The Toxic Avenger (2025) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

It’s not easy finding a hero but when you do, don’t take it for granted.


PLOT


2025’s The Toxic Avenger is a reboot of the Troma cult classic that gives a whole new story compared to its predecessor. It follows Winston Gooze who had just lost the love of his life to cancer. As he already financially struggles to take care of her son Wade, he is hit with a bombshell that he has a brain disease that’ll kill him within a year’s tops. He does go to his employer Robert Garbinger the owner of Body Talk Healthstyle, at a fundraiser for help as he works as a janitor, but his assistant Kissy kicks him out of the building. Losing hope, he decides to rob the vault with a mop he dips & weaponizes with toxic sludge. He doesn’t get to use the money due to being shot down by the Killer Nutz gang who work for Bob’s deformed brother Fritz; They were out and about searching for JJ Doherty who is trying to blow the whistle that Bob has ties mobster Thad Barkabus. The gang disposes of his body into toxic sludge that turns him into a green mutant. When he goes home, he startles Wade and gets knocked off the ladder into the car of Thad’s son Spence (Abraham Lewis). Spence has been harassing the elderly neighbor Daisy (Annette Badland) into selling her property, but he doesn’t get her needed signature when Winston becomes an avenger by ripping off his arms. When police pursue him, he hides in the woods with hermit Guthrie Stockins who urges him to keep fighting the good fight. When returning to Wade does he save a restaurant from right wing terrorists, The Nasty Lads. His heroic actions get him on the news and when Bob recognizes him, he orders Fritz to bring him in so he can craft his own super soldiers that’ll solve his own financial issues for the company. Just as Winston meets up with Wade and promises not to leave him, the Killer Nutz abduct him. He doesn’t follow them yet due to fighting off Thad’s men who try to assassinate him for what he did to Spence. JJ gets shot in the crossfire as she met Wade first and wanted to talk to Winston on how to stop BTH together; Luckily, Winston uses his blood to heal her wounds. He then finds the Nutz at a concert and kills most of them one by one before revealing BTH is responsible for his mutation. He spares one member of the gang when unmasking him and seeing he too is a victim of the company’s chemical waste and tells him where Bob’s compound is. Winston and JJ get subdued and the protagonist gets subjected for blood extraction. This doesn’t impress Thad since Toxie’s concert outburst caused the mayor’s intent to withdraw from BTH which’ll devalue the company’s stock; With this blowback, he demands his investment back. Instead, Bob drinks the serum that mutates him too and kills him. Kissy drinks some for herself and only becomes insane. Winston & JJ do escape from confinement and fend for themselves to save Wade. Luckily, Fritz has a change of heart and saves the boy before the shed he was held in gets destroyed. Toxie then kills Bob by shredding him with a car engine thanks to JJ’s assist. Kissy goes for a sneak attack when subduing Fritz, but she’s stopped when the mop triggers an explosion to nearby chemicals. She is presumed dead until a post credit scene confirms her survival. Winston wakes up at the hospital informed by the doctors that his mutation cured his brain disease and the public praises his actions as Toxie. The film ends with him and Wade embracing each other as family before he participates a talent show without being nervous anymore.


THOUGHTS


I definitely had a hard time believing the hype of this reboot upon hearing its praise at its festival premiere. Once I saw the original, I totally saw why this was an upgrade worth investing. Writer/Director Macon Blair knew this was something that needed its raunchy roots to be embraced while still relating to a newer audience. Luckily, getting to be released in all unrated glory is where it got to be a win-win. The whole time, I was stunned with how far they went with it because it ain’t easy seeing toxic composure or limbs get severed, but sit sure is hilarious seeing acid piss. The makeup design by Jennifer Aspinall was goddamn fantastic on not just Toxie, but all the monstrosity that surrounds him like the Bob resembles a goated devil when taking his serum, Kissy having a clownish breakdown in the climax or how Fritz looked like Gollum wearing Penguin’s clothing. And you know you ain’t gonna take it serious if one mutant had a babyhead or Toxie have a grilled cheese tutorial right after the intended cliffhanger. Designs like that put in well edited are gonna put you in a real good time. In between the fun chaos, I think there was a better approach in re-fleshing the original’s message to take accountability when extracting justice, but also emphasizes the need to be true to yourself when the going gets tough. Seeing this new tail of Toxie does get the point across because while it’s cool seeing Luisa Guerreiro in full costume doing all of Toxie’s badass moves, Peter Dinklage establishes the heart as Winston, a man who lost his mojo and feels like an outcast for not knowing how to be confident like he used to. A handful of bad days made him so meek that he chose to stoop low for the sake of looking out for all he had to care for left. Ironically, a curse became a blessing because the powers he gained made him remember there is still time to enjoy life. You definitely feel for Wade too since Jacob Tremblay portrayed him as one who struggled in being himself as well since his guardian wasn’t ready to do the same. Once that changed however, things did change for the better. He didn’t hate Winston at all, but it definitely was hard for them to be together since they didn’t know what to do with the loss they shared. As he saw how much he fought for him, that made him appreciate the only dad he’ll ever have. On the other hand, it was nice to see Winston gain new friends when he wasn’t looking for any. While David Yow was hilarious in portraying Guthrie as the stereotyped eccentric hobo since he didn’t hesitate eating mutated eggs, Taylour Paige was a great ride or die as JJ since she used the loss of her mom as motivation to do the right thing rather than break her, thus being a polar opposite of an ally Toxie needed at most essential. And when gaining good friends came formidable enemies. It was definitely one thing to credit Jonny Coyne as satirically kooky of a mobster, a lot of the credit has to go to Kevin Bacon & Julia Davis being a great pair as Bob & Kissy because they just knew how to ante it up in being rotten to the core inside and out due to the greed they refuse to let go of and the accident that created Toxie of course worsened their need to be powerful. While the latter survived the avenger’s wrath, the former did not and they both failed to have things their way at the end because they failed to realize power doesn’t belong to you even just because you can achieve it. Last but not least, it was really cool seeing Elijah Wood in a performance where a book shouldn’t be judged by the cover. Throughout, we saw that Fritz was a kind of guy who was most pitiful since his actions came from the desperate need of connection that he wasn’t really getting from his brother. Luckily, seeing how innocent Wade was had him bail from villainy sooner than later. If he can be inspired by Toxie to change for the better, than you’re doing something right just by existing. This was a much needed reboot not many will appreciate immediately, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that could’ve been better explained. For instance, I can scratch my head a lot wondering why the hell would the doctor have lunch in Toxie’s room while he’s recovering, but I get more confused wondering if the headquarters of BTH had any cameras when Winston was robbing the place? I mean that’s a lot of luck to sweep that under the rug. And while I do think it’s on Winston to leave his medical file out in the living room if he didn’t want Wade to know he’s sick, it’s totally on Kissy to not have anyone keep an eye on Fritz after he went against killing Wade. Ignore these things however, then you will enjoy 2025’s The Toxic Avenger as a reboot that does more right than wrong. If those are the kind of movies you prefer, check this out as soon as possible.