It’s a little ironic that The Toxic Avenger, a reboot of the 1984 Troma cult classic, will finally land in cinemas right after one of the studio’s most famous graduates, James Gunn, made $600m at the box office with a Superman film. Troma Entertainment was founded in 1974 by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, and has since provided a steady supply of ultra-low-budget, splatter horror comedies. Gunn, mentored by Kaufman, made his filmmaking debut co-writing and co-directing Troma’s take on Shakespeare, Tromeo and Juliet (1996).
The original Toxic Avenger, a comic book spoof about a nerd who’s dunked in radioactive waste and, as a result, becomes a deep-voiced, sexually virulent mutant, was made for only $500,000 and was Troma’s biggest hit, spawning three film sequels, a stage musical, a comic book series, a video game, and an animated series. There was talk of a remake for over a decade, with Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly considered for a PG-13 iteration (can you imagine?), before the current version – produced by Kaufman and Herz, written and directed by Macon Blair, and shot with a significantly higher budget – was formally greenlit. It premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2023 before disappearing from view – reportedly because distributors considered its violent content unmarketable.
