With The Toxic Avenger, writer-director Macon Blair attempts to breathe some new life into the adventures of New Jersey’s greatest superhero, but the results are mixed and sludgy. While it’s admirable that someone is trying to take a cult favourite from one of the most outside-the-box thinking independent studios in history and bring it into the modern era, The Toxic Avenger loses some of its charm in its transition from Troma to greener pastures. The original Toxic Avenger films (the brainchild of Troma mastermind and indie filmmaking pioneer Lloyd Kaufman) had a scrappy, punk rock, poor taste, politically incorrect, DIY aesthetic that endeared itself to fans of great sleaze and slime. Blair’s take is something more akin to a mainstream movie with a bunch of transgressive jokes and outlandish gore, and I’m not sure the pivot works, nor that it will be to all genre buff’s tastes.
Sad sack Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) is trying to adjust to life as a widower and single-stepfather to an awkward teenage son (Jacob Tremblay). He works as a janitor down at the local chemical plant, a job that’s just given him a terminal brain illness that will likely kill him within a year’s time. The health insurance provided by his greedy, egotistical employer (Kevin Bacon) won’t cover potentially life saving treatment, so Winston seeks revenge. But while trying to steal from his boss, Winston finds himself caught in the middle of an incident where a former employee and whistleblower (Taylour Paige) is trying to expose the company’s various criminal enterprises and environmentally damaging practices. A literal band of thugs, led by the boss’ freakish looking younger brother (Elijah Wood), try to kill Winston by shooting him and dumping the body in a vat of toxic waste. The ooze causes Gooze to mutate into an unkillable monster who’ll come to be known as The Toxic Avenger.
The Toxic Avenger is another one of those superhero origin story movies, and that’s precisely what Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) wants to lampoon through the lens of classic Troma outlandishness. But instead of going the full on parody route, Blair picks and chooses when he wants his version of The Toxic Avenger to be silly nonsense and when it lapses over into being a more serious minded and polished motion picture. The Toxic Avenger is a movie that’s trying to have things both ways, wanting to be nostalgic and modern at the same time. It doesn’t always nail that balance, but Blair deserves some amount of applause for trying something different with the material. I’m not sure a more polished and sentimental version of this story is what fans of Troma are hoping for here, and I’m less sure that anyone outside of those familiar with the source will be interested in this, but a swing is a swing even if the final results aren’t always connecting.
Hiring an actor of Dinklage’s pedigree and talent level speaks to the sort of direction Blair wants to head in with The Toxic Avenger. While Winston is a bit of a bumbling fool, he’s also relatable, likeable, and has a good heart even though he lacks courage. Dinklage’s performance and Blair’s handling of the character is rooted in more realistic displays of human emotion instead of wall to wall buffoonery and gore. That performance carries through after Toxie’s transformation, with Luisa Guerreiro donning the make-up and suit and Dinklage continuing to provide the voice of the character. In the original films, Toxie was just an everyday Joey Bagga Donuts, and that’s still the case here, but Blair and Dinklage handle things with a slight degree more seriousness.
Stylistically, Blair is also trying something different. Although there’s some flashes of boundary pushing gore and bad taste gags, there’s nothing in The Toxic Avenger that’s on the level of the original, which makes me wonder if saying that the film’s failure to “improve” upon a Troma production is a good thing or a bad thing. Instead, Blair goes for something a bit more gothically inspired for his take on things, with villains Bacon and Wood (both of whom are a hoot to watch) seemingly taking their cues from Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, which is a great point of reference for most superhero movies, but possibly not for The Toxic Avenger. It’s another step towards seriousness that’s more interesting to see than game changing.
But Blair, his cast, and the production team acclimate themselves well otherwise. Despite having a bit too much plot (including a subplot involving the mob that doesn’t add to anything), The Toxic Avenger zips along just having a bit of a laugh. Everyone looks like they’re having a good time messing around (including Paige, Tremblay, and David Yow, as a mysterious hobo), and quite often that spirit is infectious enough to carry the movie through. Everything involving Wood’s band of killers – a “monstercore” band with members who look like rejects from both Slipknot and Insane Clown Posse – is a surefire way to get viewers to crack a smile. There’s also plenty of cultural commentary (something the Troma films don’t get enough mainstream credit for having) regarding health insurance, trigger happy cops, wellness influences, culture wars, and the oafishness of the American right (including a great set piece that’s perfectly timed to the current, idiotic Cracker Barrel discourse). And while mostly all The Toxic Avenger is good for is smiles, flashes of thought, and not huge laughs, there are worse things in the world to feel while watching a movie.
Some cult movie purists might balk at the slightly more serious tone, the polish, and flourishes of CGI gore instead of the real stuff, but The Toxic Avenger retains a cartoonish spirit. It’s not going far enough to be truly memorable, but it also isn’t stopping short of its goals. I can’t say that anything went wrong with The Toxic Avenger, but I also can’t say that it entirely works. There’s no giddy high to be felt, but also nothing that’s particularly annoying or out of place for what Blair is trying to do. This version of The Toxic Avenger is bound to hit each audience member differently, depending on what expectations they bring to it. It’s not hitting a sweet spot for me, but it might for you.
The Toxic Avenger opens in theatres on Friday, August 29, 2025.
