Heavy doses of crass humor. A dash of C-grade gore-effects. One or two pairs of boobs. And a smattering of comic books references. That my friends is the recipe for Toxic Avenger.
Shot in New Jersey for a meager $500K by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the Toxic Avenger series has earned millions for the founders of Troma since its premiere in 1984. All but ignored at first, the film slowly developed a cult following after an extended run of midnight showings at the Bleeker Street Theater in NYC. This, coupled with regular cable broadcasts and several home video releases, is how Toxic Avenger became the movie that introduced Troma to the world. Its profits have generated three sequels (really two since the first sequel was so long it got cut in half and released as two separate films), a children's Saturday morning cartoon (Toxic Crusaders, made possible by the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which helped mutants go mainstream), a straight-to-video feature using edited content from the cartoon, two independent stage musicals as well as an off-Broadway adaptation (that won numerous awards from reputable critics), and a mountain of merchandise including comic books, action figures, books, and video games. And now there are rumblings of a reboot from Legendary, directed by Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room) and starring Peter Dinklage as our beloved paladin of putrescence. And it's all thanks to a campy little low-budget horror-comedy with ties to Marvel Comics.
For those of you who haven't seen it (and what are you waiting for???), The Toxic Avenger is about an unsympathetic spaz named Melvin Junko (aka Melvin Ferd) who mops up after elitist, sadomasochistic jocks at a health club in Tromaville aka the "toxic waste dumping capital of the world" aka New Jersey. After Melvin accidentally dumps some slop water on the jocks, they get revenge by playing a prank (involving a tutu and a sheep) that goes awry and sends Melvin tumbling into a vat of radioactive sludge. After much melting and burning, Melvin develops super-human strength and becomes a local hero and protector of the downtrodden and victimized.
Shot in New Jersey for a meager $500K by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the Toxic Avenger series has earned millions for the founders of Troma since its premiere in 1984. All but ignored at first, the film slowly developed a cult following after an extended run of midnight showings at the Bleeker Street Theater in NYC. This, coupled with regular cable broadcasts and several home video releases, is how Toxic Avenger became the movie that introduced Troma to the world. Its profits have generated three sequels (really two since the first sequel was so long it got cut in half and released as two separate films), a children's Saturday morning cartoon (Toxic Crusaders, made possible by the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which helped mutants go mainstream), a straight-to-video feature using edited content from the cartoon, two independent stage musicals as well as an off-Broadway adaptation (that won numerous awards from reputable critics), and a mountain of merchandise including comic books, action figures, books, and video games. And now there are rumblings of a reboot from Legendary, directed by Macon Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room) and starring Peter Dinklage as our beloved paladin of putrescence. And it's all thanks to a campy little low-budget horror-comedy with ties to Marvel Comics.
For those of you who haven't seen it (and what are you waiting for???), The Toxic Avenger is about an unsympathetic spaz named Melvin Junko (aka Melvin Ferd) who mops up after elitist, sadomasochistic jocks at a health club in Tromaville aka the "toxic waste dumping capital of the world" aka New Jersey. After Melvin accidentally dumps some slop water on the jocks, they get revenge by playing a prank (involving a tutu and a sheep) that goes awry and sends Melvin tumbling into a vat of radioactive sludge. After much melting and burning, Melvin develops super-human strength and becomes a local hero and protector of the downtrodden and victimized.