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Toxic Avenger, The

Entry updated 10 July 2018. Tagged: Film.

Film (1984). HCH/Troma/Palan. Directed by Michael Herz, Samuel Weil. Written by Joe Ritter, based on a story by Lloyd Kaufman. Cast includes Mitchell Cohen, Andree Maranda and Mark Torgl. 100 minutes, cut to 79 minutes. Colour.

After a cruel practical joke is played on him, a teenage nerd falls into a barrel of toxic waste in Tromaville, New Jersey, "Toxic Waste Capital of America". He mutates (see Mutants) into the low-budget Superhero the Toxic Avenger and is compelled to murder bad people very violently. This farrago, combining teenage tits-and-ass comedy with horror/splatter, typifies the way exploitation films of the 1980s regularly used sf tropes, in this case gaining a mild cult following. The Toxic Avenger's deliberate tastelessness is uninteresting because pointless. The sequel, partly set in Japan, directed by Herz alone, is The Toxic Avenger: Part II (1989). [PN]

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