Finally emerging from distribution limbo, Macon Blair’s reimagining of The Toxic Avenger is a friendlier, more digestible version than Troma’s 1984 splatter classic. The remake doesn’t lack for graphic violence, but the crassness and general eagerness to offend has been dialed back. No longer is anyone gunning down a seeing-eye dog or an old lady in a wheelchair, but to be fair, Toxie (voiced by Peter Dinklage, with Luisa Guerreiro behind the suit and prosthetics) does at one point yank a man’s intestines from out of his ass.
The film isn’t exactly a big-budget undertaking, but it makes expressive use of color and shadow, and it’s no slouch in the effects department. It also aims for a more cohesive story, though it mostly just ends up overcomplicating what might otherwise be a gory lark.
This is a film with two bands of henchman, one belonging to the mobster (Jonny Coyne) to which Robert Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), the villainous CEO of BT Healthstyle, is in debt, and the other—the members of which moonlight as a “monstercore” band named Killer Nutz—to Robert’s ghoulish brother, Fritz (Elijah Wood). As in the original film, after being exposed to a catastrophic toxic accident, our hero becomes a crime fighter, but here he does so while trying to bond with his stepson (Jacob Tremblay) and expose BTH with the help of an activist (Taylour Paige). He’s also a widower struggling for cash and hiding a terminal illness.
Pulled awkwardly in so many directions, this Toxic Avenger all but comes apart at the seams. It’s full of clumsy edits that shred basic dialogue scenes to ribbons, and it’s overloaded with dubbed-in joke lines reminiscent of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The Troma films are hardly wonders of cinematic craft, but their ramshackle qualities and trashy instincts give them a certain campy charm. This remake is at times funny, but given that it’s nowhere near as committed to the schlocky ethos of the original, it can feel as if it lacks an identity of its own. Which is the double-edged sword of a more polished production, as its clunkiest stretches are very easy to read as “bad” rather than “so bad it’s good.”
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