The Toxic Avenger

"The Toxic Avenger" (1984, Lloyd Kaufman Michael Herz, Troma Entertainment) is a midnight movie staple and horror comedy exploiting the trope of the heroic monster.


Melvin (Mark Torgl) is a weedy guy working as a janitor at a local gym in the fictional town of Tromaville. His life is made miserable due to the torment and relentless bullying of a group of gym customers (who also run over kids for fun); Bozo (Gary Schneider), Slug (Robert Prichard), Wanda (Jennifer Babtist) and Julie (Cindy Manion). But Melvin can't help but fall into their trap every time due to the goading of the scantily clad Julie and Wanda.


The group coax Melvin into a trap where he falls into toxic waste and become gruesomely transformed into the larger, bulkier, super-strong and super-ugly Toxic Avenger (Mitch Cohen). He also develops a huskier, more manly tone of voice (Kenneth Kessler).


Toxie takes to the streets to fight crime and work out some serious anger issues, where he attracts the attention of the local press and the local gangs.... During his adventures he also meets the beautiful Sarah (Andree Maranda) who, being blind, falls in love with him for his sparkling personality.


But, is there any place in the world for a hero like Toxie?


A fun and ridiculous piece of 80s Troma cinema that still delivers its cheesy message of 'it's what's on the inside that counts' with exceptional physical splatter-humour to this day. The bad one-liners, cartoonish gore and the comeuppance of the bad guys make for a delightfully gruesome and humorous 79 minutes.

[Image: Troma Entertainment]

Hani

Slugs

"Slugs" (1988, Juan Piquer Simón, New World Pictures) is a nature-bites-back B-movie so latter day 80s, you could die.

Mike Brady (Michael Garfield) is the health inspector of a small town which becomes overrun by mutated, flesh-eating slugs. It is up to him, an English scientist and his sanitation department friend to put a stop to the epidemic before it's too late.

From the rocker teens to the terrible dress sense, this film is just delightfully B-class. The slugs are pretty gross and I'm pretty sure in one scene they really do cut a real one in half...!

It might put you off eating salad for a while, and there's certainly some fun 80s gore to enjoy. Slugs have to be the least threatening of all the gross legless things out there, but this film does pretty well to make them into an entertaining 'threat'.

There are explosions, a gardener who pulls an (Evil Dead) Ash (replacing chainsaw for another cutting tool), unconvincing biting slug puppets, naked chicks being eaten alive, gouged eyes, flamboyant restaurant death scenes, buckets of fake blood, screams, a lake scene, half-eaten corpses, lab hamsters, incredibly flawed action plans and terribly 80s B-movie dialogue. What more can you ask?

Hardly scary, but definitely bad-movie fun. So underrated and definitely not to be taken seriously!

[Image: New World Pictures]

Hani