The Toxic Avenger [Blu-ray]

Director: Michael Herz, Samuel Weil, Lloyd Kaufman

Overview

In a crazy spoof of heroic monster movies that spawned two sequels, The Toxic Avenger is about the transformation of a mild-mannered, scrawny janitor into a thundering, muscular hero out for justice, morality, and in one case, a bit of sex. Melvin (Mark Torgl) has a job as a custodian at a work-out club where his humiliating treatment by the musclebound reaches an ugly climax in which Melvin is forced to jump out of a window. He lands in a toxic waste truck, and by some miracle of modern pollution he is transformed into a pumped-up monster, heretofore known as the Toxic Avenger (Mitchell Cohen). From that moment on, TA saves damsels and others in distress by some pretty gory mauling and maiming but finds his moment of fulfillment too.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/12/2014
UPC:	0790357987900
Original Release:	1984
Rating:	NR
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	18,031

Special Features

NEW intro by Lloyd Kaufman (president of Troma Entertainment and creator of The Toxic Avenger); NEW commentary by stars Robert Prichard, Gary Schneider and Dan Snow; NEW interview with star Janet Babtist; NEW video with Mark Torgl (the original Melvin); Rare on screen interview with Troma co-founder and vice-president Michael Herz; Behind the scenes and in production slide show; Commentary by Lloyd Kaufman; Original Troma trailers; 40 years of Troma montage

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mark Torgl	Melvin Junko
Mitchell Cohen	The Toxic Avenger
Andree Maranda	Sara,Girl in Restaurant
Jennifer Baptist	Wanda
Cindy Manion	Julie
Robert Prichard	Slug
Gary Schneider	Bozo
Pat Ryan Jr.	Mayor Belgoody
Dick Martinsen	Officer O'Clancy,Hero Fan Club Member,Hero Fan Club Member,Hero Fan Club Member
Chris Liano	Walter Harris
David Weiss	Chief of Police,Bodybuilder,Chief of Police
Dan Snow	Cigar Face
Doug Isbecque	Knuckles
Charles Lee Jr.	Nipples
Patrick Kilpatrick	Leroy
Larry Sutton	Frank
Mike Russo	Rico
Norma Pratt	Mrs.Haskell
Andrew Craig	Fred
Ryan Sexton	Johnny
Sarabel Levinson	Melvin's Mom
Albert Pia	Tom Wrightson,Woman in Salon
Reuben Guss	Dr. Snodburger
Barbara J. Gurskey	Barbie
Donna Winter	Mayor's Secretary
Mary Ellen David	Woman Whose Car Gets Stolen
Dennis Souder	Drug Dealer
Joe Zarro	Mr. Wilson
Dan Hogan	Aerobics Instructor
Myrna Williams	The Kansas Runaway
Richard Duggan	Ice Cream Man
Bruce Morton	Tony
John Stobaeus	Truck Partner
Joe Supor Jr.	Truck Driver
D.J. Calvitto	Boy on Bicycle
Cosmo Wilder	Mayor's Secretary
Brigitte Douglaston	Mayor's Secretary
Nancy Compansanto	Mayor's Secretary
Andrea Suter	Mayor's Secretary
Xavier Barquet	Man Killed in Mexican Restaurant
Matt Klan	Boy Hero,Interviewer
Joey Calderone	Boy Selling T-Shirts,Hero Fan Club Member
Sherry Park	Woman in Salon
Vickie Usher	Woman in Salon
Barry Shapiro	Bruce
Andy Stamatin	Chauncey
Teddy Copley	Blonde Teenybopper
Dolly Hall	Girls in Health Club
Alisha Riggs	Girls in Health Club
Vicki Juditz	Girls in Health Club
Maxine Hayt	Sara's Neighbor
Don Costello	Sara's Neighbor
Teresa Simpson	Bodybuilder
June De Young	Reporter
Jon Curtis	Policeman,Policeman
Peter Racini	Policeman
Martin Scott McMann	Policeman
Ed Carrion	Policeman
Charles DiCagno	Policeman
Bruce Zimmerman	Policeman
Skip Hamra	Policeman
Eileen Nad Castaldi	Woman in Restaurant,Baby in Restaurant
Dianna-Jean Flaherty	Teenage Drug Buyer
Donna-Marie Stipo	Health Club Member
Mary Cox	Distressed Mother
Jessica Perkins	T-Shirt Salesperson
Margaret Riley	Lady Crossing Street
Jennifer Babtist	Wanda
Kenneth Kessler	Toxic Avenger

Technical Credits

Lloyd Kaufman

Stuart Strutin

Joe Ritter

Gay Partington Terry

Michael Herz	Executive Producer,Producer
Lloyd Kaufman	Producer,Screenwriter
Lloyd Kaufman Jr.	Executive Producer
Scott Leva	Stunts
Tom Lauten	Special Effects
Stuart Strutin	Screenwriter
Joe Ritter	Screenwriter
Gay Partington Terry	Screenwriter
Jennifer Aspinall	Special Effects

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Toxic Avenger
1. Chapter 1 [6:28]
2. Chapter 2 [5:53]
3. Chapter 3 [5:27]
4. Chapter 4 [6:35]
5. Chapter 5 [4:33]
6. Chapter 6 [3:31]
7. Chapter 7 [8:53]
8. Chapter 8 [2:38]
9. Chapter 9 [6:34]
10. Chapter 10 [1:31]
11. Chapter 11 [2:00]
12. Chapter 12 [4:32]
13. Chapter 13 [5:07]
14. Chapter 14 [6:01]
15. Chapter 15 [5:32]
16. Chapter 16 [7:07]

Menu

Disc #1 -- The Toxic Avenger
Play
Chapters
Trailer

Editorial Reviews

One of the most gleefully violent and tasteless super-human hero films ever to have been committed to celluloid, The Toxic Avenger proved the film that truly launched Troma as the center of the universe for mindless and endearingly sleazy entertainment. Upon viewing the film in retrospect, the fact that it spawned a series of lucrative sequels for Troma seems a given, though the simultaneous fact that it also proved the forerunner to a fairly popular but short-lived Saturday morning kiddie cartoon (complete with action figure tie-ins) is no less than mind-boggling considering the film's shockingly graphic violence towards children. Though anyone with a sensitive stomach and the easily (and, perhaps, not so easily) offended should be forewarned to avoid this film at all costs, those with a hearty sense of pitch-black humor will certainly find this no-budget, no-holds-barred cartoonish shock-a-thon required viewing. Best appreciated with a group of similarly twisted gore-hounds in the wee hours of a Saturday night, co-directors and Troma Studios co-founders Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz pull out all the stops in playing such atrocities as a shotgun pointed at a baby and a child whose head is smashed repeatedly in graphic detail under the wheels of a car for laughs. While taken out of context these situations would read as some of the most horrifying imaginable, combined with sub-par and gleefully campy acting, cheap gore effects and an infectively giddy sense of anarchy, they work to create an atmosphere in which these otherwise unforgivable events are rendered so improbable that they become ridiculously humorous. Reportedly inspired to create this extreme effort after hearing that horror films were a dead genre, Kaufman may not have succeeded in single-handedly revitalizing the truly effective horror film, though he without question created one of the most influential exercises in bad taste since Pink Flamingos.