Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A gang of thugs devise a cruel hoax that goes horribly wrong as Melvin, a nerdy emaciated janitor at the local health club, is cast through a third story window into a vat of hazardous toxic waste.
The Toxic Avenger is a genuinely singular piece of grindhouse cinema — Troma's magnum opus that invented its own subgenre of absurdist, gore-splattered superhero parody before superheroes were a genre staple. Its novelty is undeniable and influential. The plot is serviceable exploitation fare — thin but functional enough to hang its set pieces on. Acting is deliberately, almost gleefully awful, which is part of the charm but still objectively poor by any craft standard. Cinematography is cheap and workmanlike, though occasionally effective in its low-budget grime. The ending is perfunctory and rushed, delivering crowd-pleasing revenge without much weight or craft.