That there is in 2025 a remake of The Toxic Avenger feels like a miracle. Not just because after an almost two year delay after its 2023 Fantastic Fest premier, the film finally sees a wide release in movie theaters. Nor that it’s a remake whose pedigree goes from both ends of the Hollywood spectrum. It’s the only film listing from both legendary low budget independent studio Troma Entertainment and production company Legendary Pictures, who gave us the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. No, what makes this a miracle is in an era where remakes now feel like IP slop, filmmaker Macon Blair created the rare big studio remake of a cult film that feels like a true passion project.
Blair’s film doesn’t stray too far from the 1984 original. A lowly janitor gets exposed to toxic chemicals, gets mutated and becomes an unlikely superhero nicknamed Toxie. There’s evil in his city and it’s up to our hero to clean it up. Like the Troma films that inspired it, gruesome violence and jokes of questionable taste are abundant.
In the hands of any other filmmakers, it’s easy to see this become either a grim, brutal, and shudder serious thing or ugh, a ready made cult film that only appeals to the hardcore. Instead writer/director Blair dares to do something bold; just make a wildly entertaining film. Admittedly, its mix of absurd violence and crude humor may not make it a four quadrant affair. Surely though the audience for this film will easily find it.
The best word to describe the film is heightened. Everything in this film from the production design to the performances feel kicked up a notch. Casting Kevin Bacon, who enjoys being the prize ham in any genre film he stars in, as the mogul villain probably hints at the tone of the film. The production design looks like the result of smashing the industrial nightmare of the Tim Burton Batman with an episode of Power Rangers. The kind of film where a word like “garish” becomes a compliment.
This only makes The Toxic Avenger one of the most unexpectedly funny movies of the year. It revels in a cartoonishly, gory brand of violence that only makes the film funnier. Jokes get stacked of each other like a Jenga tower and there’s a bit of a thrill seeing if the whole thing might topple over.
It’s funny to see a mob forming and handing out torches and pitchforks at the sight of a newly mutated Toxie. It’s even funnier to have a cop meant to keep the peace punctuate it by shooting his gun in air and yell “Well, we’re forming a mob!” There’s so many sight gags and jokes in the background, that it might rival this year’s The Naked Gun reboot.
What really sells the humor though is the violence. Not ultra violent, but a kind of violence that is cartoonishly gory. Body parts explode, and limbs get ripped off casually. By the time someone confronts Toxie on the body count, his explanation on whether or not it’s self defense just gets funnier.
Yet while the film doesn’t take itself too seriously, Blair feels deeply about the subtext in the source material. The Toxic Avenger, both original and remake, is a story about environmental destruction and corrupt people in power. This is a not subtle satire of massive corporations valuing profits over employee welfare while also doing irreparable damage to the environment here.
The villain, whose last name is Bargringer, is the epitome of a 21st century “captain of industry”; a cult of personality who sells garbage that actually makes people’s lives worse. His business is built on dirty money. This might not be a one for one comparison but it’s hard not to think of a few billionaires (and world leaders) watching this. This is a 21st century superhero film, and the Toxic Avenger is absolutely a superhero where our hero fights villains not too far removed from reality.
The glue holding the film together though is Peter Dinklage as poor Winston Gooze just trying to be a good stepdad to moody teen Jacob Tremblay. Dinklage gets at both the absurd humor and the darker themes present in the film. He’s a funny actor and The Toxic Avenger allows him to be funny as a parent just trying and not succeeding. But also he sells the desperation of a man who the system has let down multiple times. Someone who we can believe once he becomes a toxic mutant, would take the law into his own hands.
It needs to be stated that it’s not Dinklage under the makeup and prosthetics as Toxie but suit performer Luisa Guerreiro. It’s Guerreiro who gives an excellent performance under all of the makeup and prosthetics that brings Toxie to life here as a man of the people. Dinklage may voice the character but the movie doesn’t work without the pathos and comedic chops that Guerreiro brings to the role.
That’s what the The Toxic Avenger is. It’s the unlikely story of a gruesome mutant hero that the people need. But that’s also what this film itself is. A gruesome mutant of a studio film that pays homage to a certain breed of independent genre filmmaking. The kind of weird film that studios with money should finance more of. With The Toxic Avenger, Macon Blair crafts the rare remake that not only honors its predecessor but may better it.
The Toxic Avenger is currently playing in theaters.
