THE TOXIC AVENGER movie poster | ©2025 Bloody Disgusting

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Luisa Guerreiro, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Jonny Coyne, Julia Davis, Spencer Wilding, David Yow, Sunil Patel, Shaun Dooley
Writer: Macon Blair, based on the screenplay THE TOXIC AVENGER by Lloyd Kaufman & Joe Ritter
Director: Macon Blair
Distributor: Bloody Disgusting
Release Date: August 29, 2025

Troma Entertainment was launched in 1974 by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz. However, the company became famous in 1984 when its founders co-directed THE TOXIC AVENGER, with a screenplay by Joe Ritter from Kaufman’s story. The movie became legendary for its matchup of absurd broad comedy and Z-rated violence. It put Troma on the indie map and spawned a franchise (even a brief animated TV series).

Humor and gore effects have changed a lot in forty years, and there have likewise been a multitude of intentionally schlocky movies since then. With all the competition out there, the new remake of THE TOXIC AVENGER, directed and scripted by Macon Blair, is unlikely to achieve the original’s notoriety, but – for its target audience – it provides plenty of fun nonetheless.

Peter Dinklage stars as Winston Gooze, a janitor at biotech company BTH. He starts us off with some fourth-wall-breaking narration, plus a quick highlights reel of what’s to come.

Winston is the loving stepfather of emo teen Wade (Jacob Tremblay) and is now the boy’s sole guardian after the death of Wade’s dearly missed mom Shelly (Rebecca O’Mara) from cancer.

A lot of other people in the neighborhood also have cancer, thanks to the endless waste produced by the BTH Corporation. BTH pumps out fake health supplements that make their users sick, and CEO Robert Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) is just fine with that.

Garbinger is also in cahoots with the local mob. This organization, headed by Thad Barkabus (Jonny Coyne), keeps close tabs on their money and consequently on BTH.

When Winston tries to get his BTH employee health coverage to pay for a serious condition, one thing leads to another. Before you know it, Winston gets shot in the face but falls into some BTH pollutants and emerges wildly mutated but incredibly powerful. So does his now-glowing janitor’s mop. With people to rescue and villains to stop, plus a newfound sense of aggression, Winston is soon famed as the Toxic Avenger, a local hero whom Garbinger and Barkabus vow to destroy.

The continuing sight gag of a little righteously rampaging green guy (per the credits, it’s often Luisa Guerreiro in the suit and under the makeup) using his fists and cleaning tool as lethal weapons doesn’t get old here. It helps that we now have enough LORD OF THE RINGS-esque imagery in our cultural subconscious that the Toxic Avenger looks vaguely Tolkienian, what with his cloak and posture and green-tipped staff.

In terms of characterization, perhaps all that needs to be said is that Dinklage, who won four (count ‘em) Emmy Awards as an actor, felt that Winston was a role worthy of his talents and we agree. Dinklage gets to be funny, moving, pitiable, enraged, caring, and otherwise show his full range. Guerreiro is wholly up to the physical demands placed on her.

Bacon enacts Garbinger’s scumbaggery with great glee and Coyne is the epitome of a B-grade gangster. Tremblay plays Wade with sensitivity and sincerity, and Taylour Paige scores as a plucky journalist. Elijah Wood seems like a living Charles Addams cartoon as Garbinger’s sadsack brother.

The new TOXIC AVENGER is colorful, amusing, preposterously bloody, and self-aware in the best way. If it doesn’t break any new ground, it still is extremely entertaining (and entertainingly extreme).

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Article: Movie Review: THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025)

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