“And you can tell all your scum friends that things are gonna change in this town. I’m not just another pretty face.”
In the quaint little village of Tromaville, New Jersey, population 15,000, is the Tromaville Health Club. Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl) works as a janitor for the club. Melvin is your typical 98 pound weakling and as gullible and as nerdy as they come. Several of the patrons of the club pick on him relentlessly. Bozo (Gary Schneider), Slug (Robert Prichard), Wanda (Jennifer Babtist) and Julie (Cindy Manion) are among the most vicious. In fact they are evil to everyone. Their favorite pastime is to run over people, ala Death Race 2000, awarding points depending on who they kill.
Julie comes up with a plan to humiliate Melvin. She convinces him that she wants to have sex with him and has him put on a pink tutu. In the dark she tricks Melvin into kissing a sheep. When the lights go on everyone from the health club is there and they torment him with their laughter. Melvin runs in shame and hurls himself through a window. Outside happens to be a parked truck loaded with toxic chemicals. Melvin lands in a drum of toxic waste. He rushes home and tries to wash off the chemicals. In a protracted sequence Melvin is transformed into a horrendously disgusting looking creature. Along with the change in his appearance he also acquires superhuman strength and abilities.
After his transformation, Melvin (Mitch Cohen) wanders around town in a rage. He comes upon three drug dealers trying to buy off a cop. Cigar Face (Dan Snow), Knuckles (Doug Isbecque) and Nipples (Charles Lee Jr.). The three hoodlums are seconds away from killing Officer O’Clancy (Dick Martinsen) when Melvin beats the crap out of them. The papers pick up the story and Melvin is labeled “The Monster Hero”. Everybody hails him, except the police and Tromaville’s politicians, who are all crooked. Not being able to return home Toxie makes a new home for himself in the junk yard.
Later three robbers are holding up a Mexican restaurant and abusing the customers. One of the customers is a blind woman named Sara (Andree Maranda). One of the robbers kills her Seeing Eye dog. Another one attempts to rape her. At that moment the Toxic Avenger appears and turns all three into fast food. Sara is traumatized and helpless without her dog. Toxie walks her home. They subsequently fall in love. Toxie continues his crime fighting, single handedly cleaning up the town, but the biggest crooks he has yet to tackle are the mayor and his minions. The mayor, knowing that Toxie is a threat to his crooked businesses wants the avenger dead.
“The Toxic Avenger” was released in 1984 and was directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman. It is a superhero movie and a black comedy. It also turned out to be one of Troma’s best franchises and a cult film. So far there have been four films, a video game, a children’s animated TV series and a musical stage production. The movie is a conglomerate of overly exaggerated stereotypes and characters. Everything about it is exaggerated. It’s not just cheezy and camp but double cheeze and extra camp. Everything and everybody is a caricature of something or someone. The jokes are crude and the violence extreme. There is a lot of gore and testicle crunching juvenile humor. Some of the gore is a little unsettling. I would only recommend this film for those who like sick humor and lots of gross stuff, and perhaps twelve-year-olds.
The scene where the boy on the bicycle is run over and his head is squished was done by injecting a melon with corn syrup and red food dye. Then a wig was placed on the melon and placed onto a dummy. Frank (Larry Sulton), the actor in the Mexican restaurant whose arm was torn off actually had only one arm. This was the only movie he ever appeared in.
The scene with the Seeing Eye dog being shot received more complaints from viewers than any other. The dog was trained to glide across the floor on command. Its guts were actually spaghetti covered in gray paint. The name Toxic Avenger is not actually referenced in the movie. The character was known only as The Monster. A name had not been decided on while the movie was being filmed. The first time the moniker is used is by the narrator of the film.