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Horror 101: The Toxic Avenger – Tromaville’s Monster Hero Reborn

The Toxic Avenger movie history spans decades, from Troma Entertainment’s 1984 cult classic to the 2023 reboot. Born in Tromaville, Melvin Ferd transforms into Toxie, a monstrous hero fighting crime and evil. Learn about Lloyd Kaufman’s boundary-pushing legacy, the Toxic Crusaders cartoon, and why the Peter Dinklage-led reboot took years to release. Dive into the wild, offensive, and iconic world of The Toxic Avenger!

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Welcome back to Horror 101, a series of articles where we explain horror legends and their lore. For beginners, the confused, or just those who need a refresher, these articles are for you.

Today’s lesson in horror history celebrates a hero who has been on ice for decades, a guardian of humanity, a scrawny wimp turned into a muscular protector! And no, it isn’t Captain America. Today, we’re talking about Toxie the Toxic Avenger, a horror comedy hero whose impact on the cinematic landscape is larger than you’d think. With his 2023 reboot finally coming to theatres in 2025 and leaving festival circuit stasis, we’re here to talk about Toxie, the company that made him, and why it took so long for the monster hero of Tromaville to return to us.

Speaking of which…

WHAT IS TROMAVILLE?

The humble town of Tromaville isn’t just home to an abnormal number of maladjusted psychopaths and criminals, it’s also the toxic chemical capital of the world. And it’s located in New Jersey! Hee-haw, hee-haw, very funny, a “New Jersey is a dump” joke, very original. Our dumps look like your nature trails. New Jersey is beautiful, can it.

Played by the real-life stand-in town of Boonton, NJ, as well as several other towns throughout New Jersey and upstate New York, Tromaville is where most of Troma Entertainment’s films take place. Among the citizenry of Tromaville lived the exceptionally pathetic Melvin Ferd (later Melvin Junko), whose job as a janitor at the Tromaville Health Club put him in the path of some particularly maladjusted health nuts: Bozo and Slug. The duo and their girlfriends are revealed to secretly be a gang of murderous hit-and-run drivers who revel in the carnage they cause, documenting their crimes with flash photography.

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Soon after their latest kill, they decide to mess with Melvin for his bizarre mannerisms and general buffoonery. This culminates in him being tricked into kissing a sheep while wearing a pink tutu, a prank that sends him out of a window and into the back of a semi-truck carrying dozens of open, bubbling, green toxic waste barrels.

Oozing green barrels of toxic slime are Tromaville’s main export.

WHO IS THE TOXIC AVENGER?

Set aflame by the toxic waste and ridiculed by bystanders, Melvin runs back home, transforming into a monstrous mutant thanks to the waste. With his facial features distorted to grotesque proportions and sliding out of place, Melvin is doubly unrecognizable when he grows freakishly large and strong and develops a silky smooth voice (the voice of actor Kenneth Kessler).

Endowed with a monstrously powerful physique and covered in melted skin, the toxic waste has one other odd side effect: due to “Tromaton particles” inside of his body, he can now sense evil and is driven into a frenzy when he encounters it, forced to destroy it. Melvin soon used his newfound abilities to become a vigilante the media dubs “The Monster Hero”, hunting down the health club gang and taking them out. Having gotten his vengeance, Toxie begins targeting organized crime, and turns Tromaville into a paradise.

In the sequels, he begins taking down corporations run by the actual devil, and wrestling with his daddy issues! He went to Japan to do that last one. Sustaining himself on liquid cleaning chemicals and operating out of the Tromaville dump, Toxie the Toxic Avenger fights for all that is good and clean.

While living in literal trash.

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Go figure.

WHO CREATED THE TOXIC AVENGER? WHAT IS TROMA ENTERTAINMENT?

The Toxic Avenger and its sequels are the most popular films created by B-movie filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman. But they’re certainly not the only ones. Founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz in 1974, Troma Entertainment stands to this day as one of the oldest and longest active independent film companies in the U.S. (and according to Troma themselves, they are THE longest-running independent film studio in North America).

They’re responsible not just for making films, but for the distribution of many independent films across a spectrum of genres. Fans of the films Def by Temptation and Cannibal! The Musical might be surprised to find that Troma distributed both of them. Because of Troma’s dedication to giving independent filmmakers a voice, many Hollywood filmmakers and actors have found a start with the company. The two most notable of which are Oliver Stone, whose first work on films began as assistant director on Kaufman’s The Battle of Love’s Return, as well as James Gunn, who went from working on Tromeo and Juliet and writing a biography on the making of The Toxic Avenger to becoming the director of Slither and the face of comic book movies for both Marvel and DC.

Dubbed a “leading impresario of bad taste”, Lloyd Kaufman’s work with Troma has become a staple of both good and bad B-horror movies since the 80s. That being said, Troma films have a reputation for being particularly low-budget and especially low-brow because they put such a massive emphasis on not restricting independent artists and pushing boundaries in terms of their content. If you’re squeamish, or can’t stomach offensive content, steer clear.

SO…ARE THE TOXIC AVENGER MOVIES OFFENSIVE?

Immensely so.

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Though the first film’s most infamous sequence involves a bicyclist getting their head run over (with effects courtesy of a particularly ripe cantaloupe with makeup applied afterward), all of the Toxic Avenger film’s most offensive parts come from when they engage in “edgy humor”, usually at the expense of a marginalized group.

From racism, to homophobia, to transphobia, to fatphobia, to ableism, all in a variety of different forms, if there’s a protected group of people on the planet, they’ve probably been made fun of by The Toxic Avenger films. Especially in the fourth Toxic Avenger film, that was way more egregious than I remembered, and borderline unwatchable for how offensive it gets! If you’re going to skip any of them, skip IV!

Needless to say, you will probably find yourself mildly offended at best and appalled at what you’re watching at worst.

WHY ARE THE TOXIC AVENGER MOVIES SO OFFENSIVE?

Kaufman has justified the shocking content of his movies as a byproduct of his ethos in filmmaking. In an interview with fanzine Schokkend Nieuws for The Flashback Files, Kaufman addressed the inclusion of particularly brutal and offensive scenes in his films like Tromeo & Juliet and Terror Firmer, putting most of the motivation on large film studio’s practices:

“The reality of American life is constant racial and sexual violence. My movies are a reflection of that. From THE TOXIC AVENGER on we have been involved in fighting hatred and violence and the puritanical dictatorship in America. It’s always been there in our movies and these important buttons have to be pushed. […] The United States is run by a cartel, as is Western Europe. It’s a fixed club in which no one who is independent can enter without selling his or her soul. So, it doesn’t matter which subjects I use in my movies. I’m economically blacklisted anyway. […] So what do I care what they think of Troma? What do I care what anybody thinks of our movies?”

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How effective a method this is in addressing that violence is certainly up for debate. It was never the offensive parts of the original Toxic Avenger that made it great, or entertaining, or even a particularly good social commentary. But it felt necessary to mention that if you dive into the Toxie films headfirst in preparation for the new one coming out, they do have a lot of questionable material you will probably find hard to watch.

HOW DID TOXIC AVENGER GET A CHILDREN’S CARTOON?

That being said, the absurdly out of pocket nature of the Toxic Avenger franchise and Troma’s “no limits” approach to filmmaking has one especially odd animation artifact, a decidedly not envelope-pushing or offensive children’s cartoon.

This interesting point in The Toxic Avenger’s legacy was a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon produced in 1991 called Toxic Crusaders. Released two years after Toxic Avenger Part III, Toxic Crusaders was part of a small number of odd attempts to capitalize on existing IP while aping the unbelievable success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. As Rambo and Robocop got their own children’s cartoons, turning their bloody gunfights into bloodless shows meant to market toys, so did Toxic Avenger. Crusaders even got an NES game in 1992 the following year.

You too can go from watching Toxie rip a guy’s arm off and smash a man’s nose in a taiyaki press, to watching him teach kids about the importance of recycling and environmental conservation with his gang of quirky and colorful mutant friends!

IS THE NEW TOXIC AVENGER MOVIE A SEQUEL OR A REBOOT?

After over two decades of silence, The Toxic Avenger franchise’s fifth film came out in 2023 but is only now seeing widespread release in 2025. All of the media coming out promoting The Toxic Avenger (2023) confirms the film is a reboot, ignoring previous entries and replacing Melvin with a new victim-turned-monstrous superhero, Winston Gooze (played by Peter Dinklage). In interviews, Dinklage has mostly focused on the production aspects of the film and its spirit, which is similar to that of the original film, but has confirmed it is not a remake.

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The synopsis details our intrepid hero is a janitor trying to reconnect with his young son when he’s cast out of the trash frying pan and into the proverbial toxic fire. Now, it’s time for a mutated Winston to clean up crime, with the same mop swinging and bare-handed eviscerating methods Melvin used to clean Tromaville of its crime.

WHY DID TOXIC AVENGER TAKE SO LONG TO COME OUT?

Directed by Macon Blair (a Jeremy Saulnier film mainstay and director of I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore), the new Toxic Avenger film found itself in distribution limbo following its premiere in 2023 at Fantastic Fest despite being made under the banner of Legendary Pictures. Outlets talking about the ongoing struggle to find a distributor claim the film was deemed “unreleasable” by several companies due to the film’s extreme violence and graphic content.

In January, it found a home with distributor Cineverse, who has tee’d the film up for an August 2025 release. In an interesting reflection of Kaufman’s philosophy on limitless filmmaking and making transgressive media, CEO of Cineverse Chris McGurk found some resonance in the importance of The Toxic Avenger and why its release is so vital in the current landscape of film: “This is the kind of movie that major studios are averse to release because it dares to push boundaries, but Cineverse is rooted in championing bold, uncompromising storytelling. We believe audiences are ready – and eager – for films like this to take center stage.”

Here’s to Macon Blair, Peter Dinklage, and the rest of the cast and the crew’s hard work, which will finally be shared with horror fans in theaters soon. Hopefully, reviving New Jersey’s first monster superhero at the box office will be just as fun as the buzz around the film has let on!

And that will be it for today’s Horror 101 lesson. See you in the next class, and stay tuned to Horror Press’s social media feeds for more content on horror movies, television, and everything in between!

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Luis Pomales-Diaz is a freelance writer and lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and of course, horror. When he isn't working on a new article or short story, he can usually be found watching schlocky movies and forgotten television shows.

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Misc

Our Halloween Giveaway Is Here!

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Halloween and our final giveaway of the month is also here to spice up your Fall before the Holidays take a snowier, and less creepy turn. So be sure to enter now for a chance to win this prize that’ll be sure to keep the thrills going all season long! Don’t miss out—grab your costume, some BBQ and join the fun.

Enter Our Halloween Giveaway!

How to Enter:

Step 1. Make sure to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP!

Step 2. LIKE AND SHARE the giveaway post!

Step 3. This is the most important step, email us at contact@horrorpress.com with your FULL Facebook name (so we can verify you’re in the group) and who your favorite character is from the Texas Chainsaw franchise.

**Giveaway entries are limited to addresses in the United States.**

**All entries must be 18 or older to enter**

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What You’ll Win

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Video

  • 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
  • Original DTS-HD MA 7.1 and 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Brand new audio commentary with Dread Central co-founder Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and co-host of The Spooky Picture Show podcast Chris MacGibbon
  • Archival audio commentary with director Marcus Nispel, producer Michael Bay, executive producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form and New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye
  • Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, director of photography Daniel Pearl, production designer Greg Blair, art director Scott Gallager, sound supervisor Trevor Jolly and composer Steve Jablonsky
  • Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, writer Scott Kosar, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and actors Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel and Andrew Bryniarski
  • Reimagining a Classic, a brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
  • Shadows of Yesteryear, a brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
  • The Lost Leatherface, a brand new interview with actor Brett Wagner
  • Masks and Massacres, a brand new interview with makeup effects artist Scott Stoddard
  • Chainsaw Symphony, a brand new interview with composer Steve Jablonsky
  • Chainsaw Redux: Making A Massacre, a making-of documentary
  • Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, an in-depth look at the infamous killer who inspired the character of Leatherface
  • Severed Parts, a look at the cutting room floor and some of the scenes excised from the final edit
  • Deleted scenes including an alternate opening and ending
  • Screen tests for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Erica Leerhsen
  • Behind-the-scenes featurette
  • Cast and crew interviews
  • Theatrical trailers and TV spots
  • Concept art galleries
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
  • Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
  • Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Gingold
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Misc

NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!

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As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever. 

From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025! 

Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights

Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength

Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons. 

During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear. 

I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!

You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.

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Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet

Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.

I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film. 

Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.

The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band

My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to. 

“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”

“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.” 

That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)

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Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy. 

Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business

If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.

Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.” 

In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.

Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”

Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.

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Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment

Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make. 

Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house… 

Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature! 

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.

Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun

NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long. 

At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.

I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life. 

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That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more. 

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