Four crazed teenagers speed down the road in their car, wildly bragging about points they've notched up by running down different people in the car. So many points for someone on a bike, so many points for an elderly person, and big points for a small child. "How many points for a child on a bike?" asks the driver, excited. Learning this will earn him maximum points, he proceeds to knock the small child off his bike, and he goes flying over the hood. They turn round and see the child move in pain. Horrified that he may lose out on his points, the driver then proceeds to reverse over the child's head, squashing it completely. Two girls get out of the car and take some pictures. This scene, for me, represents the majority of this film. More shocking than it should be, even today, but never taking itself at all too seriously, regardless of the horror on show.
Melvin (Mark Torgl) is a skinny, nerdy loser who works in the swimming baths, forever cleaning up with his mop. He is frequently bullied and humiliated by a high school gang who one day play a trick on him, which sees him kissing a goat dressed in a tutu. Horrified, Melvin flees and throws himself through a window, landing on a conveniently positioned (and open-topped) barrel of toxic waste. He begins to burn and rot, and eventually the toxic waste causes him to mutate in a taller, stronger, and ultimately more heroic beast, who wants revenge on his tormentors. Toxie (as he is now called, played by man-mountain Mitch Cohen) starts to clean up the city of Tromaville, which is being run by corrupt mayor Peter Belgoody (Pay Ryan), while at the same time romancing blind girl Sara (Andree Maranda) who he rescues from a rapist in a restaurant.
This was Troma's biggest hit, and Troma head-honcho Lloyd Kaufman says that they owe everything to the success of this film. After this, which after an initial unsuccessful run became a popular cult favourite on the B-movie circuit, they focused pretty much only on horrors. This is the second Troma film I've seen. The other is Killer Nerd (1991). You can probably assume from the title that it is a god-awful excuse for a film, although it is quite amusing in it's filmed-on-video awfulness (starring Harvey Pekar associate Toby Radloff). The Toxic Avenger, however, I'm pleased to say, was actually good! It was a hell of a lot more violent than I was expecting, and the special effects are actually pretty impressive in some places. And Toxie proves to be a likeable vigilante/superhero, however hideous he may be.
Having said that, this is a low-budget Troma, and it's not exactly Citizen Kane (1941). The acting is wooden, and the film is so 80's you can practically reach out and feel the sweatbands and mullets. But it is funny, satisfyingly gory, and, most importantly, fun. Toxie proves to be a more interesting 'superhero' than the majority of others. And the film actually has a social message in there somewhere, beneath all the tits and human-taco-making, recognising the pollution that we are all too aware of in our age of global warming and climate change. Now to sit through the three sequels, which I am quietly confident will be awful!
This was Troma's first big hit, and also their first foray into horror.
ReplyDeletenot actually the truth. They made Mothers Day (1980), and The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982)
Damn you Wikipedia!
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