The Toxic Avenger (2025) Cineverse/Comedy-Horror-Sci-Fi-Action RT: 102 minutes No MPA rating (strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references, brief graphic nudity) Director: Macon Blair Screenplay: Macon Blair Music: Will and Brooke Blair Cinematography: Dana Gonzales Release date: August 29, 2025 (US) Cast: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Luisa Guerreiro, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon, Julia Davis, David Yow, Sarah Niles, Annette Badland, Sunil Patel, Margo Cargill, Shaun Dooley, Jonny Coyne, Abraham Lewis, Julian Kostov, Needa Spasova, Nencho Stefanov-Ninio, Duke Nwamerue, Mako-Dimitar Bozhilov, Kitodar Todorov, Sophia Vassili, Konstantin Ikonomov, Rebecca O’Mara, Macon Blair, Jane Levy (voice).
Rating: ***
I’d like to open my review of the quasi-remake of The Toxic Avenger with the opening of my review of the 1984 original:
“There are moments in every movie geek’s life that help define who they will become. One of mine is the day in February ’87 I rented The Toxic Avenger. It’s the day I was introduced to the weird wonderful world of Troma. The owner of The Video Den made it an instant 99 cent rental he thought it was so awful. That NEVER happened with brand new releases. It didn’t deter me though. Are you kidding? Like I’m NOT going to rent a movie with the tagline “The First Superhuman Hero from New Jersey”? I’m sorry, have we met? I’m the Movie Guy! ANYWAY, that’s the day I became a fan and honorary citizen of Tromaville. “
I still hold the original in high esteem. Not only is it the film that put Troma on the map, it’s a complete and total splatterfest! As such, I had strong reservations about the new one. More often than not, remakes don’t do the originals justice. They’re almost always inferior and totally unnecessary. Look no further than The Roses (a redo of 1989’s The War of the Roses) which is playing in one of the other theaters at your local multiplex.
I had to travel quite a distance to feast my eyes on The Toxic Avenger. The closest theater showing it with daytime shows is across the state line in Delaware (about a 40-minute drive). So was it worth it? I’m going to have to say a tentative yes. I’m glad I got to see it, but as I expected, it’s nowhere near as awesome as the original. It doesn’t have the same low-budget DIY look and feel. It has name actors like Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon. The gore is all CGI which definitely takes away from the experience. It’s needlessly overplotted. Unlike Lloyd Kaufman, the makers had a budget to work with. Once again, we see that more money doesn’t always equal quality.
Another big difference is that the hero has more of a backstory. Winston Gooze (Dinklage, the angry elf from Elf) is a sad sack of a man. A widower, he’s raising a preteen stepson, Wade (Tremblay, Wonder), with serious anxiety issues. He works as a janitor for BTH, a corrupt company run by sleazy CEO Bob Garbinger (Bacon, Hollow Man). His company has been poisoning the people of St. Roma (look closely at the name) with toxic waste for years. Former employee and whistleblower J.J. (Paige, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F) wants to expose them. Bob sends his weird-looking brother Fritz (Wood, Sin City) to stop her. He sends his guys, a hardcore punk band called The Killer Nutz, to kill her.
Meanwhile, Winston learns that he’s terminally ill and has maybe a year left. His insurance, of course, doesn’t cover the treatment he needs. He goes to Bob pleading for help. The a-hole blows him off. Winston, in turn, tries to rob his place of employment armed with a mop covered in neon-green toxic waste. His getaway is interrupted by J.J. who’s running from the punk rock killers after stealing more evidence against BTH. They end up shooting Winston and dumping his body into a vat of toxic waste. That’s when he is transformed into….. THE TOXIC AVENGER!
Now hideously deformed, he’s feared and hunted at first. That changes when he foils a robbery at a fast food place. He doesn’t just kill the offenders; he f***s them up real bad. Hailed as a hero, he then sets his sights on Bob and his company. Somebody has to stop them. In turn, Bob orders Fritz and his gang to snatch Wade. I think you can guess where the story goes from there. Maybe, but you wouldn’t be entirely right. It goes more OTT than you’d expect.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy The Toxic Avenger somewhat. It’s fun in its own absurdist way. It doesn’t just retell the story; it pays tribute to the original as well as a few other Troma titles. Pay attention to some of the names like the journalist working with J.J. His name is Melvin Ferd, a name absolutely familiar to fans. The antagonists have names like Togar, Rooney and Wormer. You’ll know these names if you came of age in the 80s. Lloyd Kaufman himself shows up for a brief cameo. A lot of The Toxic Avenger is enjoyable. It just doesn’t reach the delightful depths of the OG.
The cast does a good job because they’re all clearly in on the joke. Bacon camps it up mightily as the main villain. Wood resembles Riff Raff from Rocky Horror. Dinklage looks like he’s having fun. That is, until he’s replaced by Luisa Guerreiro who plays his character post-transformation (Dinklage still provides the voice). Tremblay is believable, albeit in a cartoonish way, as an anxiety-ridden kid coping with his mother’s death. The Killer Nutz are a live-action nightmare cartoon.
I don’t like CGI gore so for me, that’s the biggest turn-off in The Toxic Avenger. However, it’s still fun to watch Toxie make radioactive mince meat of his opponents. The fast food robbery sequence is a cool homage to the original minus the guide dog getting shot and killed (thank God). One of the hostages is a kid wearing a bike helmet. Mercifully, his skull remains intact.
All in all, I’d have to say that The Toxic Avenger is not a bad way to cap off the summer movie season. It’s a fun movie that gorehounds will appreciate since it’s being released in its unrated form. At the same time, it won’t make your forget about the one that made Tromaville a destination. At least it’s not a complete s*** show. That’s always a plus, right?
