The Toxic Avenger was one of my anticipated movies to check out at MIFF 2025 simply because of how long the film had been sitting on shelves, unreleased, supposedly because of how violent it was. It took Cineverse to pick the film up to finally get a wider release following its original premiere at Fantastic Fest in September 2023.

Keeping to the style of the original 80s film by Lloyd Kaufman, this reboot of The Toxic Avenger from writer and director Macon Blair casts Peter Dinklage as the sad Winston Gooz/Toxic Avenger. A good man deep down, but one who is looking after his stepson Wade (Jacob Temblay) as best as he can while also dealing with ever-amounting bills piling up on his table and crappy job as a janitor working for corrupt pharmaceutical company BTH, which is run by a scene chewing Kevin Bacon, who also employess his brother, played by a odd-duckling Elijah Wood, to look after business matters also manage the popular rap-rock and apparent killers for hire group, ‘Killer Nutz.’ This group takes care of Winston after he’s caught trying to steal some money from his workplace to cover medical bills he can’t afford, which leads to him being turned into the grotesque creature that becomes known as Toxie.

Not going for a straight remake allows Blair to have some straight but at least up-to-date bleak commentary with the pharmaceutical bad guy polluting the world, and no one seeming to care. Also, the ultra-rich landlords treating renters like crap and being mega-assholes is appreciated. The casting of Peter Dinklage makes the narrative work, with him being perfectly adapted at playing the sad guy down on his luck. Even when he transforms into Toxie and is then played by Luisa Guerreiro in the suit – who does her own phenomenal job – it’s the voice-work that makes Toxie likeable still, amidst his now rather off-putting look.

There was a somewhat longer build-up to the violence in the film than I’d have assumed, and given all the talk about how violent the film apparently was, I was surprised by how tame I thought it was. Sure, it’s very bloody, but it’s such over-the-top cartoon levels of violence. Toxie pulls a guy’s arms off and blood splashes everywhere, or even when he slaps a dudes face with his toxic mop and it melts off, it’s all so silly, I’d be somewhat shocked if anyone who’s watched any violent film found it hard to watch. It’s fun violence, not shocking or scary violence. The only shocking scene in the movie involves Toxie using his appendage to help escape being locked up, which, again, is also just so silly to be too shocking.

Everyone in this film seems to be having a good time, and I can only imagine that The Toxic Avenger is a daily source of fun on set. Between the over-the-top back and forths between Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood and the assistant played by Julia Davis and then the ridiculous and cringeworthy dialogue between the rap-rock group Killer Nutz, the film, rightfully so, feels like it exists in its own magically weird world.

[Dylan attended a screening of The Toxic Avenger thanks to the Melbourne International Film Festival]