The Toxic Avenger review
What exactly is a Troma movie in 2025?
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
The Toxic Avenger
Directed by Macon Blair
Screenplay by Macon Blair
Starring Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylor Paige, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Sarah Niles, Julia Davis and Jonny Coyne
The Toxic Avenger Review
I doubt that writer/director Macon Blair (star of an excellent movie called Blue Ruin everyone should seek out) set out to answer the question I had before watching his reboot of The Toxic Avenger…but he may have definitively done so anyway. 1984’s The Toxic Avenger is the centerpiece of Troma Entertainment’s portfolio. Lloyd Kaufman’s movie house brought us such memorable releases as Tromeo and Juliet (co-written by a young James Gunn), Class of Nuke ‘Em High and Terror Firmer (along with three more Toxic Avenger adventures). The hallmark of Troma has always been its commitment to creating the most over-the-top, outlandish 1980’s B-movies that it can…regardless of when the movie was made. My obvious question going into the rebirth of The Toxic Avenger was simple. What is a Troma movie in 2025?
Actually…2023. The Toxic Avenger sat around for a while. Usually that’s a bad sign. It wasn’t quality that kept our new Toxie from meeting the masses. It was trouble finding a distributor willing to release it. Believe it or not, that was a great sign for Troma fans that Blair may have created something worthy of the Troma name. Early reviews for the film were strong as well. For the last two years…I’ve wondered what the movie was going to feel like. Would it attempt to accurately ape that specific Troma look? A cheap but passionate production based in sleaziness and steeped in violence? Or would it try to adapt it for modern sensibilities and audiences beyond the long waned troop of Troma fans?
The Toxic Avenger’s cast pointed towards the latter. Peter Dinklage signed up to star as the new Toxic Avenger. Kevin Bacon agreed to play the film’s main bad guy. Elijah Wood agreed to play the ghoulish brother of Bacon’s character. Jacob Tremblay took the role of Dinklage’s stepson. That’s an impressive group of actors…the kind you wouldn’t find leading a Troma movie. Now…Elijah Wood is a pure genre lover who probably would have gladly done this in any era of the studio. But Dinklage and Bacon are several steps above what you’d expect to see in a Toxic Avenger movie. Both are great here, by the way. Bacon is clearly having a blast. Dinklage takes his (eventual) off-center role seriously and adds something that the oozing super-hero has never had before.
Their involvement can’t help but make 2025’s The Toxic Avenger into something inherently different than the movies that came before it. Watching Dinklage create a fully realized character stands in stark contrast to Toxie’s origins in the 1984 film…even if he is still doomed to fall into radioactive ooze. Given his capable cast…Blair chooses the right path forward for his version of a Troma film. Recreating the aesthetic of past delightfully trashy projects wouldn’t have worked. Blair has instead chosen to modernize the production. It all looks cleaner. It all feels more professional. Which brings about a different question…if you replace a toxic mop top and then replace the stick…is it the same mop?
Of course it isn’t.
The Toxic Avenger is clearly influenced by Troma’s past…but it’s something else entirely. Perhaps a path forward for this and other Troma properties. Perhaps a one-off dream project with a couple of great performances and a bunch of over-the-top moments of comedic violence. An homage…a tribute…a celebration. A good movie. And what Troma might have to be in order to exist in 2025. More of what general audiences expect from a story…less of the bizarre choices meant to throw it off track.
Not that The Toxic Avenger doesn’t make bizarre choices. It does. Surrounded by competent production and nuanced performances…they feel more tacked on than they do a necessary ingredient for the sauce. They are good for a laugh however…of which The Toxic Avenger has several. It also has fun with its violence and wild characters. This time those things compliment an engaging story rather than distract you from the lack of one.
Dinklage plays Winston, a janitor at a corrupt company run by Bacon’s evil Bob Garbinger. When he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease Winston reaches out for help and Bob quickly dismisses him. One thing leads to another, and Winston ends up with a bullet in his head, dumped into toxic waste. The monster that emerges seeks revenge, to protect his stepson, and to expose Bob’s company for their evil ways. It’s a super-hero movie (it always was) with B-movie gore and lowbrow humor. All elevated by modern sensibility and great acting. Which makes this an elevated Troma film. Maybe the first of a new line of them. Maybe the only one we’ll ever see.
Scare Value
It would have been difficult to recreate the feel of an old-school Troma movie. Given the quality of work turned in by The Toxic Avenger‘s cast…it probably would have been impossible. Blair instead modernizes the concept for current audiences. Its first impulse is to keep its story on track. The weirdness is still there…but it comes from a different place with different intentions. An elevated Troma movie may not be what hardcore Troma fans were after…but it may be the best we can hope for going forward. At least…if they are the quality of Macon Blair’s reboot.
3.5/5
The Toxic Avenger Link
Buy tickets on Fandango
