Movies
Writer Attached to ‘The Toxic Avenger 5: The Toxic Twins’!!
Troma Entertainment has signed Los Angeles writer Collyn McCoy to ink The Toxic Avenger 5: The Toxic Twins, the 5th iteration of the iconic Toxic Avenger series of movies. McCoy came to the attention of Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma Entertainment and Creator of the Toxic Avenger, by a chance meeting with Josh Olson, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of A History of Violence at Gremlins director Joe Dante’s office where both were filming segments of Dante’s webseries “Trailers from Hell.”
“Collyn’s unique talent will do more than justice to Troma’s 35-year, no-compromises legacy of shit-disturbing movies of the future!” said Kaufman. “His script will undoubtedly be 100% Grade-A Troma!” McCoy’s recent script THE HIGH LIFE (with co-writer Jacob J. Mauldin) is currently being produced by Route One Films, a new film company recently formed by Troma alum Jay Stern and Chip Diggins.
THE TOXIC AVENGER is a seminal film in American film history, and has clearly influenced and inspired many of today’s mainstream directors, such as Trey Parker, Eli Roth, James Gunn and Quentin Tarantino. It is perhaps the most beloved title of Troma Entertainment, one of the longest running independent film studios in history (36 years). Since his introduction into the film world, “TOXIE” has become the definitive youth-oriented “cult” monster hero, and is recognized world-wide. Among its many iterations, THE TOXIC AVENGER has spawned a hit off-Broadway musical, Marvel comic book series, four film sequels, a popular Saturday-morning cartoon show, action figures, video games, and is currently being remade into a big-budget, mainstream film by Oscar-winner Akiva Goldsman and his team.
The original 1986 film told the story of Melvin, the Tromaville Health Club mop boy, who inadvertently and naively trusts the hedonistic, contemptuous and vain health club members, to the point of accidentally ending up in a vat of toxic waste. The devastating results then have a transmogrification effect, his alter ego is released, and the Toxic Avenger is born, to deadly and comical results. The local mop boy is now the local Superhero, the savior of corruption, thuggish bullies and indifference.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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