Editorials
39 Things We Learned from ‘The Toxic Avenger’ Commentary with Macon Blair
Troma’s films are a very specific breed of cinema. Horror and action are typically mixed with broad humor, over-the-top gags, and a very low budget to create fluid-filled romps that either work for you or don’t – there’s rarely a middle ground when it comes to Troma.
While the brand has faded over the years, it returned to the big screen this year with a new, somewhat softer incarnation of its flagship creation, The Toxic Avenger. It’s a goofy, sweet little movie, juvenile without being crass, if that makes sense, and it’s clearly a labor of love by writer/director Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore).
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
The Toxic Avenger (2023)
Commentator: Macon Blair (writer, director)
Peter Dinklage and Macon Blair behind the scenes of The Toxic Avenger
1. Blair didn’t want “this ‘record scratch, you’re probably wondering how we got here‘ opening,“ but early test audiences were apparently confused for the first fifteen minutes of the film as to whether or not it was supposed to be a comedy. “Now, to me, the movie’s called The Toxic Avenger, there’s a guy in a chicken mask, it’s probably a comedy, but okay.”
2. He never cleared it or made it official alternate universe canon, but he named the reporter Mel Ferd as a nod to the original films and suggesting in this offshoot universe “maybe Melvin never did fall out of the window and into the toxic waste, and he grew up, and got himself sorted out and became a dogged private investigator with a conspiracy board, as one does.”
3. Blair praises Taylour Paige, who plays J.J. Doherty, but adds that he’s currently suing her for emotional damage as she humiliated him on the first day of filming by beating him at arm wrestling.
4. His group of goofy looking killers is inspired by the Boddicker gang in Robocop.
5. Ferd’s “endless death“ gag was inspired by one of Blair’s favorite movies, The Naked Gun.
6. Picture Mill is the company behind the opening credits. Blair made a rough version of his vision with paper cutouts that he animated with his phone and then sent it to them as a blueprint.
7. He wants to clarify that while the title card says “Unrated,” that’s not actually part of the title. They added a single VFX shot later in the film, but per MPA rules, any alteration to the film after they’ve approved it requires some kind of distinction on the title screen.
8. The sign saying “Welcome to St. Roma’s Village“ was his way to honor Tromaville while still remaining separate. Also, the population of 12,800 is a shoutout to Jim Thompson’s crime novel Pop. 1280.
9. He acknowledges that the “dead mother“ trope is a bit overused, “but when I was writing this, my own mother was dealing with lung cancer, and I think I was offloading some anticipatory grief into the script. She never got to see the movie.”
10. More quick nods come in the form of New Chemical High School, “which sounds like Nuke ’em,“ and the coach’s name is Bobby Stanwyck, “because I love Barbara Stanwyck.”
11. Breakfast with Winston (Peter Dinklage) and Wade (Jacob Tremblay) originally included a bit with Winston naming various shades of nail polish that were all named after brands of Nuke from Robocop 2.
12. The downtown streets are actually a backlot in Bulgaria, and before they arrived, it had just been used as a small Texas town in 2022’s underrated Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
13. References for the production design and cinematography included old Universal monster movies, Edge City from Repo Man, and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist.
14. Chris Sharp plays a security guard here named C.S. Hawley, with the implication being that he’s the same character he played in Jeremy Saulnier‘s Murder Party.
15. Winston is wearing a hat at 11:25, and Blair instructed the costume designer, “to give him a Johnny Handsome hat. Any Mickey Rourke or Walter Hill fans will recognize that.”
16. The doctor’s office visit sees some crucial health chatter made indistinct due to construction noise, and Blair says he didn’t intend to rip off Brian De Palma‘s Phantom of the Paradise, “but subconsciously I probably did.”
17. That’s a Jane Levy cameo on the phone at 13:52. “She played one of the villains in my first movie I Don’t blah blah blah blah blah.”
18. Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) screams “everything!“ at 17:31, and Blair wanted it to be Bacon’s “Gary Oldman in The Professional“ moment. He mentions this because there’s a callback later in the film “that’s probably so obtuse“ that no one even notices.
19. “There is a specific reason I put myself in the movie,“ he says as Blair appears onscreen at 19:13. He wanted to establish himself as a character so Lloyd Kaufman could appear at the end and yell at him. Also, his t-shirt is the band flyer from Saulnier’s masterpiece, Green Room.
20. There’s a laptop screen shown at 21:07, and it includes a pic of a guy with rebar through his head. That’s Justin Ward, a fan who got in touch with Blair before production began, asking for a cameo. Ward had cancer and hoped to make his friends shit when they saw him on the screen, but Blair couldn’t make it happen, given the filming in Bulgaria and Covid precautions. Instead, he asked Ward for a headshot and promised to sneak it in somewhere. Ward died while the film was in post-production, but Blair hopes the glimpse of him here feels like a welcome “hello“ for his friends and family.
21. Bob’s fancy dinner guests at 24:06 include characters named after the adult “villains“ in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Rock n Roll High School, and Animal House.
22. He had a subplot that remained in his head involving Fritz’s (Elijah Wood) secret ambition to be a flute player in a band, but it never made it to the page.
23. The mop has its own identity and voice made up of sound effects and a recording Blair made of himself saying “I am a mop“ over and over again – that was then reversed and tweaked to become what the mop is mumbling.
24. “I took some guff from people“ over the transformation sequence, says Blair, “and I can get it.“ People love the goopy, practical effects-driven transformation from the original, but he didn’t want to repeat that and instead went for a more impressionistic look. “I think some folks might be bummed that it’s not a gross-out transformation sequence, and you’re not wrong,“ he says, adding that he likes this version too.
25. Blair has been a fan of the Toxic Avenger since he was a teen making home movies with friends (including Saulnier) and grew up into an adult who would write scripts with a very distinct Troma feel. He didn’t want to pitch for this remake as he thought the original was perfect; a remake would probably be PG-13, and he worried he wouldn’t do it justice. Thankfully, he changed his mind on those concerns.
26. He thinks the essential Toxie design elements are the mop, the tutu, nasty skin, and “the one fucked up eyeball.”
27. While Dinklage still voices the Toxic Avenger, that’s Luisa Guerreiro beneath the makeup and costume. Dinklage recorded his dialogue and actions on videotape and rehearsed them all with Guerreiro for a week or so. She studied the tapes and performed all of Dinklage’s choices, gestures, and movements.
28. They filmed some scenes in an abandoned industrial park that was populated by occasionally aggressive stray dogs. They had people on set to help shoo them away while filming, but one is visible at the side of the road at 57:01. “He was a good boy.”
29. A Bulgarian prince’s estate is used for the exteriors of Garbinger’s house.
30. The concert in the park scene was originally going to feature Danzig‘s “Mother,“ but either Glenn Danzig or someone on his team requested editorial control over the scene, which was obviously a no-go. “So we switched to Motorhead.”
31. Blair’s “biggest conceptual influence“ when making the film was The Ramones. “They have these very simple, very familiar chord progressions, but they are played very fast and very loud, and kind of purposefully dumb and with a specific kind of energy, and kind of wearing your heart on your sleeve.”
32. His favorite filmmaker is David Lynch, but the only direct inspiration he took from Lynch is evident in Garbinger’s look midway through his transformation. “That was obviously very inspired by this one shot in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, where Laura’s saying the poem, and it flashes to a close-up on her, and her teeth are yellow, and her lips are dark, and it’s kind of startling.“ He gave that image to his makeup team as a reference for this scene.
33. Bacon said that biting off the top of Thad’s (Jonny Coyne) scalp was the grossest thing he’s ever done. Blair takes a lot of pride in this.
34. Blair has a “clock theory“ regarding physical gags in movies. You start the metaphorical minute hand at 12 with the actual gag, and then you keep doing it. The joke gets less funny the longer it goes on, but eventually the minute hand starts inching closer to 12 again – and the bit gets funnier. There are a couple of beats in the film where you can see that theory at work, but the one that caused him the most pushback starts at 1:17:23 as Kissy (Julia Davis) starts beating Fritz. “I wanted it to go on forever,“ he says, but everyone wanted it trimmed, so he eventually gave in on this one. “It’s probably good that I lost that battle to save me from myself.”
35. When Cineverse “swooped in“ to offer the film a release, they suggested doing so unrated, but Blair felt it was a simple R-rated title as is. They asked what he could add to give it an extra oomph, and he replied, “Maybe we can see Toxie’s dick?“ They loved the idea, so Blair went to an Austin sex toy shop, asked for the biggest dildo they had, spent a week “dressing it,“ and then shot it on a local soundstage.
36. Kaufman only made one suggestion to Blair when it came to the film’s content. He called up Blair during production and said, “I saw a story on the news where a woman smothered a man to death with her giant breasts, and I think you should put that in the movie!“ Blair was able to diplomatically talk his way out of accommodating the man.
37. The end credits kick off with The Giraffes covering “Nothing at All“ from the original Toxic Avenger film.
38. Blair was asked why Toxie had to be short this time around, and he says that the character “was not written specifically to be short… we were lucky enough to cast Peter Dinklage as Winston, that’s a win.“ They had the option to make his transformation from Winston to Toxie come with growing taller, but that “connected his heroism to his height in a way that seemed weird.”
39. Blair calls Kaufman on his commentary during the ten-minute end credits, and the famed indie filmmaker picks up. Kaufman uses the time to compliment Blair, praise the film by saying it’s better than his originals, refer to this film’s lead as “Little Toxie,“ quickly apologize for calling him “Little Toxie,“ promote Troma’s partnership with the New York Mets, and ask Blair for help with the wart on his genitalia.
Quotes Without Context
“That’s Chickenhead. We couldn’t call him Chickenhead for legal reasons.“
“I love me some ZAZ.“
“I probably should have cut the whole cat bit, but at the time I thought having a literal ‘save the cat‘ gag would be funny. We live and learn.“
“Perfect torso!“
“I don’t know for certain that Mr. Belvedere was injured from sitting on his own scrotum.“
“Obviously this is a fictional movie, deals with fictional things, and we created an entirely imaginary fantastical environment, a fantasy world you could say, in which people have to beg for health care because a small minority of wealthy people need to horde money and resources for themselves, and the concept of making just a little bit less money so their fellow humans can have health care is unthinkable.“
“It was a fussy mop!“
“Let’s talk about butt guts!“
“I have nothing against parkour.“
“Everyone knows that 69 is the funniest number.”
The Toxic Avenger is available on physical media and now streaming on Hulu.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
You must be logged in to post a comment.