After years of being stuck in limbo, The Toxic Avenger finally made its way to theaters earlier this year and now, the critically acclaimed film is available on VOD on all platforms and is coming to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on October 28!
With the film now available to purchase, we recently caught up with writer-director Macon Blair (The Lowdown; Room 104; I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore) to talk about his long-awaited remake. He walks me through his initial pitch for the film, what lies at the heart of his feature, the highly detailed practical effects, what a sequel could look like, and a whole lot more!
The film stars Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones; Avengers: Infinity War), Kevin Bacon (Footloose; The Following), Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings; Wilfred), Taylour Paige (Zola; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Jacob Tremblay (Room; Wonder), and Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe; Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist).
The Toxic Avenger is now available on digital and comes to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on 10/28 from Cineverse.
Watch our full chat below and/or keep scrolling to read the full transcription. Plus, remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: What was your relationship to The Toxic Avenger before signing on—and how did this remake first land on your radar? Was it something you always knew you wanted to remake?
MACON: It never occurred to me that I needed to remake it. It never crossed my mind. But I saw the movie when I was in about sixth grade, and it was really inspirational and impactful at the time. Beyond it being hilarious and wild to watch, this was right around when my buddies and I got a VHS camera and started figuring out how to make our own movies. It felt homemade—like friends making a movie together and doing the makeup themselves. I didn’t realize it then, but it was independent filmmaking, and it was my first exposure to that. Years later, Legendary asked a bunch of writers to pitch on a remake, and I thought: if we do it, let’s take it back to those scrappy movies we made in seventh grade—but with a big studio behind it. That turned into a directing job and it went from there. It was really about recapturing the spirit we felt watching it as thirteen-year-olds.
ROHAN: You’ve called it “a sweet story underneath all the goopiness.” How did you balance that emotional father-son dynamic between Peter Dinklage and Jacob Tremblay with the outrageous gore and absurd humor?
MACON: The goal was to keep the tone of the original without repeating the exact story beats. So instead of him just trying to get a girlfriend like in the original, his emotional issue is about relating to his foster kid. On the page that made sense, but it’s surrounded by insane stuff—falling into toxic waste, getting muscles—lots of cartoonish chaos at the edges. The key was getting actors like Peter and Jacob, who played it totally straight, not like they were in a comedy. They treated it dramatically, and that gave everything a real emotional heart so the craziness around the periphery didn’t get too silly. I don’t think it would’ve worked without them doing that, and I’m very grateful for it.
ROHAN: You make great use of practical effects in this film, especially with Toxie's look and several other characters, including Elijah Wood's. How long did those designs take to realize and what was the application process on shoot days?
MACON: For Elijah’s look, the application was maybe an hour and a half, two hours—faster as we went. We did one or two design versions and settled quickly; I was after a kind of Rocky Horror Picture Show vibe, a little Danny DeVito as The Penguin energy. The early sketch is almost identical to what the makeup became, so that one was quick.
Toxie was the opposite—we did many versions. Some were extremely monstrous and zombie-like, with melting flesh and exposed…stuff—very gross. We went back to a more approachable version, borrowing from the cartoon and comic, a little from the original movie, and then we incorporated some of Peter’s facial features. We wanted a classic monster with enough humanity that people could be friends with him instead of terrified. That ended up being multiple facial pieces with motors, plus arms and legs. Early on it took about three hours; by the end they got it down to around two and a half. Pretty involved.
ROHAN: Have you thought about where a follow-up could go?
MACON: Oh, yeah—I’ve definitely thought about ideas. There have been no conversations and I don’t know of any plans right now, but if someone asked, I’ve got notions we kicked around while filming. Who knows?
ROHAN: I know the film had a little trouble finding distribution initially, was there something in the movie that was deemed too gnarly for audiences and had to be removed or was it something else?
MACON: To my knowledge there was no hang-up because it was “too gnarly.” It’s not that gnarly—the worst episode of Game of Thrones is more hardcore. I always treated it as a comedy; there’s a little blood, but it’s not meant to be a total gross-out. I wonder if, because Terrifier is with Cineverse, people assumed this would be the same level. It’s totally not. I suspect the delay was more about tone than gore—it’s different from what people expect, and it can be hard to market as crowd-pleasing. Cineverse saw it and recognized it is crowd-pleasing and could market it that way, which made them a great partner. But no—there wasn’t a “we can’t release this” situation. It’s a regular old R-movie.
When a downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze, is exposed to a catastrophic toxic accident, he’s transformed into a new kind of hero: The Toxic Avenger. Now, Toxie must rise from outcast to savior, taking on ruthless corporate overlords and corrupt forces who threaten his son, his friends, and his community. In a world where greed runs rampant… justice is best served radioactive.