The Toxic Avenger (2025) – I Love You Toxie

Released: 29th August
Seen: 30th August

In 1984, a little independent film company known as Troma released a film that would change the course of the company forever. What started as a little low-budget horror film tentatively titled Health Club Horror would be released with the more memorable name The Toxic Avenger. To say that this film became a cult hit would be a massive understatement. The Toxic Avenger was the kind of cult hit that defined Troma. Toxie would turn into their official mascot and appear in several other movies. The Toxic Avenger would also turn up in other media, video games, comic books, a hit off-Broadway musical and even a Saturday morning children’s cartoon named The Toxic Crusaders. 40 years later and a certain subsection of the world still loves this big green freak in his torn up tutu, so much so that it almost feels inevitable that Hollywood was going to remake this little underground film because that’s just what happens to these cult films, someone will always try to recreate the lightning in a bottle that the original somehow had… so imagine my shock when they actually pulled off the magic trick of making this film work!

This modern version of The Toxic Avenger has a few substantial changes from the original. Gone is the original’s put-upon teenage janitor Melvin Ferd, replaced by Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage), a recent widower trying his best to raise his step-son Wade (Jacob Tremblay) with whom he has a pretty rocky relationship. Making matters a little worse for Winston is that his job as a Janitor at BHT industries has resulted in a tiny bit of massive brain cancer that will kill him in a year because BHT is just the actual worst, polluting everything and making the town sick so it can make wellness products. It’s run by the evil business bastard Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), who is in league with the mob and has his brother Fritz (Elijah Wood) use his connection to the band/goons Killer Nutz to do all his dirty work. Well, due to a strange series of events, Winston is thrown into a vat of toxic chemicals and becomes the Toxic Avenger and uses his newfound super-strength and glowing green mop to tear the bad guys limb from fucking limb in the most gloriously gory manner imaginable.

The great thing about The Toxic Avenger is that it’s not ashamed of where it’s from; this is basically a Troma movie if Troma were somehow given a decent budget. There is no holding back, there is no appealing to good taste, there is nothing here that would not be in a regular Troma film if Troma believed in things like “A budget above 6 figures” or “a second take” and it’s absolutely fucking glorious. Every downright vulgar, filthy, fucked-up idea that’s ever been thrown in a Troma movie is done here and elevated as much as it can be. The gore is not only better in terms of technical prosthetics, but it’s filmed better. Fight scenes are comically over the top and shot like goddamn epics. The actual locations of the film look incredible and create a more rich, full world for this insanity to live in. The prosthetics they use for Toxie himself are so good that if the Oscars were cool it’d be in contention for best makeup. Every single detail here is elevated to the absolute max, something that one doesn’t expect to be able to say about a remake of Toxic Avenger. If there was ever a film where phoning it in would’ve been accepted, it is a Troma remake but no one did, they are going at it with gusto.

Impressively, the film manages to dance along this fine line of being a fucked up trashy masterpiece and also a heartfelt story about a father and son, all the while being casually sprinkled with progressive political ideas that have been a part of this franchise since the beginning. Sure, The Toxic Avenger has always had a lot to say about environmentalism and how big business would gleefully destroy the globe for another twenty bucks in their bank account but this film also throws in a few solid barbs towards the healthcare industry, at the news and how it can be complicit in some truly awful things and, in possibly the best scene in the movie, idiots who get really offended when a role is gender or race swapped. Nothing is as satisfying as seeing a man ask if someone is “triggered” before that same man has his intestines ripped out through his anus, it’s a brutally blunt progressive joke that is so shockingly horrific that it’s downright hilarious. This happens throughout, between the most insane jokes you could imagine are these little nuggets of progressive politics sprinkled through in a way that shows you can have a point of view and also revel in a scene of a monster man pissing acid in his face.

Among all the face pissing, arm ripping and anal violations, the film smartly rests the emotional throughline on the fractured relationship between Winston and Wade and to the never ending credit of the actors involved, there is some real emotion there. You can’t help but well up a little when you see Winston trying his hardest to cheer Wade up, there’s a heartbreaking moment where Wade pushes Winston away, only to later clearly need his step dad. It’s wild to see a film that’s this pointedly vulgar and pushing at this many boundaries of good taste still taking the time to actually have a real emotional core… sure, it will sometimes revel in that core for a beat before having Toxie swing his mop and take off the top of a clowns head which can kind of spoil the moment, but at least they went for the moment.

The true beauty of The Toxic Avenger is that it knows exactly what it’s here to do and does the best version of it. You can tell this was made by someone with a deep love and knowledge of Troma and used that to not only sprinkle in a bunch of fun little references for the fans but to help build this new take on the classic. I know it sounds like a joke to say this film felt like Troma with a budget and the time to do a second take but it really is that and it’s glorious. Everyone showed up knowing what wild insane thing they were about to be a part of and went for broke. They absolutely did not have to go as hard as they did with this film, no one would have blamed them but everyone on camera and behind camera gave this their all to make something truly fun and special and damnit they pulled that off. 

The Toxic Avenger is not going to be for everyone, it’s vulgar, gore-filled, disgusting and downright insane at times but it knows that and embraces it. If you’re a fan of this weird kind of film, The Toxic Avenger is absolutely perfect for you. It knows its audience and that audience is going to love the shit out of this one. For the audience this film is made for, it’s utter perfection with enough joy and heart and warmth to perfectly balance out the piss-scented stupidity that the film revels in. It shouldn’t work, a high-budget remake of a cheap 1984 B-movie horror comedy should not work but god damn it, it works better than it has any right to.