Review: The Toxic Avenger Remake Is Not Quite Radioactive Enough to Surpass the Original Shlock
Peter Dinklage stars as Winston Gooze, a janitor turned mutant hero confronting a corrupt multinational chemical giant exploiting society, in a reboot blending gore and satire.
- The Toxic Avenger reboot, directed by Macon Blair and starring Peter Dinklage, opens in theaters on August 29, 2025, running 103 minutes and rated 18A.
- The remake stems from decades of Troma Entertainment's legacy since 1974, aiming to revive its cult series with a bigger budget and modern vision while shifting the setting to St Roma's Village.
- Peter Dinklage plays Winston Gooze, a janitor wronged by a malicious corporation, who transforms into the radioactive hero Toxie, wielding a flaming mop to battle cartoonish villainy led by Kevin Bacon's CEO character.
- The film blends camp, gore, peculiar humor, and heartfelt father-son dynamics, with Dinklage's vocal performance supported physically by stunt double Luisa Guerreiro, while embracing but not slavishly following the original's body-horror tone.
- Though divisive and imperfect, the remake reintroduces an enduring indie icon and teases a sequel conditional on a $1 billion box office hit, suggesting potential for continuing Toxie's unconventional crime-fighting story.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Peter Dinklage Lets His Freak Flag Fly in ‘The Toxic Avenger’
I'll try my best not to cause emotional damage to my fellow millennials by pointing out that it's been over forty years since the 1984 original The Toxic Avenger haunted screens. Lloyd Kaufman's bizarre and brazen anti-super-hero movie hit right... Read more...
The Independent
The Independent (US)The reboot of cult splatter movie The Toxic Avenger feels sadly out of time – review
Peter Dinklage leads this long-delayed revival of a gloriously puerile 1984 classic about a man turned into a mutant by radioactive waste – but it’s hard to make a lurid, scrappy B-movie on a decent budget
The Toxic Avenger (2025) - Movie Review
Read the original post on Flickering Myth here: Movie Review – The Toxic Avenger (2025) The Toxic Avenger, 2025. Written and directed by Macon Blair. Starring Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Kevin Bacon, Elijah Wood, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Sarah Niles, Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman, Spencer Wilding, Jonny Coyne, Atanas Srebrev, Lee Eddy, Rebecca O’Mara, David Yow, Chris Sharp, Brent Werzner, Randy E. Aguebor, Ev Lunning, Jane Levy, Luisa Guerr…
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