Thursday, July 14, 2016

Toxic Avenger ( 1984) Fantasia 2016

Spawning numerous sequels, TV shows and an off Broadway musical Toxic Avenger went from superhero send up to international sensation. If you’ve never seen it you need to.

The plot of the film has a picked on nebbish falling into a vat of toxic waste and turning into a deformed superhero. He then goes and gets revenge on the bad guys and fights crime. It’s a bloody R rated gore comedy that plays it straight and charming and is an unexpected delight.

While it’s kind of surprising that the film took off the way it did, in other ways it’s not Toxie is a hero we can all relate too. It also plays all of the superhero riff, especially the Marvel ones perfectly. We love the character because we’ve been here before and know the story. And once Troma realized that kids loved him and made the material PG they had a character parents could show their kids without fear of warping their minds.

I like the film and the character. It’s a really fun romp. In some ways this is the best iteration of the story. True to the creators vision the film doesn’t pander to making money. Sure the film created Troma’s biggest cash cow, but it’s only in the original film where the company’s go for broke style really shines. After this the first film they had to be careful because they didn’t want to upset the apple cart. Its kind of like once Mickey Mouse became popular he stopped being the son of a bitch that Ub Iwerks created and became a corporate shill.

If you’ve never seen Toxic Avenger at all or on the big screen with a big audience then you must see it at Fantasia where the pumped up audience will make the film more fun then is allowable by law-at least in the United States which is why they are screening it in Montreal.

Go see it.

for tickets and more information go here

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