The Toxic Avenger isn’t brought up often enough when we discuss earlier attempts at superhero movies. Yet, sandwiched between Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman was this delightfully bizarre, low-budget, heartfelt hero’s journey from the mind of grindhouse legend Lloyd Kaufman. Now, more than 40 years later, it’s been given the red carpet treatment it deserves with a new standalone 4K Ultra HD release.
Released in 1984, The Toxic Avenger was co-directed by Troma co-founders Kaufman and Michael Herz. Kaufman has since directed dozens of movies, with Troma releasing hundreds of low-budget Offerings in the ensuing decades but, in many ways, this is the most important motion picture that the world’s longest running producer of independent cinema ever made. That being the case, it getting a proper, physical 4K release seems more than fitting, despite (perhaps even in spite of) its grindhouse roots.
How Was Toxic Avenger Received Upon Release?
The film takes place in a fictional, small American town, called Tromaville, which is terrorized by crime as the town’s corrupt mayor does nothing to stop it. Melvin (Mitch Cohen) is just a nerdy emaciated janitor at a gym who, one fateful day, is thrown out of a third story window into a vat of hazardous toxic waste by a gang of thugs. The chemicals take hold of his body, turning him into a mutated, powerful hero known as the Toxic Avenger who helps rid Tromaville of these evildoers.
Troma previously dealt in raunchy comedies like Waitress but as those became a healthy business at Hollywood studios, Kaufman and Herz had to think differently. “I had worked on Rocky and wanted to make a film about the fitness craze,” Kaufman explained to Art Interviews in the early 2000s. “So I made The Toxic Avenger which lampooned fitness and also dealt with the toxic dump issue.”
Thus, Troma pivoted to horror and exploitation pictures, beginning with this bizarre, out-of-the-box superhero origin story at a time when superheroes were anything but a guarantee at the box office. To that end, the movie was not a big hit out of the gate, as Troma even had trouble getting it booked into theaters initially.
“No theater would play it,” Kaufman said to Parallax View in 2010. “We couldn’t get one theater to play it anywhere and then we took it to Cannes and not one deal. Nothing! And then a few months later we got one movie theater in Greenwich Village, New York, and there was a line around the theater. Somehow the public knew this was something to see and there was a line around the block when it opened.”
Slowly but surely, the film’s reputation grew, particularly on home video as this was at the dawn of the VHS boom. Movies could have a robust second life after leaving theaters, for arguably the first time in cinema history. As a result, The Toxic Avenger became an unlikely, scrappy hit that spawned one of the least likely, long-running superhero movie franchises ever.
Why Is Toxic Avenger Important to See Now?
The Toxic Avenger has now become a cult classic.
The eventual success of Kaufman and Herz’s grimy superhero tale led to a series of sequels, including The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, both released 1989. Kaufman would revisit the character once more in 2000 with Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.
More surprising than any of that is the fact that the film spawned an entire multi-media franchise, including the animated series Toxic Crusaders in 1991, an Off-Broadway musical in 2008, as well as merchandise and comic books. The animated series was a particularly interesting development given that it was aimed at kids, yet the movies were very much R rated. Even so, the franchise found its way to children all the same.
“The cover is a drawing — it’s a painting, so it looks like a cartoon, but it always says: ‘gross and disgusting scenes’ or ‘this movie contains scenes of an adult nature,’” Kaufman once recalled to Fleapits and Picture Places. “Blockbuster actually put a sticker on The Toxic Avenger movie saying: ‘Blockbuster family recommendation.’”
Troma would not be the studio it is now without Toxic Avenger.
In 2025, the franchise continues to expand as the long-awaited remake of The Toxic Avenger is coming out later this month. As such, it feels like the perfect time to give this little superhero movie-that-could the 4K treatment it deserves. The fact that this down-and-dirty, important piece of indie history will be available in such a crisp presentation feels one of the beautiful things about today’s media landscape.
More than just a fun relic of its time, this is a movie that truly helped define the tradition of the Troma’s grindhouse, drive-in movie fare. The studio pivoted away from comedy, instead leaning into horror and exploitation. It’s a decision that helped the studio thrive as an independent shingle for more than 50 years now, rivaled perhaps only by the late, great Roger Corman and New World Pictures. In that way, this is a very important movie, one deserving as crisp preservation in the form of a 4K physical release.
What New Features Does the Toxic Avenger Blu-ray Have?
The new cover for the Toxic Avenger Blu-ray.
We should mention that Troma previously released The Toxic Avenger Collection on 4K in 2023. With all due respect to The Last Temptation of Toxie, it’s difficult to say that as many genre fans need to make room on their shelves for all four movies. That’s why Troma finally releasing the first movie as a solo 4K disc is a welcome move.
It appears that the new solo release largely contains the same bonus features that were part of the collection. But again, for those who didn’t spring for the full collection, what’s available on the solo release will be new. It’s worth noting that Troma didn’t skimp on those features either. The full list of special features is robust, including multiple commentaries, featurettes and more. The disc includes…
- Prologue by director Lloyd Kaufman [4K Disc]
- Audio commentary with cast members Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider and Dan Snow [4K Disc & Blu-ray]
- Audio commentary with director Lloyd Kaufman [4K Disc & Blu-ray]
- Introduction by director Lloyd Kaufman [Blu-ray]
- Interviews with cast members Jennifer Baptist, Robert Prichard, Mitch Cohen and Dan Snow [Blu-ray]
- Interview with co-director Michael Herz [Blu-ray]
- Mark Torgl Talks About The Toxic Avenger featurette [Blu-ray]
- Behind the scenes photo gallery [Blu-ray]
- Trailers [Blu-ray]
