Troma boss Lloyd Kaufman has been out in force talking up Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger, a spirited reimagining of the studio’s 1984 cult classic set to irradiate a whole new generation when it hits theaters this month. But when io9 got a chance to talk to Kaufman at the recent San Diego Comic-Con, we had to ask: after watching Blair’s film, which other film in the vast Troma archives should a newly minted fan turn to next?
“The fourth Toxic Avenger movie, Citizen Toxie,” Kaufman said without hesitation. “It deals with abortion, it deals with school shootings, [the environment]—it deals with everything that an American can be proud of right now. It was made in 2000, it’s 25 years old, [and] all those things are still worse than ever.”
A few minutes later, he doubled down on Citizen Toxie, saying that after Blair’s new film, “It’s the best one. I like that one the best.”
Kaufman directed and co-wrote the film—full title, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV—which begins with a suspiciously familiar-sounding narrator (Kaufman pal Stan Lee) recapping the original film, apologizing for the two “rotten” movies that came after, and relaying a firm assurance, backed up by on-screen text, that “This is the Real Sequel.”
With that taken care of, we plunge right into an onslaught of equal-opportunity offensiveness. If something makes you recoil, retch, or both, just hang tight because something much more repulsive and awful is about to happen 30 seconds later. Troma’s whole approach is to target the lowest-hanging fruit possible, all while making fun of everyone and everything and taking a blowtorch to anything resembling political correctness.
There is a plot propelling all the rapid-fire gags knowingly slathered in bad taste. The film starts at the “Tromaville School for the Very Special” on “take a Mexican to lunch day” as a gang of gun-toting adult babies bursts in and starts slaughtering students. It’s an excuse for an ungodly array of poop jokes, lurid groping, gratuitous nudity, outrageous gore, exaggerated performances… and more, all of which continues throughout the movie. Keeping in mind that provoking a visceral reaction is the whole point, you can decide right away if you can stomach the rest.
However, if you decide to stick around, you’ll see an actually pretty clever setup emerge: when the school blows up, Toxie (who’s rushed in to rescue everyone) and two of the “very special” students end up in a mirror universe. It’s “Amortville” rather than “Tromaville,” and if that’s too high-concept, some guy you might have heard of named James Gunn stops by to do a Stephen Hawking imitation (his character is named “Flem Hocking”) and spew out a bunch of pseudo-physics explanations.
While Toxie’s blundering around a somehow worse version of his own reality, “Noxie”—short for the Noxious Offender—appears in Tromaville in his place. Chaos ensues, the local Nazis rejoice, and Citizen Toxie makes good on its title by giving Noxie his own black and white newsreel that unfurls like a far more debauched Citizen Kane. We also get amusing character variations in each universe, including several hapless Troma “superheroes.” All the while, the evil Noxie causes as much destruction as he can and Toxie frantically tries to make his way home—a task that takes a nudge from The Wizard of Oz to accomplish.
Eventually, the two face off using mops that sound curiously like Star Wars lightsabers. But you may be exhausted long before the ending, which features a Kaufman cameo (after a movie stuffed with them; aside from Lee and Gunn, there’s Eli Roth, Motorhead’s Lemmy, porn star Ron Jeremy, Corey Feldman, and probably more). And even if you are vibing with the jokes, Citizen Toxie may still cause actual offense. For me, the racist dragging scene—which replicates an actual hate crime that viewers in 2000 would surely have recalled—pushes things too far, even if in this context the intended murder victim’s head survives and becomes a charismatic addition to the supporting cast.
There’s admittedly not a lot of depth going on here, and certainly zero nuance. But beneath all the gallons of bodily fluids, there’s a certain free-spirited chaos that guides Troma’s approach. The studio’s not trying to “own” any sensitive viewers or rebel against wokeness, concepts which didn’t even exist back in 2000. Above all else, it’s aiming to entertain, taking the grossest route possible to achieve that goal.
And while Citizen Toxie is full of disgusting jokes and stereotypes, its misshapen hero is genuinely trying to be a good guy. That’s something that carries over into the new Toxie Avenger, which updates Troma’s more, uh, antiquated qualities in the best ways possible, resulting in a film that’s more clever than crass (but still crass when it needs to be). Both films also share some key takeaways: don’t be an asshole. Stand up for what you believe in and fight for those who can’t. And embrace whatever makes you weird and different—like being a Troma fan, for instance.
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV is streaming free on Prime Video and is also available on Troma’s own streamer, Troma Now. The Toxic Avenger hits theaters August 29.
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