The Toxic Avenger (1985)

Plot Outline: Melvin is a complete geek who works at Tromaville's health club. One day the local bully and his gang decide to play a prank on him, which eventually leads to Melvin falling out of a window and landing in a truck full of toxic waste. Melvin is then hideously transformed into The Toxic Avenger and decides to take revenge on those who bullied him and then proceed to clean up the crime in the town.

The Review: Troma's infamous cult classic The Toxic Avenger is one of those films that you have to watch just to see what all of the fuss was about. This means you still have to see it despite the fact that it completely sucks. It typifies the basement quality and extremely low intelligence level which has come to personify Troma's video output. It's not a good film at all but the fact is that Troma used it to push the boundaries of what they could get away with on video. So maybe we wouldn't have been subjected to as much splatter, sex and bad taste on video if this hadn't been released? There is a lot of bad taste here (seeing old grannies getting beaten up by youths, watching mutants have sex with blind girls) and a lot of gore (it's extreme stuff but made to look quite comical). In fact there is so much of it, you'd have thought this was just a gang of mates making the most vile film they could and thinking that jokes about beating women are funny. In some cases, a lot of gore is disgusting and does repulse (Cannibal Holocaust springs to mind) but when it's done like this, the film is just comical. I mean you could probably show this to a small kid and they'd start laughing (probably - but don't try it!). The acting is abysmal and by this I mean it's the most over-acted, under-acted, completely over-the-top set of performances I've ever seen from a cast. And a cast of nobodies I might add. The only half-respectable actress here is Andree Maranda who is actually ok as Toxie' blind girlfriend. Her first appearance in the cafe is quite sympathising really as the gang hold everyone inside hostage. But Mark Torgl is a mess as Melvin and Pat Ryan as the Mayor is also a nightmare. Again it looks like a bunch of mates gathered together to make this and cast all of their dads and brothers in it. It's just awful from start to finish.

Final Verdict: The Toxic Avenger is pure trash. It's supposedly a cult classic but if anyone enjoys watching this, then pity on them. I'm sure after watching it, my IQ had lowered dramatically. But it's still not as low as the IQs of everyone involved in making it.

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