Toxic Shock

The Toxic Avenger ambles his way into theatres some two years after the film was first shown at festivals. Strange that the movie had so much trouble finding a distributor given the presence of major names, relatively mainstream sensibilities (compared to the 80s original anyway) and the fact it's actually quite a bit of fun.

Events take place in a fictional city inside a cartoonish, ultra-capitalist, crime-ridden caricature of 80s America, with locations called things like "Depressing Outskirts" and "Ye Olde Shithead District". Peter Dinklage is down on his luck janitor Winston Gooze, a widower with a step son who attempts to break into the headquarters of the mega-pharmaceutical company he works for when he discovers his gold level insurance doesn't cover treatment for his brain condition. Things go south and he is transformed into The Toxic Avenger, a mutated super human who sets about righting some wrongs in his crime ridden city.

The film attempts to stick as close to the vibe of a Troma film as possible, while still being palatable to the extended audience people like Dinklage, Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood can bring to the party. This means we get a tonne of ridiculous (and mostly amusing) jokes and references, married to a gory splatter fest that aims to stick to practical effects as much as possible. Despite the film's subtitle being "unrated" the nastier edges of the Troma's 80's output have been sanded off in accordance with modern sensibilities, there is no exploitative nudity or child murder on display here. The result of this update is a movie that plays kind of like a classic Universal monster flick by way of a garishly gory comic book.

In keeping with the practical effects tradition, the titular avenger is played by Luisa Guerreiro inside a fantastically gross bodysuit with Dinklage providing the voice. Together, they craft a likeable and sympathetic monster. Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon have fun as a hunchbacked henchman and nefarious businessman, respectively, but the stand out antagonist is Julia Davis as Bacon's unhinged assistant. The prolific Jacob Tremblay notches up another lead kid role as Winston's stepson and is as dependably solid as ever.

Underneath all the humour and mayhem, there is a sense of real injustice about charlatan healthcare practices and the systems that deprive and riddle with debt those who have the temerity to get sick. Obviously, there are innumerable films that point to the evils of paid for healthcare, and it certainly isn't examined in any great detail here, but the sentiment is genuine. As evidenced by the fact the filmmakers spent $5 million paying off real life medical debt rather than marketing the film traditionally.

Writer/director Macon Blair has done a solid job of capturing the Troma spirit and while the humour may bemuse some, and the splatter put off others, The Toxic Avenger is a fun and spirited hundred odd minutes. It does take a while to get going though.

7 deadly mops out of 10

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