The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 American superhero black comedy splatter film produced and directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman from a screenplay by Joe Ritter, based on a story by Kaufman. The film was produced and released by Troma Entertainment. It is the first installment in The Toxic Avenger film series and generated a media franchise.
Troma Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974. The company produces low-budget independent films, or "B movies", primarily of the horror comedy genre, all geared exclusively to mature audiences. Many of them play on 1950s horror with elements of farce, parody, gore, and splatter.
Porky's is a 1981 sex comedy film written and directed by Bob Clark about the escapades of teenagers in 1954 at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida. The film influenced many writers in the teen film genre and spawned two sequels: Porky's II: The Next Day (1983) and Porky's Revenge! (1985), and an ashcan copy titled Porky's Pimpin' Pee Wee (2009). Porky's was the fifth highest-grossing film of 1982. The film received generally positive reviews at the time of its release, but reviews have become more mixed-to-negative over time.
Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr., known professionally as Lloyd Kaufman is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, such as The Toxic Avenger (1984) and Tromeo and Juliet (1996). Many of the strategies employed by him at Troma have been credited with making the film industry significantly more accessible and decentralized.
Benjamin Robert Clark was an American film director and screenwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was responsible for some of the most successful films in Canadian film history such as Black Christmas (1974), Murder by Decree (1979), Tribute (1980), Porky's (1981), and A Christmas Story (1983). He won three Genie Awards with two additional nominations.
Twin Galaxies is a social media platform and video game database. Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game records to Guinness World Records.
Hustler White is a 1996 film by Bruce LaBruce and Rick Castro, a satirical black sex comedy about gay hustlers and their customers on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. It stars Tony Ward and LaBruce in an addition to the Queer Cinema canon, which is also an homage to classic Hollywood cinema. Also appearing in the film are Vaginal Davis, Glen Meadmore and Graham David Smith.
Charles Thomas "Chuck" Mitchell was an American actor, singer and entertainer. He is known for his role as "Porky" in the 1981 movie Porky's and its 1985 sequel Porky's Revenge!
James Francis Gunn Jr. is an American filmmaker and studio executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with Tromeo and Juliet (1997). He then began working as a director, starting with the horror-comedy film Slither (2006), and moving to the superhero genre with Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), The Suicide Squad (2021), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery hired Gunn and Peter Safran to become co-chairmen and co-CEOs of DC Studios. Under DC Studios, Gunn will co-produce and executive produce every film and television series under the upcoming DC Universe (DCU) media franchise alongside Safran, which will act as a soft-reboot of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). He will also continue to write and direct various projects set in the DCU, including the upcoming film Superman (2025).
The TromaDance Film Festival is a free annual independent non-competitive film festival organized by Troma Entertainment. Founded in 1999, TromaDance was originally held in Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, operating concurrently alongside the Sundance Film Festival in order to showcase an independent alternative to Sundance's perceived mainstream offerings. Between 2010 and 2013, the festival had been relocated to various locations throughout New Jersey. Since 2014, TromaDance has relocated to New York City, and Mahoning Drive-In Theater.
Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. is a 1990 American superhero comedy film directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, and produced and distributed by Troma Entertainment.
Kevin Edward Allen is a British actor, director, producer and writer. Allen came to prominence with the 1991 BBC film On the March with Bobby's Army, and for writing and directing his debut feature film, Twin Town, in 1997. He directed and co-wrote the movie adaptation of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood", submitted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Oscars ceremony but not nominated, the Hollywood feature films, The Big Tease and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, and the first series of ITV's Benidorm, along with numerous other films and documentaries.
Cinematic exhibition of the B movie, defined as a relatively low-cost genre film, has declined substantially from the early 1980s to the present. Spurred by the historic success of several big-budget movies with B-style themes beginning in the mid-1970s, the major Hollywood studios moved progressively into the production of A-grade films in genres that had long been low-budget territory. With the majors also adopting exploitation-derived methods of booking and marketing, B movies began to be squeezed out of the commercial arena. The advent of digital cinema in the new millennium appeared to open up new opportunities for the distribution of inexpensive genre movies.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive arcade gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong from Billy Mitchell. The film premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was released in U.S. theaters in August 2007. It received positive reviews.
Count Smokula is a comedic fictional character created and portrayed by Robert "Smokey" Miles. He has made numerous live appearances, roles in movies, TV shows and internet videos.
Richard W. Haines is an American independent genre filmmaker and film historian best known for his cult movies Space Avenger, Run for Cover in 3-D, and Splatter University, and the book Technicolor Movies.
Atom the Amazing Zombie Killer is a 2012 American independent horror comedy feature film directed by Zack Beins and Richard Taylor, and written by Beins, Taylor and Tim Johnson. It stars Mark Shonsey, Lindy Starr, Zachary Byron Helm, and Lloyd Kaufman.
James Ojala is an American special effects and makeup artist, screenwriter and film director.
Return to Return to Nuke 'Em High AKA Volume 2 is a 2017 American science fiction comedy horror film, made by the cult classic B-movie production group Troma Entertainment. It is directed by Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman and is the fifth in the Nuke 'Em High film series.
