Studio:   Cineverse
Director: Macon Blair
Writer:   Macon Blair
Producer: Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz
Stars:    Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon, David Yow, Sarah Niles, Shaun Dooley, Luisa Guerreiro

Review Score:

Summary:

A down-on-his-luck stepdad takes on a corrupt criminal empire after he accidentally mutates into a monstrous superhero.

Synopsis:

In the Ye Olde Shithead District of Saint Roma’s Village, whistleblower J.J. Doherty brings incriminating evidence that her corrupt employer, biotech company BTH, is connected to organized crime and knowingly poisoning people with its products to investigative report Melvin Ferd. Moonlighting as hitmen for Fritz Garbinger, BTH’s head of security who is routinely degraded by his brother, conceited BTH CEO Bob Garbinger, monster core band The Killer Nutz assassinates Mel, but J.J. escapes with the evidence.

In the city’s depressing outskirts, Winston Gooze continues to raise his emotionally troubled and introverted stepson Wade in the wake of his girlfriend Shelly’s death one year earlier. Wade, who is unreceptive to Winston’s earnest attempts at positive parenting, expresses disappointment when Winston fails to stand up for local grocery storeowner Daisy as the elderly woman is shaken down by Spence, an enforcer working for his father Thad Barkabus, the boss of The Khaki Klub crime ring.

Winston goes to his job as a janitor at BTH’s flagship factory, where he has worked for 13 years, but is called away to see Dr. Walla, who delivers the news that Winston has less than a year to live due to a brain disease. Winston is initially optimistic about an experimental treatment, but is subsequently devastated to discover his employee health plan won’t cover the costs.

At his family manor, nicknamed Chudhaven, Bob Garbinger receives his regular gorilla blood transfusion while meeting with his assistant and lover, Kissy Sturnevan. Deeply in debt to Thad Barkabus, Bob berates his brother Fritz for hiring a band as assassins who sloppily killed Mel and failed to kill J.J. Fritz resends The Killer Nutz, whose members include Budd Berserk, DJ Cool Cthulu, Him Under the Hood, Nightmare Josh, Venus Devalero, and Zodiac 3000 to kill J.J. at her home, but J.J. avoids them, leaving the band to rough up her roommate Dennis instead.

At New Chemistry High School, Wade attempts to perform a musical number on a stage in front of student judges, but he chickens out at the last minute and gets humiliated on social media. Winston tries cheering up Wade by dancing in a tutu at home later that night, but the boy remains depressed.

Bob Garbinger receives an award at the Fancypants Awards Banquet while dining with coconspirators who include Mayor Togar and Chief Wormer of the police. During the dinner, Thad forces Bob into a private meeting where the mobster threatens Bob about paying his debts.

Desperate to pay for the medical treatment that will allow him to remain Wade’s guardian, Winston humbly confronts Bob at the banquet to ask for his help. Bob pretends to be sympathetic, but he and Kissy trick Winston into getting locked out of the building. Winston hears Bob and Kissy insultingly laughing at him from the other side of the door.

Now angered, Winston loads up a mophead with toxic waste and uses it to rob cash from BTH’s payroll department. At the same time, J.J. infiltrates BTH to steal a toxic sludge sample.

Having received an alert about a security breach, Fritz sends The Killer Nutz after J.J. J.J. and Winston collide with each other as they both attempt to flee. J.J. manages to get away, but The Killer Nutz shoot Winston in his face. To get rid of his body, The Killer Nutz throw Winston and his mop into the Sinister Waste Disposal pool, which ends up mutating Winston into a monster with superstrength and regenerative abilities.

Winston returns home but, frightened by his grotesque appearance, Wade throws a heavy dish that causes Winston to fall off a fire escape and onto a car belonging to Spence Barkabus, who was in the midst of shaking down Daisy again. Spence shoots Winston, but his healing abilities negate the gunshot wounds. Enraged, Winston rips off Spence’s left arm before fleeing in front of shocked witnesses who form a mob to pursue what they perceive to be a monster.

Winston escapes to Yonder Spooky Woods. The next morning, Guthrie Stockins, a hobo who claims to be a doctor, helps Winston recover. Upon learning Winston is dying and just wants to get back to his stepson, Guthrie advises Winston to show Wade he has a good heart. Reunited with the toxic mop Guthrie recovered, Winston is inspired to become a hero.

Angered by the fast-food chain’s new gender-swapped mascot, political extremists The Nasty Lads take hostages while storming a Miss Meat restaurant with assault rifles. After he goes on a gruesome rampage to slaughter the terrorists in front of live TV cameras and police officers, Winston is publicly hailed as a hero nicknamed “The Toxic Avenger.”

From the televised interview he gives after rescuing the hostages, Wade recognizes “Toxie” as his stepfather Winston. Spence Barkabus also recognizes Toxie as the man who tore off his arm, so he tasks his father’s henchmen with finding Winston.

Meanwhile, Bob realizes the janitor and the mutant are the same person. Seeing a way out of debt by developing new biotech based on whatever was in BTH’s chemical waste that endowed Winston with powers, Bob assigns his science team to investigate the material. Fritz then concocts a plan to use Wade as bait after Bob tasks him and Kissy with capturing Winston.

Having found Winston’s apartment from a BTH employee badge he previously dropped, J.J. goes to his home and tells Wade everything that happened. J.J. and Wade are forced to flee when The Killer Nutz come looking for the boy.

J.J. and Wade run into Winston on the street. Thinking his stepdad stole money for his psychiatric treatments, Wade is upset to instead learn Winston is dying and needed that money for himself. Winston promises Wade he isn’t going anywhere.

Thad’s Khaki Klub thugs attack the trio. The Killer Nutz shoot J.J. and kidnap Wade. Winston brutally slaughters the thugs.

Winston brings J.J. back to Guthrie only to discover the hobo isn’t really a former doctor. Using the regenerative properties of his toxic blood, Winston heals J.J. himself.

As The Killer Nutz drive back to Bob, Wade makes a comment about his stepfather rescuing him that causes Fritz to consider how his own family abuses and disrespects him. Upon receiving Wade as a captive, Bob assures Thad that his debts will be repaid.

Winston and J.J. interrupt a festival performance to kill five of the six Killer Nutz bandmembers. Although they initially decry him as a murderer, Winston sways the crowd by announcing the bandmembers were mercenaries working for Bob, who poisoned townspeople with BTH’s bogus biotechnology.

Acting on information from the only surviving bandmember, Winston and J.J. infiltrate Chudhaven in search of Wade. However, they are both captured, which allows Bob’s scientists to torture Winston by repeatedly drawing samples of his toxic blood through a painful procedure.

With news spreading about BTH’s connection to his organized crime ring, Thad angrily confronts Bob. Bob drinks a flask of Winston’s blood, which transforms him into a horned monster who tears apart Thad and his henchmen in a retaliatory rage.

Finding Bob transformed, Kissy drinks the remaining drops of Winston’s blood to partially become an empowered monster too. She then orders Wade’s execution, but Fritz objects, prompting Kissy to beat Fritz for his disobedience.

Winston uses his toxic urine to melt his chains and free J.J. J.J. retrieves incriminating evidence against BTH while Winston retrieves his toxic mop. The two of them then attempt to rescue Wade, but Winston is shocked when the building where Wade was being held captive suddenly explodes.

Winston battles Bob in his monster form while J.J. fights Kissy over the stolen evidence. Winston is reenergized when he learns Fritz secretly rescued Wade. Winston and J.J. ultimately kill Bob together.

Wade finally calls Winston his father, but their tender moment is interrupted when Kissy impales Winston from behind. Kissy also slits Fritz’s throat. Winston tackles Kissy onto his toxic mop, causing an explosion that seemingly destroys the two of them, although Winston and Kissy both survive the blast.

Winston recovers in a hospital to learn from a newscast that BTH’s citywide corruption was exposed, resulting in both Mayor Togar and Chief Wormer’s arrests. Dr. Walla informs Winston that his brain damage miraculously healed. Fritz also recovers from his neck wound. Sarah Weatherwax, a blind federal agent who was among the Miss Meat hostages, indicates the government wants to recruit Winston for secret operations.

Publicly revered as a hero once again, Winston reunites with Wade in a warm embrace. Wade goes on to wow a high school audience with his dance performance while Winston proudly watches with the enthusiastic crowd.

Review:

A staggering amount of weirdo world-building occurs all throughout “The Toxic Avenger,” but the opening scenes are particularly packed with gags and gore that firmly cement the underground comic book setting as well as the off-kilter tone. For a movie based on a Troma cult classic punched up by notable names getting gruesome and goofy, the film features exactly what one would expect: kooky characters, midnight movie atmosphere, an irreverent attitude, and more than a pinch of toilet humor. Instead of a remake, it might be more appropriate to call “The Toxic Avenger” a hardcore reimagining of the “Garbage Pail Kids” as a superhero origin story, except with adults-only humor and splattery horror.

After a narrated introduction from Peter Dinklage, who plays down-on-his luck janitor and single stepdad Winston Gooze, comes text identifying the first location as “Ye Olde Sh*thead District.” The city is Saint Roma’s Village, whose “Welcome to” sign on its “Depressing Outskirts” section makes the letters not covered in rust spell out “Tromaville.” J.J. Doherty, a whistleblower secretly trying to expose poisonous pollution at the BTH biotech factory, meets with reporter Mel Ferd in an office where Mel’s runner-up award for “Very Good Investigative Journalism” hangs proudly next to a bulletin board linking BTH to organized crime and citywide corruption. Mel barely has time to collect J.J.’s incriminating evidence before he’s repeatedly shot with a pistol, a shotgun, and finally a harpoon by six ridiculously costumed members of a “monster core” band moonlighting as hitmen.

Given that all of this happens prior to opening credits, which stick in a warning that the movie’s “possible side effects include fever, foolishness, and butt guts,” anyone would be forgiven for fearing “The Toxic Avenger” might have nothing but lowbrow comedy and carnage in store. Lowbrow comedy and carnage are indeed included, but don’t be surprised when deliberate crudeness becomes unusually entertaining as development deepens and storylines rev up to hit high-spirited strides.

“The Toxic Avenger” doesn’t stay stagnant on a lazy low road at all. On the contrary, writer/director Macon Blair stuffs in jokes at a high ratio of potential laughs-per-minute usually only seen in a Zucker/Abrahams spoof. Quiet one-liners from offscreen background actors. Punny titles on book covers and billboards. Scrolling ticker text on TV news broadcasts. One of the ways “The Toxic Avenger” keeps viewers constantly engaged comes from constantly filling the screen with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it buffoonery that simultaneously fleshes out a uniquely bizarre little universe mixing cartoon craziness with grindhouse grisliness.

Another way “The Toxic Avenger” stays engaging is by being centered on a surprisingly heartfelt story of a struggling Everyman genuinely driven to be a caring parent to his angsty, introverted stepson. Winston wasn’t even married to Wade’s mother, yet when she died a year ago, the man made it his mission to raise the emotionally troubled boy right. Never mind the huge debt and dingy apartment in a neighborhood where mom and pop storeowners are regularly shaken down by a Kojak-lookalike mobster. Winston just wants Wade, whose big dream is to drum up the courage to perform a dance number at New Chemistry High School, to not have it so hard, even if the boy regularly treats Winston like a necessary nuisance.

As Winston, Peter Dinklage does terrific work to make warmer moments endearing, like when he tries cheering up Wade by dressing in Toxie’s signature tutu, or timing drier comedy just as well as over-the-top bits, whether that’s dealing with a dopey doctor or an insurance company rep who frustrates him with confusingly named policy plans. Dinklage’s nuanced portrayal, which one might not presume from a role dominated by delivering mutant mayhem, complements Kevin Bacon’s intentionally exaggerated villain, a narcissistic CEO whose callousness and carelessness eventually has a hand in transforming Winston into the titular force for vigilante justice.

Across the entire roster of primary and secondary players, there’s a push-pull where some characters exhibit more seriousness while others plump up on Porky Pig ham. Yet the range between those two ends is tighter than it sounds, and doesn’t come across as actors going rogue or being directed to conflicting speeds. Rather, there’s a persistent sense that a careful eye makes sure the overall mood is balanced for consistency no matter where any particular person or scene inserts a quirky spark or geyser of neon-colored goop.

Amid the unexpectedly earnest family drama and occasional spectacle of Toxie using his urine to melt metal, “The Toxic Avenger” even slips in some satire when political extremists take over a fast-food restaurant because they’re upset the burger chain’s mascot swapped genders. Wearing berets that make them look a little like they’re about to kidnap Patty Hearst, the hapless hostage-takers get their comeuppance at the hands of Winston, literally, when the monstrous little ogre starts ripping off limbs before tearing out one terrorist’s intestines through his anus.

Certain production company associations and a two-year gap between the film’s festival debut and widespread release may inspire some cautious reservations, but the entire experience is far more enjoyable than out-of-context examples of crassness might lead one to believe. Outnumbering instances of childishness, or the wonkiness of several oddly abrupt cuts, are fun creative decisions such as making up Elijah Wood to resemble Danny DeVito’s Penguin or a running gag with a warped bird puppet. “The Toxic Avenger” feels like a true Troma film, but older, wiser, and with a lot more star power and wit to go along with the grossouts and B-movie bloodbaths.

NOTE: There is a post-credits scene.

Review Score: 85