42
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 78Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenThis is the main movie that built the house of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman's production company devoted to low-budget camp. The Toxic Avenger tells the humorous story of a geeky weakling who is turned into a superhero when he is slimed by some toxic waste.
- 63Chicago ReaderDave KehrChicago ReaderDave KehrCruddy, primal, extremely violent, and fairly entertaining, this 1984 feature from the New York-based exploitation outfit Troma, Inc. (Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz) captures some of the snot-flicking spirit of the old EC comics. How much you'll enjoy its deliberate crudity probably depends on how far you can let yourself regress to surly adolescence.
- 60The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenThe Toxic Avenger may be trash, but it has a maniacally farcical sense of humor, and Tromaville's evildoers are dispatched in ingenious ways. One is dry-cleaned to death, another made into pizza, a third partly french-fried.
- 40Time OutTime OutDespite borrowing from sources as diverse as Frankenstein and The Producer, it all falls apart after an hour.
- 20EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanAll-in-all a fairly unpleasant experience for most audiences.
- 20TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThough it is silly, sleazy, and graphically violent, The Toxic Avenger does hold a bit of warped charm for fans of this sort of thing.
- 0Chicago TribuneSid SmithChicago TribuneSid SmithA monstrously crude, blatantly tasteless film reminiscent of the now bygone drive-in movies. It's also sterling evidence of why they haven't been missed.