Troma Entertainment is known for their crude humour, overblown violence, and gratuitous nudity, and, whilst their crowning achievement, 1984’s The Toxic Avenger, features all of the studio’s hallmarks, it is also a movie with surprising heart.
When the nerdy cleaning boy at a New Jersey gym falls into a drum of toxic chemicals, he’s transformed into the city’s Monster Hero. Initially frightening the residents of Tromaville, and making headlines with his bouts of ultraviolence, the Toxic Avenger comes to be celebrated as ‘New Jersey’s first superhero.’
The first film in the series became Troma’s biggest hit, and even elevated Toxie to the status of studio mascot – his face now adorns the Troma Entertainment logo. Three sequels followed, though they tend to lean into the gore and sex that Troma is famous for, losing the weird sentimentality of the original, and filling the voids with celebrity cameos. The series was spun off into a cartoon series, musical stage show, video games, comic books, and a Hollywood remake.
The Toxic Avenger (1984)
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The Toxic Avenger: Part 2 (1989)
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The Toxic Avenger Part 3: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989)
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Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4 (2000)
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