Macon Blair’s remake of The Toxic Avenger is just as funny, goopy, and satiric as any Troma classic, now with more plot and character. I’m in Toxic Love with the new Toxic Avenger.
As I noted in my review of Occupy Cannes!, the Troma documentary that played as part of the Fantasia Film Festival this year, I’ve been a long-time fan of Troma, for over 30 years now (the Toxic Crusaders kids’ cartoon was my entryway), gladly setting up a lean-to home in the slums of Tromaville. So, I cop to being the target audience for 2025’s The Toxic Avenger. But, I also note a “Troma-type” film isn’t an instant checkmark in my book; I similarly find myself annoyed at films that try so hard to be Troma but don’t get why Troma works as well as they do across the swath of Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman, Nuke ‘Em High, and other bottom-shelf titles at the mom-and-pop video store. But Macon Blair’s remake of the 1984 Toxic Avenger, Troma’s flagship title, originally directed by Lloyd Kaufman, studio founder and face, is all you’d want it to be: a riotous, fantastic update of the beloved property.
The Toxic Avenger is a film full of love. Really. It’s clear from the outside how much writer-director Macon Blair loves and understands Troma. Blair, whose previous film was wild and violent I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, gets it. Kevin Bacon gets it. Peter Dinklage gets it. Everyone gets it. Lloyd Kaufman gets his rights payment and a cameo. It’s a love of pure and puerile entertainment, of making something with a sincerity in building a film that works and lives in the modern world, updating a well-loved cult film, and doing it all without feeling like a chore of “push this out to keep rights or make a quick buck.”
The new Toxie might look slick, but it is Troma through and through. It overloads the whole radioactive barrel with Troma’s manic energy. It’s all the gory, goopy, cynical (in the good way) satire of genre and film tropes you’d expect from anything from Kaufman and company. It has a winky self-awareness, and everyone is in on the joke. The cynicism of Troma and Toxie is one of love, of knowing a messed-up world and audience expectations. It’s filled with low humor of easy jokes, but it isn’t punching down or dismissive. Macon and team obviously had a blast, as it shows in every second on screen.
The updating of the world and plotting to match that pushes Toxic Avenger into more than a mere remake. Troma has always harped upon nuclear energy’s side effects, the fears of the environment, and corporate greed that leads to trouble for the everyday guys, mutated and murdered. In the 1984 film, Toxie is a loser high schooler, a janitor at a health club; his transformation from a radioactive dunk and subsequent revenge against the punks who did it is a threadbare excuse for the violent actions. Blair brings a full-on dramatic plot, one that works to a surprising degree. Our new Toxie is Winston, a janitor at rich asshole Bob Garbinger’s health company; one that is clearly destroying the environment in and around sT. ROMA’s VIILLagE (heh). He is the single parent to a stepson who is unpopular at New Chem High (say it out loud for another Troma reference; movie is filled with them, and for other cult flicks). When he gets sick, he asks his boss, a billionaire with a bad wig and worse empathy, for help. This gets him dunked in waste. Instead of killing him, it turns him into the Toxic Avenger! Time to tear down the company with the help of a whistleblower, a weird guy in the woods, and others.
It has everything you’d expect. Hilarious from start to finish (zamboni…). A gaggle of punks from central casting: a Juggalo, a parkour hooded guy, an Old Gods worshipping DJ who only speaks in arcane languages, a chicken masked guy who’s at the center of one of the best jokes, and others. Silly sound effects. Scat humor. Random dicks and tits. Over the top violence and gore (although much is CG). At least the practical effects via the Toxie suit is fantastic. Just a weird ass gaggle of gross characters, especially Elijah Wood’s Fritz, looking like DeVito’s The Penguin on meth (kudos to his great makeup, too). I love Wood’s post-Lord of the Rings cycle. He’s taken that cash and gone off to produce and be in weird stuff (this year alone has had The Monkey and Ebony & Ivory).
Not just Wood, but all the cast are on board. They all know the gig. All the actors are on the right level, balancing on the tightrope (made out of freshly ripped from by butt intestines?) between sincerity and cheese. Kudos to Blair for focusing this energy and to the actors for going with it. Peter Dinklage brings a pathos to Winston; damn me, but I was emotionally involved! Jacob Trembley is the son; Trembley’s still finding his footing in growing up, but I look forward to seeing him more. Kevin Bacon is having a blast as the skeevy bad guy (even more so than in MaXXXine). I need to give a special shout-out to Louisa Guerreiro as the suit performer for Toxie. Everyone is fully on point.
The Toxic Avenger mops up all reticences in updating the original cult flick, relishing in the DIY-screw-the-studio nature of Troma, albeit a bit shinier. It works, bringing the same manic energy and joy one would expect. Macon Blair, team, and cast all deliver one of my favorite times at the theatre this year.