The Toxic Avenger (2023)

Plot of The Toxic Avenger: On the outskirts of St Roma Village is the BTH factory owned by Bob Garbinger which is creating toxic waste in tanks and pools in the surrounding countryside. In St Roma lives Winston Gooze, a cleaner in the factory, who has a fractured relationship with a boy who would have been his stepson if he and the boy’s mother had been married before she had died of cancer. Bob’s brother Fritz, his head of security uses a punk pop group Killer Nutz, to dispose of investigative reporters. Winston finds that he has only months to live when diagnosed with brain failure, but his insurance does not cover life extending drugs. He is fobbed off by Bob and so breaks into the factory to steal cash, but is chased and killed by the Killer Nutz. His body is thrown into a toxic waste tank, and he emerges as a grotesque monster carrying a mop which glows with dangerous chemicals. He is chased by Fritz’s goons but soon disposes of some of them with the mop, which leaves some headless or gutless. But now a monster, how can he reveal himself to his stepson.

Content: No sex or nudity, although the toxic avenger’s monstrous penis is glimpsed at one point as he directs his acid urine at his chains. Winston is seen at work, mopping and at home as he tried to bond with his dead girlfriend’s son, a sullen teenager. He meets with his doctor who tells him he is dying, probably due to the waste from the factory. Bob, the factory owner and his assistant Kissy worry about a debt to the local mob, while Thad Barkabus the mob chief threatens drastic action if he does not get his money back. When Winston becomes a monster he is unrecognisable, with one eye which he can remove to see round corners, and when he fights with others with the mop, it disintegrates parts of the opposition’s bodies, parts of heads, stomachs, intestines etc. At times Winston is assisted by J.J Doherty and attractive black campaigner.

A View: I had never heard of The Toxic Avenger, so this film was a complete surprise. We don’t see many 18 rated films in the UK any more but there is a lot of blood and gore in this outing and a lot of bad language particularly from the Killer Nutz. I had to look away once or twice, as Toxie wielded his mop. I feel that somehow this was a good hearted outing, although I can’t quite tell why, so I am sorry to learn that it has not made any money. Maybe worth a look if you want to see a really unusual superhero film.

Fun Fact: Once having become Toxie  he is played by Luisa Guerreiro but still voiced by Peter Dinklage.