The Toxic Avenger (1984)

"You fat slob, let's see if you have any guts! Officer Clancy, take care of this toxic waste."

When this was "cut" on USA Up All Night, I do remember my uncle being leery of me watching it. Obviously, USA wasn't about to allow the profanity and violence, so that would come a little later. I couldn't exactly recall when I would finally get the chance to see it with all the filth.

I definitely don't think, even with dorky mop boy, Melvin, at the Tromaville Gym falling in toxic waste and suffering all the effects shown on television, USA showed the complete intentional head-on crash into a boy on a bicycle (his helmet didn't help him, unfortunately) for "28 points" by an unhinged gym nut whose "stress ruins his karma". His buddy encourages the lunatic to take an old woman's car after throwing her groceries on the street, punching her in the stomach, and pummeling her with her own walking cane!

That's Troma. This certainly isn't for everybody, never has been, never will. No one is off limits to be victimized. When three sickos hold up a taco joint, one of them points a shotgun right into the face of a mother holding her baby! And Toxie has to quickly grab two boys in a street before the duo of cold-blooded lunatics, Slug and Bozo, speed through them for "bonus points". Oh, and Slug's sexy psycho girlfriend (who loves her steaming-rocks sauna) masturbates to Kodak photos of the boy Bozo plowed through with his car whose brains were spilled on the road. Oh, and if you thought dogs were safe...nope. Kaufman and Herz not only show the poor pooch being blasted by the psycho's shotgun in the taco joint, they linger on it as the dog dies with all its guts displayed on the floor. Poor Mrs. Haskel is a little woman who just wants her son's semen-stained pants cleaned and pressed...she instead is thrown in a dryer and pressed!

Maranda's exaggerated wide-eyed blindness (she has a shirt that says "Sensual"), Kessler's heavy dubbed voice for Toxie, the mayor (Ryan, Jr.) and his cronies with their obscene criminality (including the toxic dumping), the heavy number of gangs for Toxie to beat and kill, all the expected Troma acting theatrics (I never expect dialogue not to be shouted and over emphasized), eventual litany of police sent out to find (or preferably kill) Toxie -- who is having an existential crises regarding his rage and body count -- and Maranda's skimpy outfits (and bikinis) just add extra oomph to all the outrageous presentation. I think this is a film one might consider a Pride of New Jersey, it sure looks like Herz and Kaufman loaded up their movie with lots of locals. I think even today you'd have a lot of volunteers for any Troma production...the dirtier, the better.

This might be only the second time I've seen this free of any editing, thanks to Tubi.

There's actually a rad car scene in the city where Toxie takes Bozo on quite a ride!