The Toxic Avenger

Why do some superheroes take off and enjoy decades-long careers when others can’t even fly? The likes of Superman and Wonder Woman might appeal because they make heroism look easy. Others, like Spider-man and the Hulk, embody the internal struggles that a lot of young people go through when trying to figure out how to fit into the world. Batman allows fans to vicariously enjoy the advantages of the financial elite whilst still feeling like rebels. And then there are outliers like Hawkeye and Green Lantern, who are clearly Z-listers but have lucked out and got big bucks behind them because of who they know.

The Toxic Avenger has none of these advantages and yet ever since his first appearance in 1984, he has punched above his weight, attracting a worldwide cult following and simply refusing to go away. Toxie, as he is affectionately known, may be a monster, but he is a monster of the people. He doesn’t depend on arch enemies or world-threatening schemes to have a purpose. He’s the superhero we need to deal with the world as it is.

Originally focused on cleaning up Tromaville, where he enjoyed three adventures, Toxie underwent a fresh transformation in 2023 to give him a shot at the big time. Since its première at Fantastic Fest in 2023, this film has made a slow journey around the genre festival scene, finally alighting at Frightfest just prior to its international cinema release. It’s not a remake but, rather, a reimagining or an alternative origin story. Toxie himself looks much the same – just smaller – and one might posit a multiverse explanation like that seen in Into The Spider-Verse. His background, however, is quite different, as is the adventure that he undertakes.

Meet mild-mannered janitor Winston Gooze, widowed, behind on the bills and generally downtrodden, trying to do right by stepson Wade (Jacob Tremblay) whilst working for the local massively polluting corporation. He’s a man who doesn’t like to be noticed, certainly by those in power, though he does have a little bit of heroism in him, stepping into save his neighbour’s cat from traffic even when he’s scared to stand up for the neighbour herself. Like most people in town, she’s feeling the squeeze, under pressure from exploitative capitalist kingpin Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) and the various gangs with which he conspires. It will take a really desperate development for Winston too go up against Garbinger, but when all seems lost, a toxic chemical accident will transform him into the monster of the hour.

The costumed version of this character is played by stunt performer and dancer Luisa Guerreiro, who does an impressive job of capturing Dinklage’s movements and mannerisms but can also perform physical moves quite beyond normal human ability (and can do it despite the weight and heat of all that rubber, too). Dinklage continues to provide the voice throughout. They work well as a team, and yet Dinklage, for all his brilliance as an actor, isn’t really well suited to the character. His dry wit comes through nicely in the quieter moments – it’s just that there are not a lot of them. He struggles to capture the dynamism that Toxie displays elsewhere.

This is symptomatic of a deeper problem running through the film, which can’t quite decide what it wants to be and keeps going off half-cocked as a result. Some jokes just flat-out fail to land, making one feel a little awkward and embarrassed for all concerned. That said, when it does hit, it’s tremendous fun, and that applies mostly when Toxie hits – villains, that is – with his mop.

It’s very much in the spirit of the original for this film to go to extremes where violence is concerned. The interplay between this and our hero’s efforts to be a responsible dad, setting a good example for his kid, is a natural source of both drama and comedy, and well handled, but it’s the violent displays themselves that steal the show. Even in the cheapest of zombie films, human bodies have never come apart so easily, nor contained such an abundance of blood. It explodes across the screen at frequent intervals, each one more spectacular than the last. Passers-by look on it mute horror as they are splattered with entrails. Totally out of keeping with the rest of the film, and all the better for it, this is pure exsanguinous joy.

This being a loose analogue of Tromaville, there is no shortage of third-rate wannabe gangsters to provide Toxie with target practice. He’s aided in his quest by rookie reporter JJ (Taylour Paige), who acquits herself pretty well for a human as she gets into the spirit of thins, and by Guthrie (David Yow), a sort of backwoods budget sensei who dispenses what may or may not be wisdom from the bottom of a bottle and steals every non-combat scene he’s in.

As for the bad guys, it’s hard to think of a better choice than Bacon, who achieves just the right blend of kitsch grotesquerie and early evening weekend TV villainy, kicked up a few notches to keep pace with the modern world. Swanning around in a gold velvet smoking jacket and chewing on the scenery, he’s accompanied by this refreshingly age-appropriate partner/fixer Kissy (Julia Davis) and his brother Fritz (Elijah Wood), who is basically just the Penguin, perhaps shipped out of Gotham City on witness protection, with the Penguin’s wardrobe and limp and personality, which goes completely unacknowledged. In a film full of stylistic non-sequiturs, this is probably the most successful.

Director Macon Blair knows his Troma well and the film is packed with references, all done the right way – that is, if you don’t get them, you won’t even notice them, and if you do, they’ll enhance rather than distract. Lloyd Kaufman himself turns up close to the end for some well-earned grumbling. Overall, the film is a hit-and-miss affair, but to be honest, so was the original. What matters is that Toxie himself still feels loveable, if a little underplayed, and if you can be patient with its sometime clumsiness, you will get to enjoy some serious entertainment.

Reviewed on: 27 Aug 2025