Plot
Melvin Ferd is a scrawny, socially awkward janitor at a health club in the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey. He's regularly harassed and bullied by customers Bozo, Slug, Wanda and Julie, who also regularly engage in random, senseless acts of vehicular homicide around town, including deliberately running over the head of a preteen cyclist.
One day, as a cruel prank, the group trick Melvin into wearing a pink tutu and kissing a sheep in anticipation of having sex with Julie. He is ridiculed by a gathered crowd and chased around the health club and out of a second-story window. He falls into a drum of toxic waste on a truck parked outside, which transforms him into a hulking, hideously deformed mutant with superhuman size and strength.
That night, a group of drug dealers, led by the gangster Cigar Face, are trying to bribe a police officer. When he refuses to accept the money, Cigar Face and his gang prepare to castrate him. Melvin appears and brutally kills most of the criminals, leaving a mop on their faces as a calling card. Cigar Face escapes, promising to take revenge. When Melvin returns home, his mother is terrified of him and will not let him in the house, so he builds a makeshift home in the local junkyard.
Sometime later, a gang of three men hold up a Mexican restaurant for seemingly no reason and attack a blind woman, named Sara. They kill her guide dog and attempt to rape her, but are stopped by Melvin. Melvin takes Sara back to her home, where they get to know one another and become romantically involved.
Melvin continues to vanquish local criminals such as drug dealers and pimps for underage prostitutes, becoming known as "the monster hero". In a press conference, a scientist explains that as a result of his mutation, Melvin has developed an innate sense of who is "evil" and is compelled to attack them brutally when he encounters them. Tromaville's mayor Peter Belgoody, secretly the leader of Tromaville's extensive crime ring, fears having the truth of his corruption exposed and wants Melvin gone. A group of men, led by Cigar Face, surround Melvin with guns in an alley. Just before they fire on him, he leaps up to a fire escape so they shoot each other instead.
Melvin takes revenge on the four bullies who caused his transformation. He first attacks Wanda in the health club's sauna and burns her backside on the heater. He returns to the club later, pursues Julie into the basement, and attacks her with a pair of scissors (though the aftermath is not shown onscreen). Melvin then confronts Bozo and Slug after they steal a car. They attempt to run Melvin down, but he leaps onto the roof and throws Slug out of the moving car. Melvin then gets in and pulls off the steering wheel, causing Bozo to drive off the side of a cliff. The car explodes, killing Bozo.
When Melvin kills a seemingly innocent old woman in a dry cleaning store (in fact a leader of a human trafficking ring), Belgoody calls in the United States National Guard. Melvin, seemingly unaware that he only attacks evil people, is horrified at what he has become. He and Sara move away from the city and into a tent in the nearby woods.
They are eventually discovered, and Mayor Belgoody and the National Guard come to kill him, with Belgoody reasoning that Melvin is a monster, not a person. However, the people of Tromaville step in, and Melvin's mother identifies the mutant as her son. The Mayor's evil ways are revealed, and Melvin disembowels and kills him in front of the crowd. Hailed as a hero, Melvin continues to combat crime in Tromaville, and the film's narrator announces he is now known as The Toxic Avenger.
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Toxic Avenger holds an approval rating of 70%, based on 20 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. Its consensus reads, "A silly and ribald superhero spoof, Toxic Avenger's uninhibited humor hits more than it misses." [13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 42 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". [14]
Author and film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 2.5 out of 4 stars, calling the film "a funny spoof... Not without violence and gore but still entertaining." [15] Stephen Holden of The New York Times rated the film a score of 3/5, complimenting the film for its "maniacally farcical sense of humor", while also noting that the film itself was "trash." [16]
TV Guide gave the film a negative 1/5 stars, writing "Though it is silly, sleazy, and graphically violent, The Toxic Avenger does hold a bit of warped charm for fans of this sort of thing." [17] Keith Phipps from The A.V. Club was highly critical of the film, writing, "As for the movie itself, it's still a piece of trash, if a marginally entertaining one: it's too self-consciously parodic to be good kitsch, and too gross to be all that fun." [18] In his book Comedy-Horror Films: A Chronological History, 1914–2008, Bruce G. Hallenbeck described the film as "disgusting, sick, vile, poorly acted and sloppily produced." He challenged the interpretation of the film as a parody, arguing that the mean-spirited tone of its extreme gore and offensiveness makes clear that the filmmakers were simply trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. [19]
Reboot
In 2010 a remake of The Toxic Avenger was announced, [20] set to be co-written and directed by Steve Pink. [21] In 2016 Variety reported that Conrad Vernon would direct the film, while Mike Arnold and Chris Poole were attached to rewrite the screenplay by Pink and Daniel C. Mitchell. [22] In 2018 Legendary Pictures won the rights to reboot The Toxic Avenger, with the original's directors–producers, Kaufman and Herz, returning as producers. [23] In 2019 Macon Blair was announced to write and direct the upcoming film. [24]
In November 2020 it was announced that Peter Dinklage would star in the film. [25] In April 2021 Jacob Tremblay and Taylour Paige were added to the cast. [26] [27] In June 2021, Kevin Bacon, Julia Davis, and Elijah Wood joined the cast. [28] [29] That month principal photography commenced in Bulgaria and wrapped on August. [28] [30]
The Toxic Avenger remake premiered as the opening film of Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2023, and was theatrically released by Cineverse in the United States in 2025. [31] [32]
