Displaying items by tag: Lloyd Kauffman

THE TOXIC AVENGER

US, 2023, 100 minutes, Colour.

Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Julia Davis, Louise Guerriorio, David Yow, Annette Badland, Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufmann.

Directed by Macon Blair.

The Toxic Avenger was the title of a horror film of 1984, produced by the small-budget Troma Studios, specialising in horror films under the leadership of its director, Lloyd Kaufmann. Kaufmann made several sequels to the original. Almost 40 years later, he wanted to make a new version of The Toxic Avenger, thought himself too old to direct this version, has a small role in the hospital sequence, but handed on direction to writer-actor, Macon Blair (who also appears as Dennis).

This film had a larger budget, was produced by 2023 but failed to get a distributor. However, it was released in 2025, some enthusiasm for the distributors, but many negative comments from the bloggers.

This is a film which has its cake and eats it at the same time! It capitalises on the horror traditions, especially those of the small budget special effects – many exceedingly gory, of course, but an emphasis more on splatter and blood instead of grim dark horror. And it has something of a distinguished cast.

In the original, the toxic avenger was a nerdish young man. This time the central character is played by Peter Dinklage, working in a large factory, sinister in its experiments and Big Pharma, a cleaner, stepfather to a teenager, Jacob Tremblay.

On the one hand, the through line of the plot has an emphasis on family, relationships, the death of a mother, the son and his relationship to his stepfather, the boy at school, trying to dance but ridiculed, the father with a terminal diagnosis, the consequences of the stepfather’s transformation, and the role of the boy. This story pervades the film.

And there is also the through plot of the critique of corrupt corporations, Mafia and gangster connections, inept CEOs and their vanities, the sinister accomplices, the henchmen team of would-be rock stars who are commissioned to kill all opponents. Which means that the film is a critique of corrupt businesses, the consequences for public life and health.

The nerd of the original film is now a journalist but is killed off at the beginning, bequeathing his mission of exposure and condemnation to another journalist, played effectively and generally seriously by Taylour Paige. She is under threat and pursued throughout the whole film, eventually working with the Toxic Avenger and to save his son.

When the janitor invades a big dinner and confronts the CEO, played, with self-important nonchalance, by Kevin Bacon with Julia Davis as his loyal assistant, he asks for some money to cover his doctor’s bills after the terminal prognostic and the refusal of the company to pay his insurance. Pursued, he is involved in mishaps from the factory and overwhelmed by toxic sludge, emerging disfigured (and an actress performing the action of the janitor while Peter Dinklage speaks the lines). And he has a toxic atomic mop. A determined man with a mission.

The film is very much a horror-allegory about corruption in society and the need to rise against it. It certainly plays parody at times, overall satire – but, often in the spirit of spontaneous skit.

Clearly, from the title and the posters, only the horror aficionados at will be wanting to see this film – some satisfied, many dissatisfied. However, film buffs, seeing the list of the cast, may be curious to see how they handle this kind of horror satire.