The Toxic Avenger is one of those 80s cult movies that people still shake their heads at decades later. A nasty, low-budget, absurdly violent little B-movie from Troma Entertainment, it birthed a whole franchise and cemented the studio’s reputation for boundary-pushing splatter, sex, and crude comedy. The original film and its sequels are juvenile in every sense, but they also carry a strange kind of charm. They’re genuinely inventive with their practical effects, fearless in their grotesquery, and proudly countercultural.
Troma’s influence is everywhere if you know where to look, especially in the work of James Gunn, who sharpened his teeth on the studio’s brand of gleeful excess before translating that sensibility into blockbuster franchises. But could The Toxic Avenger survive a reboot in an era when sensibilities have drastically changed, superhero movies dominate the culture, and genuinely gross-out horror comedies are in short supply? Enter Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore), stepping into Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz’s shoes for the first new Toxie adventure in over two decades.
Blair’s film is both reverent to Troma’s gonzo legacy and surprisingly willing to carve its own path. Rather than retreading the story of Melvin Junko, this version centers on Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage), a janitor in a decaying industrial city who lives a weary, quietly tragic life. He’s a single stepdad raising his stepson Wade (Jacob Tremblay) after the boy’s mother passed away. He clocks into work at the corrupt biotech conglomerate BTH, run by corporate cult-leader Bob Garbinger (a gloriously slimy Kevin Bacon), and stumbles through days of harassment and indignity. The Troma films were never shy about making their heroes the most pathetic figures imaginable, but Winston is an infinitely more sympathetic protagonist than Melvin ever was. Dinklage gives him a soulful, even heartbreaking quality - particularly in a bleakly hilarious sequence where Winston tries and fails to navigate the nightmare that is American health insurance after receiving a terminal diagnosis.
The premise is still classic: a freak industrial accident transforms Winston into a hideously deformed mutant with superhuman strength (Luisa Guerreiro takes over the physical performance from this point on while Dinklage still provides the voice), a mop dipped in radioactive sludge for a weapon, and a newfound sense of purpose. But where the old films reveled in pure juvenile nastiness, Blair’s version smuggles in something unexpected: genuine heart. Winston isn’t just killing thugs and corporate cronies in the name of environmental justice, he’s struggling to connect with his stepson, to be the hero Wade wants him to be. The film mines surprising poignancy from this relationship, which elevates the movie above its predecessors. It doesn’t dull the fun too much - there are still exploding heads, eviscerations, and intestines pulled out of orifices - but it gives the chaos a beating heart.
Blair clearly relishes building out this grotesque comic book world. The setting is populated with ridiculous gangs like The Killer Nutz (shock rap-rockers turned henchmen), the goblin-like Fritz Garbinger (Elijah Wood as Bob’s sickly Igor-esque brother), and freedom fighter J.J. Doherty (Taylour Paige, playing the perfect straight-faced foil to the madness around her). Title cards announce locations like “Ye Olde Shithole District” and “Depressing Outskirts,” and the film embraces Troma’s DIY visual anarchy with digital gore mixed into classic practical splatter. One inspired sequence sees Toxie fighting off The Killer Nutz while leading a raucous performance of Motörhead’s “Overkill,” a moment that perfectly captures the crossover of heavy music and midnight-movie sleaze.
The humor lands more often than not, thanks to Blair’s eye for small, throwaway gags; the kind of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it signage or absurd line that reveals the care beneath the chaos. Winston’s first heroic act, stopping armed vigilantes called The Nasty Lads from taking over a Miss Meat (formerly Mister Meat) fast food joint, is a moment where the film genuinely feels like it's firing on all cylinders. Elsewhere, Bob Garbinger struts around shirtless like a deranged lifestyle coach, showcasing Kevin Bacon having the time of his life. Elijah Wood, meanwhile, is nearly unrecognizable in a performance that would fit right into Troma’s grossest era, while Paige grounds the film in a performance of sharp comic timing.
Still, it’s important to note that Blair’s Toxic Avenger is not trying to push boundaries in the same way as the originals. Gone are the VHS grime and deliberate provocations of taste that defined movies like Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV, a film so intentionally offensive it’s hard to recommend to anyone in good conscience. This reboot is sleeker, digitally polished, and at times even restrained. It feels tame compared not only to Troma’s nastiest excesses but also to modern button-pushers. Blair is walking a line between cult revival and mainstream accessibility, and the result is something that’s less anarchic than purists might want, but more broadly appealing.
That said, Blair never loses sight of why these movies mattered in the first place. He recognizes that the absurd, over-the-top violence was always meant to puncture the hypocrisies of polite society and that the superhero formula was ripe for subversion long before Marvel made it omnipresent. Today, with corporate malfeasance and environmental collapse even more dire, The Toxic Avenger feels just as relevant. It’s no coincidence that Winston’s villains are health insurance companies, pharmaceutical profiteers, and snake-oil wellness grifters. The movie has plenty of dumb laughs, but its targets are clear, and in its own way, righteous.
Does it match the delirious offensiveness of the originals? No. Does it consistently keep you rolling with laughter? Also no. But it is fun - a weird, messy, heartfelt little beast that finds a surprising amount of soul beneath its buckets of blood. What makes Blair’s film stand out is the emotional spine of Winston and Wade’s story, giving viewers a real reason to root for the mop-wielding freak. It’s the kind of twist that makes this reboot feel like more than just a hollow revival. Against all odds, The Toxic Avenger has grown up, just a little, without losing the sense of gonzo fun that made him a cult legend.
'The Toxic Avenger' is now playing in theaters.
