The Toxic Avenger (2025)

After watching the original The Toxic Avenger earlier this year in anticipation of the remake's release, I wondered how in the hell you could make something like that today for theatrical release. The 1984 flick is gleefully unpleasant across multiple dimensions, reveling in just how cruel it can be to its characters, especially protagonist Melvin. It's a cacophony of 80s tropes dialed past eleven, full of cartoon violence and sexploitation levels of female nudity and racism and some homophobia and more. That said, by leaning hard into its flaws and employing copious practical effects and buckets upon buckets of goop, it manages to turn its ugliness and lack of plot into a delightfully charming experience. So if the goal was to get something that could even remotely be called The Toxic Avenger released in theaters in the 2020s, the filmmakers faced an uphill struggle; while those qualities endear the midnight crowd to a film, they're likely to turn off broader audiences.

So the fact that we got to see this film at all is a minor miracle. Especially because for a while, it looked like we wouldn't. After premiering at Fantastic Fest in 2023, it sat on a shelf until Cineverse picked it up earlier this year. Their limited marketing indicates they intend to coast off the excitement around that announcement, as well as the general swell of the horror movie box office over the past few years. To give it a little extra boost, listings make clear the film is being released "unrated", which usually implies it got an NC-17 and the filmmakers refused to cut anything to make it more acceptable (although the reality is it only got an R). If my opening night audience is anything to be believed, their bet seems to have paid off.

But how did they bring Toxie into the modern era? Simple: they jettisoned most of what made the original so distinct. They slapped on a fairly generic plot where Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) is dying of a brain disease (the exact nature of which is amusingly drowned out by construction) brought on by the horrifying chemicals emitted by the factory at which he's a janitor, BTH. His transfiguration comes at the hands of "monster core" band and BTH goons Killer Nutz as he attempts to steal enough money to cover his treatment. As such, his entire focus is getting revenge against evil CEO Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) and his brother Fritz (Elijah Wood), the Igor-looking manager of Killer Nutz. Oh, and Taylour Paige is there as J.J., an investigative reporter looking to expose BTH's corruption.

That setup alone is super messy, involving a ton of moving parts that need to be carefully managed in order to deliver an outrageous comedy. Establishing all those plot threads and the core emotional arc is demanding enough that the first thirty minutes or so features the tamest of humor. It's a lot of Dinklage looking forlorn and his step-son Wade (Jacob Tremblay) asserting "You're not my real dad!" and Garbinger cackling. There are a handful of blunt and mildly amusing sign gags, including the town being called St. Roma's and Garbinger's mansion being labeled "Lair". But most of the swings at laughs are of the strange, out of left field variety. It seems they've swapped the original's aggressive lack of tact for garden variety weirdness, much of which fails to connect.

However, once the plot gets going and Toxie emerges with his signature mop (played by Luisa Guerreiro, with Dinklage's voice dubbed in), there's some definite fun to be had. As with the original, it's at its best when going all out and largely ignoring the story. The trippy transformation sequence is the most visually interesting part of the whole film, and the first big laugh that tore through the crowd came when Toxie rips the arm off Spence Garbinger (Abraham Lewis) like it's tissue paper, spurting blood all over the alley. But the real starting point is when he saves the day in shocking and brutal fashion at a local fast food restaurant besieged by morons upset that it changed its name from Mr. Meat to Miss Meat (subtle, right?). That whole sequence endeared him to both the town and the audience, and birthed the credits runner "butt guts".

It refuses to keep running at that clip, though, instead constantly dipping out to pay lip service to the story. In order to interrupt such absurdity without disrupting the flow, something about the narrative needs to be similarly over the top, and it's just not. So every time we check in on their attempts to have Killer Nutz take out Toxie, any energy that may have been built up simply dissipates.

But at least we do have moments of such excitement. To support the explosions of violence and viscera, the effects must have consumed the majority of the budget. There's enough blood to make Tarantino blush many times over, and so many dismemberments that Sam Rami will have to take notice. While many of these are practical, from Toxie's detachable eye to to his blue blood to some later painful looking tooth (and dong) prosthetics, it's all augmented by a bunch of mediocre looking CGI. Any time someone's face is ripped apart, the illusion is broken, as the result doesn't match the aesthetic of the rest of the film. To say nothing of explosions and fire and more. Of course, there are safety reasons for the swap, but you'd really like more effort to be put into the effects to keep everything congruous.

Maybe it's fitting that an attempt to recapture the grimy magic of the earlier film came out misshapen and looking for a reason to exist, but that doesn't make it any more fun to watch. It's not that you can't nail a theatrically released gonzo splatter film in 2025; just a few weeks ago, we got Jimmy and Stiggs, which accomplishes its gleeful insanity with a reckless abandon that makes it destined for eventual cult/midnight movie status. Meanwhile, the first Toxic Avenger movie to be made in twenty-five years is bound to return the shelf until producer (and original director) Lloyd Kaufman once again rinses out the mop.