The Toxic Avenger

Around 1984, the Troma Corporation was just a fledging film company. That year, they stumbled upon what is undoubtedly their biggest success to date in The Toxic Avenger. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the Troma Corporation without what is the face of the movie company.

While there are in fact four movies that make up the Toxic Avenger series, it is often difficult to top the first movie. The first Toxic Avenger movie begins in the town of Tromaville, New Jersey, where the town's health club janitor Melvin is often the target of abuse from the people who regularly work out there, with Bozo, Slug, Wanda, and Julie being the primary tormentors. One day, the four play a joke on Melvin that causes him to eventually fall out of a window and into a vat of chemicals. Instead of killing him, the chemicals somehow give the 98 pound Melvin some much needed bulk and a horribly disfigured look. One of his first heroic acts since the transformation is saving the blind girl at a restaurant from some robbers, and it is there that the comedy ensues. Along the way, Toxie (as the former Melvin is now known) takes revenge on his tormentors, shaving one of the women bald, making another woman sit on hot coals, and killing their boyfriends. Toxie also cleans up the town of the other thugs and eventually, the corrupt mayor himself. The death scenes are hilarious, with one of the robbers in the restaurant being stuffed into an oven, while in another sequence, an old lady being given the dry cleaning treatment. The romance between Toxie and Sara (the blind girl) is also hilarious, especially when it is revealed that Sara keeps a stockpile of walking sticks that blind people carry when they are trying to not run into things. Yes, there is a fair share of gore, too, as the mayor's death is particularly gruesome.

The Toxic Avenger is the ideal movie for people who seek some humor and some gore. Neither is really in abundance, but there is the right amount of both to satisfy people who like one element over another.