The Toxic Avenger is finally here — no, not those Avengers. This superhero is actually a lot worse. The reboot of the widely-popular ’80s franchise, which includes four movies, a TV show, a video game, and a stage musical had its long-awaited premiere at Texas’ Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2023.
The Toxic Avenger, as with the original ‘80s movie, follows down-on-his-luck janitor Winston Gooze (former Game of Thrones cast member Peter Dinklage), who, after falling into a vat of toxic waste, decides to become a superhero known as the Toxic Avenger. In the dark comedy movie, the unlikely hero faces off against Fritz Garbinger, a movie villain played by Elijah Wood who is described as “sort of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Danny DeVito Penguin mixed together.”
Teaser pictures of Wood as Garbinger gave fans a taste of what to expect in the new movie, but as early reactions to The Toxic Avenger flood in, one thing’s for sure — this film is completely insane.
Collider’s Peri Nemiroff describes the superhero movie as “a bonkers/bloody delight,” writing in a tweet that it’s “the kind of movie that functions as a hugely enjoyable and very rowdy escape, and also feels like a celebration of movie magic, of the wild things one can create with ingenuity, practical effects, and a whole lot of passion for the genre.”
Slashfilm‘s Jacob Hall dubbed it a “live-action Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror episode,” and wrote that while he found it “extremely funny […] a lot of people are going to hate it.”
By all accounts, this wacky horror movie is set to be divisive to say the least, but will it be the best movie of the year? That remains to be seen, but as one Twitter user puts it, “if you ever wanted to see Peter Dinklage shove his hand up someone’s anus and rip out their guts, then you will dig The Toxic Avenger.”
If you like superheros but are less keen on, you know, anuses, you might be interested in all the Marvel movies in order or our guide to DC’s new slate entitled Chapter 1 Gods and Monsters. Or, learn more about the next upcoming Marvel movie with our guide to The Marvels.