How ‘The Toxic Avenger’ Is the Unsung Heir to the Classic Universal Monsters
In my younger years I had two horror obsessions: the Universal Monsters and the stalker slashers that came to prominence in the ’80s, two very different approaches to the concept of the horror icon. In the ’30s and ’40s, the heyday of the classic monsters, most of them were imbued with a sense of empathy; audiences could somehow relate to the poor souls depicted on screen. Even Dracula and the Invisible Man, the least sympathetic among them, occasionally displayed at least some modicum of humanity.
In the case of the later decades, the killers were usually a personification of pure evil, especially in the cases like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, and Chucky. There were occasional exceptions to this as with Leatherface just wanting to protect his home or Jason wanting to avenge his mother, but those aspects were often left by the wayside in sequels and later iterations. The one big, hulking, hideously deformed exception of superhuman size and strength was Melvin, The Toxic Avenger.
I first encountered Toxie in my favorite place on earth, Video Spotlight, our local video store. In the days before the big chains, the place seemed to have a copy (though likely only a single copy) of every VHS tape ever released. The walls were lined with thousands of boxes, propped with Styrofoam blocks to keep their shape, just waiting to be taken to the front desk and traded for a brown clamshell case containing the actual cassette. It was in this glorious place that I spent hours of my childhood haunting the horror aisle, marveling at the terrifying cover art and occasionally sneaking a peek at the publicity photos on the back of the box, which felt like tasting forbidden fruit to my young mind.
The actual movies rarely lived up to the depraved scenes I made up in my mind based on these images, but I would not trade those experiences for anything. Then there were the cardboard standees that adorned the endcaps, my favorite of which was The Toxic Avenger with his mangled face and strong hands holding a mop in a heroic pose. It boasted the greatest tagline I had ever seen: “The First Superhero From New Jersey.” Being from the other side of the country, I had no idea what that meant, but it didn’t matter—it was awesome.
Somehow, I eventually convinced my parents to let me see not only the old Universal movies, which they had no problems with, but the more graphic ’80s fare. Eventually that included all the greats, The Toxic Avenger (1984) among them. As the years have gone by, I have discovered that Toxie has a lot more in common with my beloved Universal Monsters than I first realized. Along with a healthy dose of inspiration from Marvel superheroes like Spider-Man and The Hulk, Toxie specifically resembles three of the classic monsters most: The Wolf Man, The Phantom of the Opera, and above all the Frankenstein Monster. None of these characters choose to be a monster, or even to kill, but are driven to it by forces beyond their control. They just want to be loved and accepted for who they are. They are misunderstood, bullied, and pursued by powers bent on destroying them. In other words, they are all sympathetic, relatable characters.
In the original The Toxic Avenger, Melvin (Mark Torgl) is just trying to get by, working as a janitor at the Tromaville health club. He’s awkward, an outcast, certainly what we would call a nerd, and back in those days that was much less acceptable than it is today. Like is often the case in ’80s horror, he is the victim of a prank-gone-wrong and ends up in a barrel of toxic radioactive waste which turns him into The Toxic Avenger (Mitch Cohen). Now, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) from The Wolf Man (1941) is a pretty suave dude before his transformation, but like Toxie, that transformation is unwelcome and represents a massive change in his stage of life. The idea of the werewolf carries with it the subtext on the transition to adulthood. That’s right, it’s a puberty metaphor, which is explicitly stated in The Toxic Avenger when, as Melvin is undergoing his transformation, his mother remarks after hearing his deepened voice for the first time that he has finally hit puberty.
Also, like Larry Talbot, Toxie seems to have no control over his actions in certain situations. After saving a police officer from a group of gangsters early in the film, Toxie says “I don’t know what came over me. I just couldn’t control myself. I’ve never done anything like this before.” In the sequels, it is revealed that Toxie has biochemical agents in his blood called “Tromatauns” that are a bit like a cross between Peter Parker’s “Spidey-sense” and the out-of-control nature of The Wolf Man. He is driven not only to stop crime, but to tear criminals limb-from-limb in the most creatively violent ways possible, usually climaxing with stuffing mops in their mouths. After his outbursts abate, he generally returns to his docile, controlled self, and even lovable. The big difference between this and Larry Talbot is that Melvin remains in his monstrous form rather than returning to his previous state.
In this way he is more like The Phantom or the Frankenstein Monster, who always appear “monstrous.” He is most like The Phantom in the sense that, at least in the earliest days of his transformation and crime-fighting spree, Toxie stays in the shadows, making himself known only when absolutely necessary. He also makes a home for himself where he feels most comfortable. After being rejected by his mother, he creates a shack in the local toxic waste dump. This reminds me not only of The Phantom, but The Creature from the Black Lagoon. For a time, it seems he mostly just wants to be left alone to deal with his issues, though his Tromatauns force him to go into the world to fight crime.
Above all, Toxie has a great deal in common with the Frankenstein Monster. There are several plot elements from Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) that find their way into the original Toxic Avenger film series. As with Frankenstein, The Toxic Avenger even begins with a warning about the content of the film, but this is only the beginning. A key aspect of the Frankenstein mythos is that the Monster (Boris Karloff) is rejected by everyone, including his own family. Dr. Frankenstein (Colin Clive) is very much the Monster’s father, and the root of the trouble stems from his refusal to take any responsibility for his child. The same happens in The Toxic Avenger when Melvin’s mother (Sarabel Levinson), upon seeing his new form, runs screaming from him, forcing her son into the world on his own. Like the Monster, Melvin did not choose to exist in this form, and both are considered by the outside world to be hideous in appearance. That leads to a lonely life and a search for love and acceptance.
Like the Monster, Toxie eventually finds true companionship with a blind person who sees the goodness of his soul rather than any physical differences. In Bride of Frankenstein, the Monster befriends an unsighted hermit in the woods and the two come to depend upon each other. The hermit teaches him to talk, plays music for him, and above all accepts him as a friend. In The Toxic Avenger, Toxie befriends Sara (Andree Maranda), a woman he saves from a gang of thugs who hold up a fast food restaurant. He soon realizes that she is unsighted but as with the hermit, she finds much more beauty in Toxie than he can find in himself. Their relationship is the heart of the film and part of what makes it work as well as it does. In Bride of Frankenstein, the Monster and the hermit are unfortunately torn away from each other due to some hunters who fear the Monster, but happily, this is not the case with Toxie and Sara.
Another similarity between the Monster and Toxie occurs in The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989) when our hero is tempted away from his path by the chairman of the evil corporation Apocalypse, Inc. played by Rick Collins. This is not all that far removed from the Monster encountering rogue scientist Dr. Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger) in Bride, who becomes a new father figure to the Monster but leads him down a path of evil rather than good. In both cases these characters are very much like Mephistopheles in the Faust legend, the “man” who convinces Faust to sell his soul in exchange for great knowledge. In the case of the Chairman, he quite literally turns out to be the Devil and forces Toxie to undergo a series of challenges to save Tromaville and his own soul.
One other big similarity between the Monster, along with The Phantom and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, is the idea of class conflict. These classic monsters and Toxie represent the working classes who are oppressed by those in political and economic power. As with the earlier films, those in power, especially Mayor Belgoody (Pat Ryan) and his cronies, attempt to turn the people against what they see as a threat to their power and way of life. In the case of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) and Frankenstein, these powers are successful, and angry mobs pursue and overtake the perceived “monsters.” In the case of The Toxic Avenger, however, they are not successful. This is a welcome turn of events as the oppressed, who have been saved by Toxie, rally to his defense and good triumphs over evil.
This is the modern twist on the classics, which in most cases are the heirs of Shakespearian tragedy. The Toxic Avenger at last realizes that the true monsters are not the outcasts, the deformed, and those who merely have monstrous appearances, but those who have monstrous souls and actions. That is part of what makes the classic monsters and Toxie so continually compelling. Most of us can relate to being the outcast, the underdog, the bullied. Deep down, we know they are reflections of us. Toxie is part of a long line of horror stars and perhaps more than any other ’80s horror icon, is the true heir to the great classic monster heroes. And to me, they are heroes. Some of them even wear capes.
The Toxic Avenger returns to theaters with a brand new movie on August 29.
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