My relationship with Troma have always been ambivalent, but I think the reason I’ve stayed away from them for so many years was because they once promised me a guided tour at their office and when I was in New York they just ignored me and I never even went there. Tough love. Anyway, when Monsters of Film screened Return to Nuke’Em High Volume 1 in 2013 I re-discovered them again and felt I was back on track for some good, bloody and very, very, very silly entertainment. The thing is that I’ve always had a problem with filmmakers trying to make movies as bad as possible on purpose, but Troma and Lloyd Kaufman just is in a different league. They’re real exploitation compared to the new retro grindhouse films we’ve seen more and more of the last years.
I’m not sure if The Toxic Avenger was the first Troma film I saw, it might have been Class of Nuke’Em High actually, but it must have been on tape, either a crappy bootleg or a cut version - or even, if I remember it correctly, on one of the earlier movies only channels in Sweden - Filmnet or TV1000. I loved what I saw, it was over the top, crazy, fun, deliberately silly and very open-minded. In Tromaville everyone have a place. Everyone is equal in their own far-out way. And The Toxic Avenger - Melvin himself - is the man who defined them all.
Melvin is a happy and obviously mentally challenged cleaner at Tromaville’s trendiest health club. But is appearance provokes some of the better-looking clients, those with muscles and nice, fluffy hair, and they stage a cruel joke on him. After fleeing in panic from the sheep he’s set to make out with he crashes through a window and lands in a truck filled with radioactive waste! In the shelter of his home he transforms into a hideous mutant, a muscular superhero with a deadly mop and a pink ballerina skirt - and ready to take down every fucking corrupt baddie in Tromaville!
There’s no question about it, The Toxic Avenger is a great, awesome film. It’s also sports the thinnest script in history! But that’s fine, because it’s made with so much energy, passion, love, whatever you call it - so it’s easy to just sit back and enjoy it. What I totally forgot was the insanity of it - really, it’s extreme! It could have been made by brother who have ADHD, there’s something all the fucking time! The script is written with so many jokes - words or visual - it beats Hot Shots 1 and 2 together. But what strikes me the most is the anarchy, the competely fucking anarchy of it all. This is made ignoring the basic rules of storytelling, good taste or bad taste, it’s just a very unique and hyperactive positive mess of entertainment.
Every actor acts like their life depended on it, and with that I mean chewing the scenery. Which fits the movie perfectly, because there’s nothing subtle with the production. In a way these actors, and the filmmakers, embrace us, the viewers, in a big dirty, bear hug of foul language, obscene body movements, head-crushes and love and it feels real. For fucking real. How often do you feel that when watching a movie? Very rarely I would say… Getting back to the head-crushes, it’s also extremely gory, bloody and with so much splatter I’m surprised it came out in 1984. It feels more like a really, really, really good new movie trying to copy what they think eighties splatter would look like. I can’t say all the gore is well-made, but it’s made with enthusiasm - and I always appreciate movies where nothing is happen off-screen. Herz and Kaufman handles the direction well and I’m surprised how much they got the actors and extras to do, because there’s things going on in this film you never seen before and after (well, maybe in the sequels but I have no memories of them - time to change that!).
So what’s the best way to watch The Toxic Avenger? There’s really only one opition and it’s the brilliantly remastered blu-ray from the heroes at 88 Films (that's a link to their online shop!) in the UK (part 2 is out and on their schedule is part 3 and 4, very nice!). It looks absurdly good and is completely uncut what I can see. Included on the disc is also a Japanese cut in lesser resolution, not sure what the difference is. One day I guess I will take the time to watch that version to!
The Toxic Avenger is a feel-good movie for the splatter-generation and a milestone in genre cinema.
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