from the wreckage unharmed.

Later, when the Monster Hero kills a seemingly innocent old midget woman in a dry cleaning store (it is later revealed that she is in fact a leader of an underground white slave trade) by throwing her into the store's washing machine, the Monster Hero wanders back to his junkyard home, revealing his true identity to Sara and feeling terrified and guilty for what he has become. Sara, however, tells Melvin that she still loves him no matter what he looks like, and the two decide to move away from the city and into a tent in the nearby woods.

However, Belgoody finds out about the Monster Hero's "mishap" and uses this opportunity to call in the National Guard in hopes of finally killing him. Soon Sara and the Monster are discovered in the woods and surrounded by both the National Guard and the townspeople. Belgoody arrives, intent on killing him (whereas the National Guard's request was originally for capture), but thanks to Mevlin's kind duties to the town, the people of Tromaville, including Melvin's mother, will have none of it. Belgoody opens fire anyway, but his bullets fail to harm Melvin, who messily disembowels Belgoody. The film ends with the townspeople's celebration at the Monster's acceptance and a reassuring epilogue that wherever evil brews in Tromaville, Melvin, now dubbed the "Toxic Avenger", will be there to protect the town.

Cast

Production

This was the film that "built the house of Troma",[3] 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.[1]

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.[1][4] Kaufman wrote the script with the help of writer Joe Ritter.

Several cut scenes are viewable on the film's Director's Cut DVD. Some of these scenes involve Bozo and his gang at the Health Club, Melvin (as the Monster) and his growing relationship with Sara, conversations between Belgoody and his henchmen, and Wanda and Julie having a fight in the police station after they try to complain about Melvin's assaults and end up laughing about their respective maladies.

Filming

Scenes for the film were shot at various locations in New Jersey, including Jersey City, Boonton, Harrison, and Rutherford during the summer of 1983.[5]

Reception

The Toxic Avenger received a 63% "fresh" rating from critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[6]

In other media

The Toxic Avenger has been adapted to other media:

Remake

According to Kaufman, due to the remake Mother's Day, major motion picture companies are interested in doing remakes of other Troma films. Among the titles currently in negotiations is The Toxic Avenger.[13] On April 6, 2010, a remake of The Toxic Avenger was announced.[14] The remake was said to be aiming for a family-friendly PG-13 release similar to the Toxic Crusaders.

The film is to be co-written and directed by Steve Pink of Hot Tub Time Machine.[15]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "The Original Toxic Avenger". Troma Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  2. ↑ Westbrook, Caroline (2003-11-07). "Lloyd Kaufman". Something Jewish. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  3. ↑ Baumgarten, Marjorie (2001-05-30). "The Toxic Avenger: The Unrated Director's Cut". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Leitner, Lucy (23 November 2004). "Read your own damn story - about making your own damn movie". The Pitt News. Retrieved August 3, 2006.
  5. ↑ The Star Ledger. October 26, 2014. pg. E7
  6. ↑ "The Toxic Avenger Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-05-02.
  7. ↑ "The Big Database of Comic Books". Retrieved October 11, 2006.
  8. ↑ "LEE SULLIVAN ART Comics". Retrieved July 7, 2009.
  9. ↑ "The 2007 TromaDance Film Festival - Donate to TromaDance!". Retrieved July 14, 2007.
  10. ↑ "TOXIE SINGS HIS LUNGS OUT".
  11. ↑ Motley, John. "Toxic Avenger: The Musikill". Portland Mercury. Retrieved August 3, 2006.
  12. ↑ "The Lincoln Journal Star". Retrieved July 29, 2004.
  13. ↑ Lloyd Kaufman interview with Micro-Shock.com regarding the potential Toxic Avenger remake @ Cinema Wasteland, Strongville Ohio, October 2009
  14. ↑ "The Toxic Avenger Gets Remade". Craptastic Movies.
  15. ↑ "Steve Pink to Remake 'The Toxic Avenger'". ComingSoon.net.

External links

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