The last Halloween review was a look at one of Troma Studios lesser known films but here is the film that put them on the map. This is Troma’s 1984 film The Toxic Avenger which was directed by the owner of Troma studio, Lloyd Kaufman. The film is about Melvin Junko, played by Mark Torgl, who works at the local gym in the town of Tromaville, NJ. After an incident where he’s severely bullied by the local teenagers in his building, he smashes through a window into a radioactive drum on the back of a truck. He mutates into a monster called The Toxic Avenger who goes into a murderous rage around evil and helps clean up the corrupt town.
When setting out to make the film, the filmmakers originally wanted to make a horror film about a monster killing only bad people. However, they instead ended up with a very bizarre super hero film which is infamous for being one of the most gruesome films ever made.
One example is early in the film when the local bullies are going around in a car making a game out of running over people. When they spot a twelve year old boy on a bike, the driver goes into a frenzy and hits the kid, which is bad enough. However, when they see the child, bloodied and bruised, trying to crawl away, they turn around and viciously run over his head and then take pictures. While most films would have a scene like this for the sake of adding senseless violence, there is a point to this scene when each of the bullies gets their just punishment.
The acting in this film feels very tongue-in-cheek but the actors don’t try to over sell it. Torgl gives Melvin a sympathetic but extremely goofy performance. But when Melvin turns into the Toxic Avenger, played by Mitch Cohen in this transformed state, he changes his attitude. For example, The Toxic Avenger speaks and acts very much like a gentlemen when he isn’t killing.
As stated before, this is a very impressive show of practical special effects which stack up close to famous films, like John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. Most of the death scenes involve terrible people who deserve no sympathy. However, the epicenter of all this evil is Mayor Peter Belgoody, played by Pat Ryan. The mayor has people sell drugs for him, take bribes, and is full of corruption, and he does this all with a snide smile on his face.
This isn’t a perfect film as there a few things that aren’t well thought out in the film. One problem with the film is the editing, which is definitely horrendous during the montages. An example of this being a scene where we see the Toxic Avenger wearing a jacket and hat for no reason and then tearing them off for no reason. Another is camera quality which is notable from time to time as we see it become darker for a second, then blue, and then go back to normal. There are also two quick fights which seem much phoned in, an example being when the Toxic Avenger is circled by six gunmen. All he does is jump up and then the gunmen all shoot each other accidentally and go down, which is quite underwhelming.
Overall, this is a gruesome film that is ingenious with its healthy sense of humor about itself and its appeal. The acting is pretty good across the board that draws the viewer in and gets your sympathy to the characters that deserve it. There are some editing problems here and a camera problem there but most viewers can look past that. While films like the SAW franchise make you feel horrified with the amount of gore on screen, The Toxic Avenger will leave you feeling good inside.