THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984)

DIRECTED by Michael Herz & Lloyd Kaufman (as Samuel Weil).

SCREENPLAY by Joe Ritter from a story by Lloyd Kaufman.

STARRING - Mark Torgl as Melvin Ferd Junko the 3rd,  Mitch Cohen as The Toxic Avenger (Kenneth Kessler as voice of Toxie),  Andree Maranda as Sara,  Pat Ryan Jnr. as Mayor Peter Belgoody Goldberg,  Sarabel Levinson as Mrs Ferd Junko,  Gary Schneider as Bozo,  Robert Prichard as Slug,  Jennifer Baptist as Wanda,  Cindy Manion as Julie,  Dan Snow as Cigar Face,  Dick Martinsen as Officer O'Clancy.

PLOT - Melvin Junko is the janitor at the Tromaville health spa. He is also a total social outcast and misfit. Scrawny, geeky, shy and socially awkward, Melvin is constantly a target for the bullying regulars at the gym. Melvin seems to particularly annoy the psychotic Bozo and his best friend, Slug, along with their beautiful but bitchy girlfriends - Julie and Wanda.

The four play a cruel prank on Melvin involving a pink tutu and a sheep and the humiliated Melvin is chased through the gym by a crowd of jeering onlookers. The terrified and upset Melvin jumps out of an upper storey window to escape his tormentors and lands in a barrel of toxic waste. Burning and screaming, boils erupting from his body, Melvin runs home where he undergoes a strange mutation...the scrawny little nerd is no more...in his place is a hideously mutated, super strong beast. Melvin has become The Toxic Avenger.

The Toxic Avenger becomes a vigilante, fighting crime, protecting the weak from the criminals of Tromaville. In the process he rescues a beautiful blind girl  - Sara - from a viscious gang of attackers and the two fall in love. Toxie also attracts some far less welcome attention in the form of Peter Belgoody Goldberg, the corrupt mayor of Tromaville who controls and runs a massive crime syndicate. Goldberg doesn't like this new hero being on the streets of his town and very soon the army are called in to take down the marauding mutant hero.

Can the Toxic Avenger survive against the combined might of the military and Goldberg's criminal gangs whilst defending the citizens of Tromaville ? And more to the point, can he also gain his revenge on the bullies that made his life such a misery to begin with ?...

Tagline - "HE WAS 98LBS OF SOLID NERD UNTIL HE BECAME...THE TOXIC AVENGER."

PERFORMANCES - As this is a Troma movie don't go into this expecting subtle and Oscar worthy performances because you're not gonna get them. Instead, expect everything ramped up and exaggerated by 100 percent for maximum ridiculousness and shock value.

As with The Swamp Thing movie; the role of Toxie/Melvin is played by two actors (three if you count the voice over work). Inhabiting the role of Toxie's human form, Melvin, is Mark Torgl. Torgl is a great fit for the role of the scrawny, awkward and accident prone Melvin. His gangly, scrawny build, buck teeth and awkward, nervous movements make Melvin a walking target for abuse, he might as well have a big bullseye painted on his back. Unfortunately, Torgl doesn't really manage to evoke much sympathy for Melvin and his plight and Melvin does come across as a bit annoying as a result. It's partly due to the high pitched voice that he puts on (at least for his sake I hope he's putting it on) and also partly, because the character is written as just being so stupid. It's really obvious when Julie pretends to seduce him that he's being set up for a massive fall and yet he falls for it hook, line, and sinker. Maybe he's just so desperate to be accepted but it's so glaringly obvious that you just lose all respect for the character and end up wanting to see him get it as badly as his tormentors do.

I will say this for Torgl though. He does really sell the scene where Melvin is chased through the health spa until he desparately leaps out of the window and into the conviniently placed barrel of toxic waste. With the cruel, taunting crowd jeering and laughing at him he does manage to look both terrified and bewildered, perfectly evoking that sense of total humiliation that many of us have felt at times when things aren't going our way and it feels like everything is spiraling out of control and down the toilet.

Mitch Cohen plays the Toxic Avenger whom Melvin is mutated into. Cohen has an intimidating physical presence but isn't going to win any awards for his acting, to be fair he is hampered by the facial prosthetics that he has to wear, making it so that one whole half of Toxie's face is completely static at all times. He does the best he can in the circumstances. The creature's voice is provided by Kenneth Kessler who gives Toxie a gravelly deep "Clint Eastwood" style action hero voice.  It's silly and obvious but it's a nice contrast to Melvin's nasal screech of a voice and helps to show just how much he has been transformed.

Andree Maranda plays Sara, Toxie's blind girlfriend. She plays the role well making Sara come across as genuinely sweet if somewhat ditzy. A quick trigger warning for those who are offended by such things, Sara's disabilities are very much played for laughs, her blindness leading her into broadly comedic situations. If  this bothers you - then turn off the movie as it definitely won't be to your tastes.

Onto the villains of the piece. The main villain is Tromaville's corrupt mayor - Peter Belgoody Goldberg played by Pat Ryan Jnr. Ryan makes the obese, cigar chomping mayor suitably grotesque. He's slimy, sleazy and totally without any morals whatsoever. A villain in the best "Boo Hiss" tradition and a nice little piece of satire on the nature of greedy corrupt politicians to boot.

Perhaps the most O.T.T performance in a film filled with O.T.T performances is Gary Schneider playing chief gym bully, Bozo. He's arrogant and full of swagger and tips into a completely overblown meltdown everytime he sets his eyes on Melvin. He starts screaming and ranting and physically shaking so much that his girlfriend has to calm him down. Its all massively exaggerated and quite funny when you consider that you actually do sometimes meet guys just like Bozo in real life. Many a time have I seen big hulking blokes being held back by some tiny little girl as they scream and rant at some passer by who's just knocked thier pint over. It's always struck me as being ridiculous and Bozo is a complete parody of that mindset.

Robert Prichard is Bozo's sidekick, Slug. Prichard plays Slug as being a total wannabe, forever basking vicariously in Bozo's reputation and shadow. He's also got a gleefully sadistic streak, egging Bozo on into greater acts of violence. Slug gets to utter the immortal line "Beat that old lady like a dawg". He's a total sleazebag but quite darkly amusing with it all the same.

Prichard also reminds me a lot of Corey Feldman, so much so, that the first time I watched this film I had to check the end credits to see whether it was actually him or not.

SFX - The Toxic Avenger's facial makeup looks good but it does unfortunately hamper Mitch Cohen's acting sometimes. It restricts his facial movements and expressions making him look a bit like he's had a stroke at points. It also has a tendency to look a bit rubbery in certain shots. It's still a good creature design though...

Probably the best effects in the film are during Melvin's transformation scene. Melvin's body seems to distort and elongate, huge pulsing blisters bursting and popping on his arms and legs. It's 80's practical effects work at its very best and I'm betting it ate up a large portion of the movie's budget. Worth it though.

The rest of the movie's effects consist of some memorable gore scenes. Speaking of which...

SEX & VIOLENCE  - If you like tons of gore then the Toxic Avenger has you well covered. The gore is, if anything, more O.T.T than the acting. Heads get crushed, eyes get gouged out, dogs get shot, the list is endless. You heard that right. This film dares to break the two biggest taboos in the horror movie rulebook - never harm children or animals. At one point in the film whilst joyriding, Bozo and Slug run over a young boy on a bike and reverse over his head, splattering it like a burst Watermelon...

Another man gets his head crushed by a set of weights...

Yet another villain gets his mouth shredded open by a Milkshake stirrer...

The list is practically endless, I'm surprised this film made it to the shelves of video rental stores with as few cuts as it actually did.

RATING - The Toxic Avenger is an ultra-violent black comedy superhero movie. It's gloriously exaggerated and not to be taken remotely seriously. Some of it's humour has dated and overall it's very much a product of it's times. If you're easily offended then don't touch this movie with a bargepole. If however, political correctness doesn't bother you and you're looking for some gory, campy, in your face fun, then Toxie may well be right up your street. The amazing thing is, this gore soaked, violently slapstick movie went on to spawn a spin-off kids cartoon series and line of action figures and toys. Only in the 80's...

Overall rating  - 3 and a half mashed heads out of 5.