| Year of Release | 1984 |
| Director | Michael Herz / Lloyd Kaufman |
The Toxic Avenger is one of the stupidest movies of all time. It is of course produced by the guys at Troma Films. Renowned for producing B grade crap of the highest order, the guys have outdone themselves this time. This one is so crappy it actually becomes quite funny in a “Cant take my eyes off the car crash” type of way. That’s not to say its a bad film. It’s actually quite enjoyable.
THE PLOT
The plot follows the exploits of hapless nerd Melvin who just can’t seem to catch a break. He works a crappy job cleaning at the local gym and is the brunt of all jokes until one day a prank goes too far. Melvin is humiliated beyond all belief and dives out the window where a conveniently placed vat of toxic waste had been placed outside the window, awaiting his dive out of the upper level window. Melvin is transformed into the Toxic Avenger, A mutant hero of superhuman strength and subhuman intelligence. The Toxic Avenger proceeds to fight crime in his own unique but violent and hilarious way.
As you can no doubt guess this is nothing to be taken too seriously. It’s kitchy as all hell and much of the violence (whilst earning it an R rating in Australia) is cartoon-ish in nature. Many of the sight gags are pretty much lifted out of Saturday morning cartoons but infused with high level blood and guts. In fact that’s how I’d describe the Toxic Avenger, as an ultra violent cartoon shot on film. It comes complete with the goofy sound effects and cheesy dialogue / accents.
THE VERDICT
Overall I think The Toxic Avenger is definitely worth watching once. It’s a good laugh if you can get past the cheesiness of it all, and I quite enjoyed the film back int he 90’s when I first saw it. This time when re-watching it I have to admit it was a pretty fun watch for a run through 20 + years later. Mindless, retarded fun.
Keen to check out other Troma films? Here’s some for your perusal.
Cannibal the Musical.
Toxic Avenger 2.
Terror Firmer.
For more great horror movies be sure to check out https://www.gorenography.com