THE TOXIC AVENGER (2025) Review

Fifteen years after a reboot was first announced, The Toxic Avenger finally slithers out of development hell and onto U.S. screens. The question I walked in with was simple: is this a love letter to the grubby VHS cult I grew up on—or just another barrel of cinematic ooze that belongs on the curb?

Short answer: bring a crowd and a strong stomach. This thing rips.

A QUICK HISTORY LESSON

Troma’s original The Toxic Avenger (1984) bombed in theaters, then found its people via midnight screenings and worn-out tapes—the kind of word-of-mouth only the ’80s could birth. Sequels followed, a kid-friendly cartoon (!), a stage musical, toys, comics—the whole kitsch multiverse.

This reboot’s path was… not elegant. First floated in 2010 as a PG-13 family version (yes, really), it stalled, rewrote, changed hands, and ultimately landed at Legendary with Macon Blair in the director’s chair and Peter Dinklage suiting up as our beloved muck-monster. Festival buzz hit in 2023, but acquisition limbo stretched on until January 2025, when Cineverse finally grabbed U.S./Canada rights. By July, the film earned a Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con—the first unrated horror movie to do so. Not bad for a mop-wielder from Tromaville.

SYNOPSIS (NO SPOILERS)

A workplace “incident” marinates downtrodden janitor Winston Gooze (Dinklage) in enough sludge to power a small villain lair, transforming him into The Toxic Avenger—super-strong, glow-mop in hand, newly motivated to protect his kid and take down a corporate ghoul pulling the strings. If you know Troma, you know the tone: splattery, juvenile, proudly tasteless, and 100% self-aware.

IT REMEMBERS WHAT IS IS...

We’ve had a mini-wave of reboots lately remembering that the assignment is entertainment, not homework. The Toxic Avenger embraces that ethos. It’s 75% ridiculous comedy, 25% horror/drama, and 0% thesis statement. The movie understands the original’s appeal: exploitation energy, fake blood by the gallon, and gags sneaking into the corners of the frame.

Blair and his team load scenes with background jokes—posters, throwaway lines, extras doing nonsense—so keep your eyes roving. The film is deeply, delightfully meta about its stupidity, and it wears that like a merit badge. If that sentence makes you smile, you’re the demo. If it makes you clutch pearls, there are 400 other movies playing this year.

THE PERFORMANCES: HAM SERVED THREE DIFFERENT WAYS

• Peter Dinklage plays Winston/Toxie with a surprisingly mild-mannered core that survives the mutation. He gets the joke without winking, lending tiny pockets of sincerity—especially in scenes involving his stepson (Jacob Tremblay)—that keep the movie from becoming pure noise. It’s committed work, calibrated to never outclass the B-movie scaffolding it’s standing on.

• Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood go full mustache-twirling matinee villain (even when clean-shaven). Their choices are big, ugly (on purpose), and cartoonish in a way that feels ripped from a dog-eared Fangoria. Wood’s look alone is a conversation starter—think DeVito’s Penguin shaken with a dash of midnight-movie goblin. They’re having a blast, and the movie’s better for it.

• Taylour Paige brings human ballast. In a film of acid baths and mop justice, she grounds scenes with a straight energy that the chaos can bounce off of. You need at least one person behaving like an actual person; Paige fills that lane.

  
  

THE CRAFT: STICKY IN ALL THE RIGHT PLACES

The headline here is practical effects, prosthetics, and makeup. They’re exuberant and tactile—the kind of rubber-and-latex creativity that defined the VHS era. There’s even a throwback charm in the ADR/voice-dub approach: an actor in the Toxie suit (Luisa Guerriero) while Dinklage’s voice is layered in, occasionally out of sync. Instead of “fixing it,” the film leans into the imperfect lip match. That’s not a flaw; it’s a vibe.

Not everything is hand-built. Some CGI blood spatter sneaks in and, yeah, it reads a touch modern in ways that clash with the analog spirit. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it’s the one place I wish they’d stayed stubbornly old-school.

Shout-out as well to the goon-squad nu-metal band “Killer Nutz.” They’re a bit, they commit, and there’s a late-game unmasking gag that had me in tears. You’ll know it when you see it—and you’ll hear me laughing two rows back.

TONE CHECK (SO I DON'T GET BLAMED LATER)

This is hard-R unrated energy: gore, gross-out gags, nudity, severed this-and-that, and enough penis jokes to fill a locker room wall. If “Troma-core” makes you itch, do yourself a kindness and skip. If you cut your teeth on ’80s video-store nasties, this feels like a lost tape found behind the counter—sticky box, unforgettable weekend.

BLAIR IS BEHIND THE WHEEL, MORE TRUSTWORTHY THAN GPS

Macon Blair refuses to sand off the edges. He’s not trying to “elevate” The Toxic Avenger into prestige pulp; he’s trying to re-create the sensation of finding something you’re probably too young to watch and cackling anyway. The film is confidently small where it counts, lovingly grimy where it needs to be, and paced to keep the gags (and limbs) flying. It’s the rare reboot that understands reason for being.

THE SLIGHT DINGS

• The digital gore pops you out of the illusion now and then.

• A few jokes overstay their welcome by a beat or two—part of the genre, but still.

• If you don’t catch the background-bit density, you might miss half the fun; this rewards rewatchers more than first-timers.

  
  

THE CRAFT & THE CRUX SCORECARD

• Craft (tech, design, effects): Practical wizardry, excellent creature work, and a cheeky commitment to analog texture. Minus points for the CG splatter.

• Crux (performances & how it plays): Dinklage’s restraint, Bacon/Wood’s cartoon villainy, Paige’s grounding presence, and a crowd-pleasing midnight-movie pulse.

  
  

It’s exactly the kind of unruly, sloppy-fun throwback it wants to be. If your heart beats to the tempo of toxic sludge + pratfalls, this is a see-it-with-a-crowd experience. If not, no harm done—just don’t stand too close to the mop.

🍿 SCORE = 82 / 100