Troma’s films are a very specific breed of cinema. Horror and action are typically mixed with broad humor, over-the-top gags, and a very low budget to create fluid-filled romps that either work for you or don’t – there’s rarely a middle ground when it comes to Troma. While the brand has faded over the years, […]
Troma’s films are a very specific breed of cinema. Horror and action are typically mixed with broad humor, over-the-top gags, and a very low budget to create fluid-filled romps that either work for you or don’t – there’s rarely a middle ground when it comes to Troma.
While the brand has faded over the years, it returned to the big screen this year with a new, somewhat softer incarnation of its flagship creation, The Toxic Avenger. It’s a goofy, sweet little movie, juvenile without being crass, if that makes sense, and it’s clearly a labor of love by writer/director Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore).
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
The Toxic Avenger (2023)
Commentator: Macon Blair (writer, director)
Peter Dinklage and Macon Blair behind the scenes of The Toxic Avenger
1. Blair didn’t want “this ‘record scratch, you’re probably wondering how we got here‘ opening,“ but early test audiences were apparently confused for the first fifteen minutes of the film as to whether or not it was supposed to be a comedy. “Now, to me, the movie’s called The Toxic Avenger, there’s a guy in a chicken mask, it’s probably a comedy, but okay.”
2. He never cleared it or made it official alternate universe canon, but he named the reporter Mel Ferd as a nod to the original films and suggesting in this offshoot universe “maybe Melvin never did fall out of the window and into the toxic waste, and he grew up, and got himself sorted out and became a dogged private investigator with a conspiracy board, as one does.”
3. Blair praises Taylour Paige, who plays J.J. Doherty, but adds that he’s currently suing her for emotional damage as she humiliated him on the first day of filming by beating him at arm wrestling.
4.His group of goofy looking killers is inspired by the Boddicker gang in Robocop.
5.Ferd’s “endless death“ gag was inspired by one of Blair’s favorite movies, The Naked Gun.
6. Picture Mill is the company behind the opening credits. Blair made a rough version of his vision with paper cutouts that he animated with his phone and then sent it to them as a blueprint.
7. He wants to clarify that while the title card says “Unrated,” that’s not actually part of the title. They added a single VFX shot later in the film, but per MPA rules, any alteration to the film after they’ve approved it requires some kind of distinction on the title screen.
8. The sign saying “Welcome to St. Roma’s Village“ was his way to honor Tromaville while still remaining separate. Also, the population of 12,800 is a shoutout to Jim Thompson’s crime novel Pop. 1280.
9. He acknowledges that the “dead mother“ trope is a bit overused, “but when I was writing this, my own mother was dealing with lung cancer, and I think I was offloading some anticipatory grief into the script. She never got to see the movie.”
10. More quick nods come in the form of New Chemical High School, “which sounds like Nuke ’em,“ and the coach’s name is Bobby Stanwyck, “because I love Barbara Stanwyck.”
11. Breakfast with Winston (Peter Dinklage) and Wade (Jacob Tremblay) originally included a bit with Winston naming various shades of nail polish that were all named after brands of Nuke from Robocop 2.
12. The downtown streets are actually a backlot in Bulgaria, and before they arrived, it had just been used as a small Texas town in 2022’s underrated Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
13. References for the production design and cinematography included old Universal monster movies, Edge City from Repo Man, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist.
14. Chris Sharp plays a security guard here named C.S. Hawley, with the implication being that he’s the same character he played in Jeremy Saulnier‘s Murder Party.
15. Winston is wearing a hat at 11:25, and Blair instructed the costume designer, “to give him a Johnny Handsome hat. Any Mickey Rourke or Walter Hill fans will recognize that.”
16. The doctor’s office visit sees some crucial health chatter made indistinct due to construction noise, and Blair says he didn’t intend to rip off Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise, “but subconsciously I probably did.”
17. That’s a Jane Levy cameo on the phone at 13:52. “She played one of the villains in my first movie I Don’t blah blah blah blah blah.”
18. Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) screams “everything!“ at 17:31, and Blair wanted it to be Bacon’s “Gary Oldman in The Professional“ moment. He mentions this because there’s a callback later in the film “that’s probably so obtuse“ that no one even notices.
19. “There is a specific reason I put myself in the movie,“ he says as Blair appears onscreen at 19:13. He wanted to establish himself as a character so Lloyd Kaufman could appear at the end and yell at him. Also, his t-shirt is the band flyer from Saulnier’s masterpiece, Green Room.
20. There’s a laptop screen shown at 21:07, and it includes a pic of a guy with rebar through his head. That’s Justin Ward, a fan who got in touch with Blair before production began, asking for a cameo. Ward had cancer and hoped to make his friends shit when they saw him on the screen, but Blair couldn’t make it happen, given the filming in Bulgaria and Covid precautions. Instead, he asked Ward for a headshot and promised to sneak it in somewhere. Ward died while the film was in post-production, but Blair hopes the glimpse of him here feels like a welcome “hello“ for his friends and family.
21. Bob’s fancy dinner guests at 24:06 include characters named after the adult “villains“ in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Rock n Roll High School, and Animal House.
22. He had a subplot that remained in his head involving Fritz’s (Elijah Wood) secret ambition to be a flute player in a band, but it never made it to the page.
23. The mop has its own identity and voice made up of sound effects and a recording Blair made of himself saying “I am a mop“ over and over again – that was then reversed and tweaked to become what the mop is mumbling.
24. “I took some guff from people“ over the transformation sequence, says Blair, “and I can get it.“ People love the goopy, practical effects-driven transformation from the original, but he didn’t want to repeat that and instead went for a more impressionistic look. “I think some folks might be bummed that it’s not a gross-out transformation sequence, and you’re not wrong,“ he says, adding that he likes this version too.
25. Blair has been a fan of the Toxic Avenger since he was a teen making home movies with friends (including Saulnier) and grew up into an adult who would write scripts with a very distinct Troma feel. He didn’t want to pitch for this remake as he thought the original was perfect; a remake would probably be PG-13, and he worried he wouldn’t do it justice. Thankfully, he changed his mind on those concerns.
26. He thinks the essential Toxie design elements are the mop, the tutu, nasty skin, and “the one fucked up eyeball.”
27. While Dinklage still voices the Toxic Avenger, that’s Luisa Guerreirobeneath the makeup and costume. Dinklage recorded his dialogue and actions on videotape and rehearsed them all with Guerreiro for a week or so. She studied the tapes and performed all of Dinklage’s choices, gestures, and movements.
28. They filmed some scenes in an abandoned industrial park that was populated by occasionally aggressive stray dogs. They had people on set to help shoo them away while filming, but one is visible at the side of the road at 57:01. “He was a good boy.”
29. A Bulgarian prince’s estate is used for the exteriors of Garbinger’s house.
30. The concert in the park scene was originally going to feature Danzig‘s “Mother,“ but either Glenn Danzig or someone on his team requested editorial control over the scene, which was obviously a no-go. “So we switched to Motorhead.”
31.Blair’s “biggest conceptual influence“ when making the film was The Ramones. “They have these very simple, very familiar chord progressions, but they are played very fast and very loud, and kind of purposefully dumb and with a specific kind of energy, and kind of wearing your heart on your sleeve.”
32. His favorite filmmaker is David Lynch, but the only direct inspiration he took from Lynch is evident in Garbinger’s look midway through his transformation. “That was obviously very inspired by this one shot in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, where Laura’s saying the poem, and it flashes to a close-up on her, and her teeth are yellow, and her lips are dark, and it’s kind of startling.“ He gave that image to his makeup team as a reference for this scene.
33. Bacon said that biting off the top of Thad’s (Jonny Coyne) scalp was the grossest thing he’s ever done. Blair takes a lot of pride in this.
34. Blair has a “clock theory“ regarding physical gags in movies. You start the metaphorical minute hand at 12 with the actual gag, and then you keep doing it. The joke gets less funny the longer it goes on, but eventually the minute hand starts inching closer to 12 again – and the bit gets funnier. There are a couple of beats in the film where you can see that theory at work, but the one that caused him the most pushback starts at 1:17:23 as Kissy (Julia Davis) starts beating Fritz. “I wanted it to go on forever,“ he says, but everyone wanted it trimmed, so he eventually gave in on this one. “It’s probably good that I lost that battle to save me from myself.”
35. When Cineverse “swooped in“ to offer the film a release, they suggested doing so unrated, but Blair felt it was a simple R-rated title as is. They asked what he could add to give it an extra oomph, and he replied, “Maybe we can see Toxie’s dick?“ They loved the idea, so Blair went to an Austin sex toy shop, asked for the biggest dildo they had, spent a week “dressing it,“ and then shot it on a local soundstage.
36. Kaufman only made one suggestion to Blair when it came to the film’s content. He called up Blair during production and said, “I saw a story on the news where a woman smothered a man to death with her giant breasts, and I think you should put that in the movie!“Blair was able to diplomatically talk his way out of accommodating the man.
37. The end credits kick off with The Giraffes covering “Nothing at All“ from the original Toxic Avenger film.
38. Blair was asked why Toxie had to be short this time around, and he says that the character “was not written specifically to be short… we were lucky enough to cast Peter Dinklage as Winston, that’s a win.“ They had the option to make his transformation from Winston to Toxie come with growing taller, but that “connected his heroism to his height in a way that seemed weird.”
39. Blair calls Kaufman on his commentary during the ten-minute end credits, and the famed indie filmmaker picks up. Kaufman uses the time to compliment Blair, praise the film by saying it’s better than his originals, refer to this film’s lead as “Little Toxie,“ quickly apologize for calling him “Little Toxie,“ promote Troma’s partnership with the New York Mets, and ask Blair for help with the wart on his genitalia.
Quotes Without Context
“That’s Chickenhead. We couldn’t call him Chickenhead for legal reasons.“
“I love me some ZAZ.“
“I probably should have cut the whole cat bit, but at the time I thought having a literal ‘save the cat‘ gag would be funny. We live and learn.“
“Perfect torso!“
“I don’t know for certain that Mr. Belvedere was injured from sitting on his own scrotum.“
“Obviously this is a fictional movie, deals with fictional things, and we created an entirely imaginary fantastical environment, a fantasy world you could say, in which people have to beg for health care because a small minority of wealthy people need to horde money and resources for themselves, and the concept of making just a little bit less money so their fellow humans can have health care is unthinkable.“
