Parodies are back, baby! Weeks after The Naked Gun wowed critics and demonstrated that there was still a healthy audience appetite for wacky comedies at the cinema, The Toxic Avenger Unrated, Macon Blair’s update of the cult Marvel/Troma franchise, proves that there’s still much steam left in the formerly abandoned genre.
Last year, The Toxic Avenger was deemed “unreleasable”
When it debuted at festivals in 2023, The Toxic Avenger simultaneously beguiled and revolted audiences. It struggled for years to find distribution, and at one point, a report deeming the film’s combination of gore, off-color humor, and vicious corporate satire to be “unreleasable” seemed to indicate Toxie might go the way of Batgirl or Coyote vs. Acme. (Blair recently pushed back against that report, claiming that Legendary was in active distribution talks when the article was published.)
The Toxic Avenger has arrived in cinemas unrated, a fact of which the filmmakers are so proud that it has become part of the official title. With last fall’s release of Terrifer 3, another wildly violent but notably less good-natured unrated horror flick which topped the box office, distributors suddenly became a lot less fretful. (Unrated and NC-17 films are prohibited from release at certain cinema chains and are subject to stricter advertising laws, therefore a famously risky gamble at the box office.) Now, we have the rarest of rareties: A weird, wacky, ultraviolent, pure exploitation movie playing in cinemas. To watch with an audience of other fans. Not just on Tubi. On your couch. That’s cause for celebration, in certain circles at least.
Along with The Naked Gun, The Toxic Avenger heralds the return of the parody genre
Blair’s Toxic Avenger keeps the frame of the original 1984 film, which Marvel later turned into a comic, about a nerd who becomes a deformed superhero after a bath in some toxic ooze, but injects it with much-needed substance. Peter Dinklage steps into the title role of downtrodden and unfortunately named janitor Winston Gooze, who is tasked with raising his resentful step-son (Jacob Tremblay) after the death of his wife. Diagnosed with a devastating brain disease, the treatment for which his health insurance won’t cover, Winston goes to the boss of his company, super-conglomerate BTH, to beg for the necessary coverage. That his boss is played by Kevin Bacon, doing his best Peter Thiel impression, should let you know this company’s up to no good. Winston is unceremoniously denied, so decides to rob the company of money. This goes awry, he’s shot and dumped in a barrel of toxic ooze, and he wakes up as the hideously deformed hero, deadset on avenging his attempted murder and also reuniting with his step-son. There’s also a grotesque henchman, played by an unrecognizable Elijah Wood, a band of Insane Clown Posse-inspired villains, and a human avenger played by @Zola‘s Taylour Paige.
The Toxic Avenger is nothing if not chaotic and undisciplined, but purposefully so. For all the exploding heads, “butt guts,” and self-urination, this is one of the more good-hearted and clean-spirited movies of the year. The chaos is underpinned by an affecting emotional throughline, and the satire is both suitably goofy and razor sharp. Blair, in his feature directorial debut, deserves much credit for creating a movie which is so many different things but is also one cohesive piece. There’s a mounting sense of zaniness and screwball energy from scene to scene, terrifically well maintained throughout, leading to the exploitation-tastic face-off between Toxie and Bacon’s now-befanged villain, which feels like a union between a Jess Franco Euro-horror flick and the end of Howling Part 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf. It’s exceedingly rare to see a first-time feature that not only has such a clear vision for itself but also the talent and gall to pull it off.
Blair, a talented character actor best known for his starring turn in Jeremy Saulnier’s searing Blue Ruin (2015), possesses a clear flair for the absurd. It’s a bit surprising, in the opening minutes, how much of a spoof on both modern superhero movies and more general action blockbusters his Toxic Avenger is. In terms of parody, Toxic Avenger can take a spot right alongside The Naked Gun as the official ambassadors for a (hopefully) returning genre. The jokes here are not as obvious or in-your-face as Naked Gun, taking a decidedly more satirical than full-on parodical approach, but the result is just as gut-busting. Some of the stabs at modern corporations and healthcare are so right-on that they’ll hit you right in the heart.
After its delayed release, The Toxic Avenger is more timely than ever
And after all that tewing and frowing, the film’s belated release has worked in its favor. Not only did the timing deliver a one-two parody punch that cinematic comedy, and an overwhelmed populace, so desperately needed; but it also attains, in the wake of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination, a more sinister satirical veneer that allows the picture to feel more timely and pointed than it would have two years ago.
But it’s important to reiterate that Blair’s Toxic Avenger isn’t angry. Sure, it has a lot to say. But it expresses those points eloquently, sometimes even poetically. It’s difficult not to compare Toxic Avenger to this summer’s other satire on modern America, Ari Aster’s tedious Eddington. Whereas Blair states his case quietly and carefully, wrapping everything in a veneer of devoted B-movie exploitation which means it never takes itself too seriously, Aster aggressively pummels his audience with angry speeches, puerile jokes, and self-serious notions of grandeur. Blair could teach him much about the finer points of satire. Thank heavens, Toxie came to rescue a waning summer movie season.
