Review: The Toxic Avenger (1985)

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The Toxic Avenger (1985) directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kauffman, is the story of second chances, overcoming obstacles and ostracism, finding that there is a heart even deep down within a monster's soul. It's about love and corruption and justice.

Okay, so it's about gore and babes and camp.

Mark Torgl stars as Melvin, the mop boy, who spends his days slaving away inside the Tromaville Health Club. A shy, mentally off, redheaded goof, Melvin becomes the target of Slug and Bozo and their girlfriends, Julie and Wanda, who play a childish prank on him involving a sheep in drag. What is a humiliating joke turns quickly into disaster and ends with Melvin head-first into a barrel of toxic waste.

A minute later, "Night on Bald Mountain" blaring to the burning mess of Melvin, the transformation of geek into Monster Hero unfolds before the viewer—all the pore-pussing beauty of it, the skin and skull bubbling over, the spasms as the green and black ooze out of his body, until finally the hulk of a hero howls into the night.

Now a badass, Monster Hero (he will not be called Toxie until subsequent films due to the fact that they didn't have a name for him while in production) goes on a spree of vigilantism to rid Tromaville of the scum that has infested the city streets. Corrupt cops, junk peddlers, even dirty old ladies are not safe from the new mutated marshal in town. It's like Charles Bronson showed up, asked where his horse was, and just started beating the shit out of every criminal scumbag alive.

The rest of the movie follows these deeds, his falling in love with a blind woman, Sara, (played by the extremely cute Andree Maranda) he saved from being raped, and his revenge against the psychos who played the prank on him and caused him to become the mutated freak people either fear or love.

I Scream For Toxie!

This movie is filled with hilariously campy dialogue, horrendously overacted lines, horrifying acting overall, but that's half of what makes it a riot of a flick. When you have four people in a car going over the point-scale of running down various pedestrians, when you have a superhero putting mops over the faces of his downed enemies, when you have a little old lady playing Melvin's mom, who's on the other side of the locked bathroom door as his skin's bubbling off, say in a gushing manner, "My little Melvin. . .he must've finally reached puberty!" what the hell are you expecting?

Shakespeare?*

This is Troma. This is their excellence.

The other ingredient that really makes this movie so exceptional is the one and only Jennifer Aspinall. She is what makes this movie worthwhile. The low-budget effects she creates in this movie are an artwork. From the beautiful transformation scenes, the crushed skulls, and the burned flesh to the gut-ripping finale, what she creates here is more beautiful than anything Mark Rothko ever laid to canvas.

As long as you keep an open mind in tune with the phrase about things being so bad that they're good, you'll allow yourself to be deeply entertained by this masterpiece of non-existent-budget horror.

See it for the gore. See it for the babes. See it stoned. Just see this wonderful movie.

Wow, that sounded like Gene Shalit on something.

For its Genre/Era/X: Awesome.

Overall: Good.

More Marisa Tomei

Rated: Uncut and Unrated for graphic violence, sex, drugs, blood, female masturbation, guts, exposed breasts, cussing, and all the subversive things that make most D-grade movies enjoyable.

The copy I watched was the Uncut Original (supposedly) that was released around 1998 and featuring an intro with Lloyd Kaufman talking about it, deleted scenes after it, and trailers for other goodies from Troma. I got it years ago at a movie store near Richmond (don't remember the store's name).

*I have not seen Tromeo & Juliet, but plan to see it one day.

Aside:

I remember when the Wal-Mart Supercenter opened here in town, so long, long, long ago, for what ever reason, be it cleaning out a warehouse or someone's van, they carried an issue of some horror magazine from Europe (title escapes me and I'm not going digging through this mess for it) and I snatched it up. I was shocked and amazed at all the movies they talked about that my poor little mind had never seen or even heard of. Well, there was an article inside about the low-budget director who had made a little movie called Street Trash (which I highly recommend to low-budget horror fans). In one of the inset photos was this cute girl getting nasty in what looked like a mix of vomit, sludge, motor oil, and mold. And there was the name: Jennifer Aspinall. She's on to more classier projects now, winning Emmys and such, but I'd love to see her whip out some gore again. For the kids and all.

Don't miss a very young Marisa Tomei doing her best Scream Queen in a towel about three-quarters the way through!

Tomei's photos courtesy of:

http://celebscentral.net

The Toxic Avenger Publicity Still is Copyrighted by Troma. To see more stills and other offerings from this independent studio, go to:

http://www.troma.com/