I need a hero.
Fascism is taking over America. Genocide is occurring overseas. Tech CEOs and AI are accelerating global warming faster than you can say “environmental disaster”. It seems everywhere you look, there are real-life villains deserving of a serious ass-kicking. I’m still waiting for someone to strap on some steel-toed boots and offer to take on the job.
When we can’t find the heroes we need in reality, most of us turn to fiction. At least there, we can get some much-needed catharsis. The tagline for Macon Blair’s recently released The Toxic Avenger refers to the title character as “the hero we need now”. I could not agree more.
A remake of Troma’s film of the same name, Blair’s Toxic Avenger follows Winston (Peter Dinklage), a janitor at the cancer-causing nutraceutical company, BT Healthstyle. He’s a struggling single stepfather to Wade (Jacob Tremblay), a kid who seemingly wants nothing to do with him. When Winston finds out he has a brain tumor, devastation takes hold. Anger soon follows after BT CEO, Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), throws Winston out on his butt after the poor man asks him to help with the insurance coverage.
During an attempt to steal from the company, the janitor finds himself in the hands of Garbinger’s goon squad, The Killer Nutz. The group of maniacs plunges Winston into a vat of toxic sludge, accidentally transforming him into a grotesque yet unstoppable mutant. New powers in hand—along with a radioactive mop—the janitor-turned-hero decides to clean up the corruption that has poisoned the city of St. Roma’s Village.
First, A Little Toxie History
Eco-horror had boomed in the 70s over fears of Global Warming and pollution committed by corrupt industries. Films like Frogs, Prophecy, Day of the Animals…a period where the genre reflected the possible dangers of poisoning the environment. The topic was on everyone’s mind. President Jimmy Carter even installed solar panels on the White House to promote the concept of renewable energy.
And then Ronald Reagan came along.
The deceased president—may he rest in Hell—immediately removed the solar panels and began a rollback of Carter’s policies. Where the 70s promoted environmental concern, the 80s genre films reflected a world drenched in toxic waste. Movies such as C.H.U.D. or Friday the 13th Part VIII (aka, Jason takes a boat to Manhattan) depict a grimy atmosphere where everything is dirty. The sewers bubble with radioactive sludge. Hope for a cleaner future snuck out the back door, replaced by a grim acknowledgement of our capitalist reality. Companies would not stop polluting if it meant profit, the health of their own customers be damned.
Enter The Toxic Avenger
First conceived by Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman, The Toxic Avenger (1984) came out during the middle of the Regan administration. You could say Toxie was a reaction to Reagan’s anti-environmental policies and so-called “trickle-down economics”.
A bullied health club janitor turned mutant champion of the people, Toxie stood for the little guy. One who could put a fist through corruption’s face and mop up the floor with bullies. Despite an ultra-violent and definitely-not-for-kids film series, The Toxic Avenger’s environmentalist stance would go on to earn him a Toxic Crusaders cartoon show that would last from 1991-1993, joining the ranks of other anti-pollution media for children like Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990-1996).
Despite some rough-around-the-edges flaws—I can’t forgive the first Toxic Avenger film for the brutal killing of a dog—Kaufman’s Toxie was a hero then. And Blair’s Toxie has come around just when we need him most.
Toxie vs. The Healthcare System
While 1984’s Toxie took on bullies and a corrupt mayor—standard for the 80s—Blair’s Toxic Avenger tackles the war that the billionaire class has enacted on everyone else. Specifically, the crushing weight of a healthcare system built for the wealthy few, not for all.
Bacon’s Bob Garbinger stands in for the billionaires who have decided that their wealth is more important than the health of the world (i.e., all of them). He couldn’t care less that his products cause cancer, resulting in the deaths of countless people. Or that the land around the city of St. Roma bubbles and festers with radiation. He doesn’t mind that animals are mutating from his pollution, or that the people are suffering. Nor does Bob concern himself with the fact that his own employees—like Winston—can’t afford healthcare for the diseases his work environment causes.
Blair’s script tears open the festering wound that is the U.S. healthcare system. I’ll never forget going to the ER because my body was exhibiting signs of a stroke. Thankfully, I got a clean bill of health, but that bill also included a total of around ten thousand dollars due for services rendered. New to LA and with an entry-level job, my heart sank. So, I can somewhat relate to when Winston discovers his insurance won’t cover the surgery he needs. As I’m sure most of you can.
A Hero Who Stands Up for the Little Guy
The frustration over a healthcare system that just lets the less fortunate of us die…The Toxic Avenger captures that gutting feeling when Winston goes to plead to Garbinger for help, only to have an alley door slammed on his face. The truly tragic part is that we know it won’t work out for Winston, just as we know he doesn’t have much of a choice. He’s desperate. Right where the one percent wants him. Wants all of us. If we’re too tired from the burden of daily life, then we don’t have the strength to stand up for ourselves.
Toxie inspires that strength.
The green Avenger isn’t just fighting your standard scum this time around; he’s taking on the whole damn system at a time when a brain worm nepo baby is stripping us of our own healthcare. Those less inclined to gore may find The Toxic Avenger’s methods a little over the top, shall we say. But not I. This genre exists as catharsis. Audiences need to see evil taken down to remember that it’s possible. Toxie rips off arms. Removes jaws. Punches holes right through jerks. You can call it extreme. I’d say the violence committed against us by billionaires is extreme, so, you know, what goes around comes around.
Do not call The Toxic Avenger a monster. He’s a goddamn hero. Armed with a janitor’s mop and looking like a living loogie, he’s the purest representation in recent memory of a working class that has found itself made sick and getting sicker by the wealth-hoarding dragons of the world. To cheer for Toxie is to cheer for all of us.
Toxie…Not Just a Good Guy on Film
The gruesome green guy’s heroism even extends beyond the film and into the real world. Just before The Toxic Avenger’s release, Cineverse and Bloody Disgusting announced that they were spending the remaining five million of their marketing campaign by partnering with non-profit Undue Medical Debt to melt away medical debt for real-life people.
Said Cineverse SVP of Marketing Lauren McCarthy, “The Toxic Avenger had his entire life upended by crushing medical costs so, as Toxie says, ‘sometimes you have to do something”’.
Added Vice President of Philanthropy at Undue Medical Debt, “As the medical debt crisis continues to grow, we’re grateful for this partnership with The Toxic Avenger film, which is not only funding debt relief but also shining a light on the human impact of a broken system”.
Five million may seem like small peanuts when you consider the amount of medical debt out there, but for each one of those people that the partnership helps, it’s a lifesaver. And it also begs the question, if the goofy little remake of a cult exploitation film can do this…why not major studio releases? Hopefully, Toxie’s good deed inspires many more like it.
Punching a Rebellious Hole through Censorship
Outside of the Toxic Avenger’s fist through the face of the financially crushing healthcare system, ole’ Toxie also continues a heroic tradition of films just like it. Since the very beginning, rebellion has coursed through the veins of the horror genre. Movies like The Toxic Avenger, they raise their filthy mops high and demand our attention. Through gratuitous gore, sex, and violence, and, yes, even your occasional mutant dong, these films act as the middle finger to all that society deems “acceptable”.
Not all brethren have as meaningful a theme as The Toxic Avenger. Whether you like them or not, though, films like the Terrifier movies or the horrific re-imaginings of beloved childhood characters in the Pooh-niverse…they’re important. They spit in the face of censorship with a grin and a gleam in their eyes. They don’t take no for an answer. You can’t tell these movies how to behave. And at a time where fascism grows stronger and those in power try to tell us what stories we can/cannot have access to, films like The Toxic Avenger are more vital than ever. They’re heroes leading the filmic charge in standing up for the little guy. That may seem a silly statement about movies that feature exploding heads and acidic piss, but it’s true. Without them, the rebellious spirit of film withers. And without the inspirational rebellion in media, that same spirit weakens in us, as well.
Movies like The Toxic Avenger, they’re reminders that sometimes, you have to do something.
So, if you’re like me and you need a hero to look to right now, you could sure do a lot worse than Toxie.
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