THE TOXIC AVENGER
MOVIE REVIEW

My Books and Movies!

E.C. McMullen Jr.
RUMOR

RUMOR: People are dying to know the truth

PERPETUAL
BULLET

"'Some People' ... may be the standout story in the book."
- John Grant, Infinityplus

E.C. McMullen Jr.
WILLOW BLUE

"'Willow Blue' will burrow under your skin and stay there long after you've put the book down."
- Jeffrey Reddick, Creator of
FINAL DESTINATION

IN OTHER BOOKS
E.C. McMullen Jr.'s
short story
CEDO LOOKED LIKE PEOPLE
in the anthology
FEAR THE REAPER

"This Ray Bradbury-esque is one of the most memorable and one of the more original stories I've read in a long time."
- Steve Isaak,
Goodreads

HORROR 201:
The Silver Scream

Filmmaker's Guidebook
featuring
RAY BRADBURY,
JOHN CARPENTER,
WES CRAVEN,
TOM HOLLAND,
E.C. McMULLEN Jr.,
GEORGE A. ROMERO,
and many more.

Extensively quoted in

PHANTASM
EXHUMED
The Unauthorized Companion

SATAN'S 3-RING
CIRCUS OF HELL

Forward by
GAHAN WILSON &
FEO AMANTE.
With Comic Art by
ALEX PARDEE,
WILLIAM STOUT,
STEVE BISSETTE,
FRANK DIETZ,
JIM SMITH,
FRANK FORTE,
ERIC PIGORS,
MIKE SOSNOWSKI,
OMAHA PEREZ,
DAVID HARTMAN,
STEVEN MANNION,
JACOB HAIR,
and more!

And In
CINEMA
E.C. McMullen Jr.
Head Production Designer

MINE GAMES
(Starring:
JOSEPH CROSS,
BRIANA EVIGAN,
ALEX MERAZ,
ETHAN PECK)

Dept. head
Special Effects Make-Up
(SFX MUA)

A SIERRA NEVADA
GUNFIGHT
(MICHAEL MADSEN & JOHN SAVAGE).

Production Designer

UNIVERSAL DEAD
(DOUG JONES,
D.B. SWEENEY,
GARY GRAHAM)

Art Director

THE CRUSADER
(COLIN CUNNINGHAM,
GARY GRAHAM)

Review by
E.C. McMullen Jr.

THE TOXIC AVENGER

- 1984
USA Release: November 1985
USA Wide Release: April 11, 1986
Troma Entertainment
USA: Rated R

Back in 1982, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz released a short independent film to a single New York movie house. Lloyd likes to think that this was the spark that started it all, but everyone I've ever met who saw the movie, saw it first on video in 1987.

Home Video has saved many an arthouse flop, and even though THE TOXIC AVENGER is by far no arthouse movie (per se that is, after all, Arthouse theaters created the sensation of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW), Toxic Avenger has a wacked out appeal that gets under your skin. I've introduced many a person to THE TOXIC AVENGER that just watched the movie with disgusted disbelief, only to find themselves, days later, snickering over some mind numbingly ridiculous scene.

TRIVIA ALERT:
Marisa Tomei in Animal Husbandry
From the film
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY
Look for a young Marisa Tomei in the gym shower scene.

Look for a young Patrick Kilpatrick
(THE CELLAR, SCANNER COP II,
THE GRANNY, DARK ANGEL [TV])
as armed robber, Leroy, in the Mexican Diner.

The story is about Melvin Junko (Mark Torgl: CITIZEN TOXIE: The Toxic Avenger Part IV) the janitor; a nerdish, cowardly outcast who is the punching bag for every person at the local gym.

One day the cruelty goes too far and Melvin falls into a vat of toxic waste, much to everyone's delight. The waste later transforms him into The Monster Hero! (which is Toxie only they didn't have the title for the movie when they shot it) i.e. THE TOXIC AVENGER (please tell me that you saw it coming). Toxie goes on a rampage to "clean-up" the town of Tromaville in the most brutal ways possible, though no one gets what they DON'T deserve.

Screenwriter Lloyd credits "Toxie's" charms to the fact that he's an outcast, an oddball and a rebel, but I think Toxie's true charm lies in the fact that the movie, instead of spoofing major budget pictures, goes for the throat of its own: Cheap, crappy movies!

The fun of THE TOXIC AVENGER is that it is funny on purpose. The characters, even and especially the bad guys, are all over the top and unbelievable. I'm talking Way WAY over the top! It skewers everything including itself, without ever stooping to lampooning any one specific movie.

Unlike reference comedies like Airplane, Spyhard, or Hotshots where many of the jokes go flying over your head if you haven't seen the specific flick being shined, THE TOXIC AVENGER is recognizable to all. THE TOXIC AVENGER is every monster movie we've ever seen on every Saturday episode of those local "Horror House" TV shows.

This is not to say that Toxie is just as mild. The violence is brutally graphic, from squishing eyeballs in their sockets to crushing a child's head under a car tire. Yet the gore is done with such unabashed fun that it reminds me of an old MAD magazine comic come to life. In later years, THE TOXIC AVENGER became a Saturday morning cartoon and even had its own line of action figures.

Lloyd, Feo, and Tromette at the San DIego Comic Con
Unca Lloyd, Feo Amante, and Tromette at the San Diego Comic Con

TROMA Team Video is becoming quite popular these days among the Metal crowd and their new releases star the likes of musicians such as Lemmy Kilmiester. Lloyd Kaufman is one of my favorite people in the world and I'm glad that there are folks like him and Director Michael Herz out there putting out such horrible, outrageous fun.

THE TOXIC AVENGER is one of the worst I've ever seen and well deserves its Five Negative Shriek Girls for being so bad it's great!