The Toxic Avenger [Blu-ray]

Director: Michael Herz Michael Herz

Overview

In a crazy spoof of heroic monster movies that spawned two sequels, The Toxic Avenger is about the transformation of a mild-mannered, scrawny janitor into a thundering, muscular hero out for justice, morality, and in one case, a bit of sex. Melvin (Mark Torgl) has a job as a custodian at a work-out club where his humiliating treatment by the musclebound reaches an ugly climax in which Melvin is forced to jump out of a window. He lands in a toxic waste truck, and by some miracle of modern pollution he is transformed into a pumped-up monster, heretofore known as the Toxic Avenger (Mitchell Cohen). From that moment on, TA saves damsels and others in distress by some pretty gory mauling and maiming but finds his moment of fulfillment too.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/12/2014
UPC:	0790357987900
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	NR
Source:	Troma
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	19,161

Special Features

NEW intro by Lloyd Kaufman (president of Troma Entertainment and creator of The Toxic Avenger); NEW commentary by stars Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider and Dan Snow; NEW interview with star Janet Babtist; NEW video with Mark Torgl (the original Melvin); Rare on screen interview with Troma co-founder and vice-president Michael Herz; Behind the scenes and in production slide show; Commentary by Lloyd Kaufman; Original Troma trailers; 40 years of Troma montage

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mark Torgl	Melvin Junko
Mitch Cohen	The Toxic Avenger
Andree Maranda	Sara
Pat Ryan	Mayor Peter Belgoody
Cindy Manion	Julie
Patrick Kilpatrick	Leroy
Robert Prichard	Slug
Gary Schneider	Bozo
Dick Martinsen	Officer O'Clancy
Chris Liano	Walter Harris
Doug Isbecque	Knuckles
Charles Lee Jr.	Nipples
Norma Pratt	Mrs. Haskell
Andrew Craig	Fred
Ryan Sexton	Johnny
Sarabel Levinson	Melvin's Mom
Al Pia	Tom Wrightson
Reuben Guss	Dr. Snodburger
Rick Collins	Bully
Marisa Tomei	Health Club Girl (uncredited)
Randy Schein	Bozo's Friend
John Reidy	Terrorist
Scott Leva	Policeman (uncredited)
Richard Duggan	Ice Cream Man
June De Young	Reporter
Donald O'Toole	Man That Hates His Mother-in-Law
Donna Winter	Mayor's Secretary
Jennifer Babtist	Wanda
David Weiss	Chief of Police
Kenneth Kessler	Toxic Avenger
Don Costello	Sara's neighbor
Joe Curtis	Policeman

Technical Credits

Joe Ritter

Lloyd Kaufman

Stuart Strutin

Gay Partington Terry

Michael Herz	Director,Producer
Joe Ritter	Screenwriter
Lloyd Kaufman	Screenwriter,Director
Tom Lauten	Special Effects
Stuart Strutin	Screenwriter
Gay Partington Terry	Screenwriter
Jennifer Aspinall	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

One of the most gleefully violent and tasteless super-human hero films ever to have been committed to celluloid, The Toxic Avenger proved the film that truly launched Troma as the center of the universe for mindless and endearingly sleazy entertainment. Upon viewing the film in retrospect, the fact that it spawned a series of lucrative sequels for Troma seems a given, though the simultaneous fact that it also proved the forerunner to a fairly popular but short-lived Saturday morning kiddie cartoon (complete with action figure tie-ins) is no less than mind-boggling considering the film's shockingly graphic violence towards children. Though anyone with a sensitive stomach and the easily (and, perhaps, not so easily) offended should be forewarned to avoid this film at all costs, those with a hearty sense of pitch-black humor will certainly find this no-budget, no-holds-barred cartoonish shock-a-thon required viewing. Best appreciated with a group of similarly twisted gore-hounds in the wee hours of a Saturday night, co-directors and Troma Studios co-founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz pull out all the stops in playing such atrocities as a shotgun pointed at a baby and a child whose head is smashed repeatedly in graphic detail under the wheels of a car for laughs. While taken out of context these situations would read as some of the most horrifying imaginable, combined with sub-par and gleefully campy acting, cheap gore effects and an infectively giddy sense of anarchy, they work to create an atmosphere in which these otherwise unforgivable events are rendered so improbable that they become ridiculously humorous. Reportedly inspired to create this extreme effort after hearing that horror films were a dead genre, Kaufman may not have succeeded in single-handedly revitalizing the truly effective horror film, though he without question created one of the most influential exercises in bad taste since Pink Flamingos.