Post by stefancrosscoe on Mar 18, 2017 11:18:41 GMT
"The first Super-Hero... from New Jersey!"
In the corrupt and crime filled small town of Tromaville, the always cheerful and clumsy janitor Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl) ends up being the latest victim to a mean prank, set out by a violent gang at a local fitness gym. But instead of having it all in end with laughter, the whole thing goes way too wrong, as poor Melvin in a desperate attempt of getting away, suddenly decides to take a nosedive through a window, only to find himself being stuck into a barrel of pure toxic waste.
As a result, the accident transform him into a hideously deformed loooking creature of superhuman size and strength, and one that will make damn sure to clean up the city and keep his promise to the good citizens of Tromaville, that he's not just another pretty face!
Now this folks, is my kind of a super hero movie.
Sure, Toxie may not have the looks of say, Clark Kent or the brains of Bruce Wayne, but he really do care for his fellow people, and is never afraid to stand up against the bullies and crooked politicians. And while it might get messy at times, he always makes sure to clean up Tromaville afterwards, along with his favorite mop.
The Toxic Avenger is one of those truly awesome "accidents" that I discovered by staying up very late and watching some night cable (some dutch TV channel) during the mid 90s, and I could not believe what I was seeing.
It was really incredible, the whole thing were filled up with gratuitous sex and nudity, over-the-top acting, hilarious one-liners, added with some of the most violent and gory stuff that I had never seen before.
Of course, I came in too late, missed the title of the film and since I had no clue of the TV channels name, I could not find out what the name of the movie was.
Then 10 years later on, I ended up seeing a very familiar looking DVD cover in a movie store, and right away I knew that it was the film I had been looking for ages after, The Toxic Avenger!
Ok, so it was a very badly/lousy watered down UK cut version, but still it was fantastic to see it again, after all these years.
One of the most hilarious parts is when Mitch Cohen (Toxic Avenger) sticks his head out a window, while Toxie then later on seem to throw one of Sara's tasty sandwiches at him, and right before we can see it hit his face, they cut it out (leaving only the sound of the sandwich hitting his face) in.
Probably some inside joke on the heavily cut UK version, as I have not find it again in any of the other uncut or Director's cut editions.
Anyway, Troma Studios at the time was more "known" for doing teen-sex b-movies but when Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz decided to make a parody of the slasher genre, they released The Toxic Avenger which would go on to become a huge success, gaining cult status and spawning several sequels over the years, including a kids cartoon show (not kidding you one that one, look up the Toxic Crusaders, and if I and probably most kids back in 1992-93 had known that it was based on the super-violent 1984 movie, everyone would have wanted their very own Toxic Crusador toy figure).
Toxie is their very own (Mickey Mouse) brand, a figure that has become their most popular and loved character. Which is both good and bad.
The good is that it kept them from going under, and having Troma delivering awesome and super-violent b-movies for decades to come.
The bad, well (for me that is) I think they never managed to top the magic that is The Toxic Avenger.
Sure they have tried, too many times. Including far more violence, tits and nudity, idiotic characters etc, but it all feel all too forced and I did not like how the later Sara's (or was it changed to Claire or Cindy?) went from being a cute, clumsy bimbo to ending up as a god damn retard, or that the Toxic Avenger mask looked worse, from each new movie, even though had far higher budget to go with.
I'll have to stop there, as I can go on for ages.
I love the film and while it might not be your ordinary horror movie, I do think it deserves to be mentioned as one of the most influential of the splatter/horror comedies of its time, and I would like to think that guys like Tarantino or Peter Jackson may have seen it more than once.