TYTD Reviews

A random (but welcome!) pick up from the last ‘Vinegar Syndrome’ sale. Hard Rock Zombies is a WILD little horror comedy movie that’ll more than scratch your Troma-esq itch despite being a Cannon production.

The film follows a heavy rock group called Holy Moses, they’re in the middle of a tour across the US. But while winding down after a long gig, they’re visited by a mysterious girl called Cassie, who warns them to skip the next town on their tour, but wont say way.

Departing as quickly as she arrived the bands leader Jessie, is both dismissive of what Cassie says, but also captivated by her looks and nonchalant attitude to the band. So you better guarentee they’re going to that mysterious town. On the outskirts they’re met by a mysterious attractive hitchhiker, who offers to save the band and crew some cash and let them stay at her mansion abode, rather than pay for hotels.

The band basically go ‘…sexy lady?…yes.’ and before you know it we’re at a gated estate, and its clear almost immediately that something isnt right. The family that own the house are essentially ‘the family’ from ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Part 2’ with disfigured twisted dwarves, an elderly demented german couple and a mysterious Kojack looking so and so who constantly carries an axe with them…The band are concerned…but not enough to leave because…sexy lady.

So! they unpack and head into town. Where almost immediately one of the local residents tells them to leave IMMEDIATELY and the towns police force all but tell them that, one way or another, they wont be playing their concert tomorrow…Jessie also manages to catch up with Cassie, he tells her they’re still going ahead with the gig and they hope to debut a new song in her name. She continues to warn them to leave, but is very flattered all the same.

This of course leads us to the namesake of this film! as the family reveal themselves to not be what they seem! they are in fact, THE HITLERS! as in, the elderly old german man who owns the house is LITERALLY Adolf Hitler in hiding and the rest of the family are either ex-nazi’s that escaped the war, or offspring of the fuhrer.

They butcher the band slowly, one by one. Before revealing their plan to essentially ‘Gas’ the town…But it’s hard to keep a good rock band down, and if the band wanna rock, you better believe they’re going to rock, ressurecting themselves as Kiss based members of the undead, Holy Moses WILL perform their show…But they have some revenge to get in the mean time…

And, while I dont think this one was the ‘GREATEST’ thing on earth. I did have a lot of fun with it. the plots daft, it shoots off in several different directions. I could see this one pairing up very nicely with something like ‘Return of the Living Dead’ as a kind of ‘Comedy, Zombies and music’ double header.

While it lacks the aggression of ‘Return’, ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ does have a certain sense of mania about it, and isnt afraid to get gory if the need requires. The script is a little loose, but never really feels out of control. Its stiff to start, taking a good 20 minutes to really get going, but when it does finally put rubber to road, its an enjoyable ride that maintains a solid pace from that point onwards, delivering a finale that feels grand, even for a tiny budget and low resource.

Is it the most coherent script in the world? No. That’s kind of where the ‘Troma’ element comes in, as we have a TON of random nazi comedy bits, blood, gore, guts…nudity is actually one of the few things this film DOESNT do…and was kind of notable by its absence, given this is a film about 80s rockers…

Tonally it not quite as goofy as to be full on loony tunes, but its very light hearted in how it handles its subject, it seems to thrive on one liners and quick throwaway gags. While contrasting that with comedy gorey moments such as silly or over the top kills or dark humoured sarastic moments.

The cast are all a little under developed too, it would have been nice to get to better know the members of Holy Moses before their demise, as it might have actually made me care when they were bumped off. the surrounding town dont really get much in the way of character development either…Largely being relegated to a kind of…amalgous ‘we’re weird and dont like rock music’ grouping…it would have been nice to have had a bit more variety.

The act structurings a bit wobbly on this one in terms of signally an act change and actually implementing it, but around the start of the second act (around the time the band members start to slowly get picked off) it kind of finds its voice on how it wants to present itself, and from there if your willing to lower your IQ a little bit, its just a really silly little zombie movie.

The direction is fine enough, im not 100% sold on the directors choice to shoot everything overly dark in terms of exposure, it does mean quite a lot of the film is a bit low detail in terms of picture quality…which is a shame. But on the whole, there was clear thought put into how the tone of the humour should be shown on screen, and this vibe was clearly communicated to the cast as well, who arnt afraid to fully utilize the set space, or any props that happen to be to hand.

The cine is a little hit and miss for me personally, when it hits its well composed, utilizes clean lighting and rich and vivid colours and feels dynamic with plenty of micro-movement within the frame. When it misses, it looks drained of colour, flat profiled and felt pretty much lifeless.

The edit is a bit of a patchwork, in part because only the R-rated cut survived on film, with several gore shots (which DEFINITELY enhance the film) only being available from VHS…which does make some of the cuts within the film look a little uneven, as we transition from crisp, heavy grain 35mm film to upscaled 1080p VHS quality. beyond that, I also feel that B-roll is a little underutilized as well leading to long and slightly unweildy sequences that I think could have stood to have been beefed up just a little bit more.

The performances are almost all aiming for eccentric and overly camp. I cant say theres any particular standout performers here…Everyone seemingly understood the brief and chose to either play their characters as zany crazy manic people, or ‘the straight guy’ to the zany crazy manic people. They do a fine enough job with a good animation range…was their scope to go bigger with the performances more broadly? Absolutely. Will I chastise them for not? No. I think whats here is fine enough…I just think it could have been better.

And wrapping all this together we have a pretty solid score, it largely incidentl music and tracks from Holy Moses, and they really have a pretty decent sound with ‘Cassies song’ being a particualar highlight. It all works pretty well with the film and really helps bring it up tot he next level for me.

All in all? ‘Hard Rock Zombies’ has its flaws. But its also a lot of fun. I think it would thrive best as a double feature pairing with another movie (Its bundled together with ‘Slaughterhouse Rock’, but I could see this also pairing with something like ‘Hack O’lantern’, ‘Slumber Party Massacre 2’ or maybe even something like ‘Black Roses’) I think its a pretty solid B-movie choice.

On its own though? I think it would struggle to muster the enthusiasm required to carry it with a broad audience. But if your into cult cinema, Troma and the likes, or you just appreciate a silly low budget horror movie. and your with a few friends. I think you could do worse on a movie night than this. Its a solid choice in my opinion.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hard-rock-zombies/

A film I feel is a victim of ‘Hype’, I hadnt seen ‘The Monster Club’ before tonight. In fact, as far as im aware this didnt really get any kind of release in the UK…Which almost certainly contributed to this being a missed one for me. But! I know a lot of folks who did grow up watching it, who appreciated it and consider it a classic. And to those folks, I say ‘more power to you!’ Im glad you have a movie that brings you nostalgic joy! For me though? it sadly wasnt the case.

The film follows a group of preteens who are obsessed with horror and monster movies, who inadvetently end up getting pulled into a prophesized catastrophe. 100 years ago a group of monster hunter (led by Van Hellsing) were set to destroy an amulet that would have given the ‘classic’ monsters of the world (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and the Wolfman) an untold level of power. Unfortunately, they botched their mission and instead the monsters were banished to return every 100 years for a limited time to try again. Well, its 1987 and the monsters are ressurrected once again. Leading to ‘The Monster Squad’ forming to take down the beastly baddies!

The comparison to ‘The Goonies’ here is all but inevitable, but for me? the thing that kind of makes this film fall a bit flat is simply because I dont really know who the intended target audience is for it. This is an example of the old 80’s ‘PG’ which goes a LOT harder than the modern rating. And as such the language is a lot LOT harder than expected.

This is, in essence, a kids movie. But they drop homophobic slurs pretty regularly, theres some strong language (stopping just short of F-bombs) and strange extended sequences in which children and young teens Virginities are deeply analysed.

As such, I think most parents wouldnt want their kids to pre-teens to watch this, I think teens would just get annoyed that its a bit too babyish, and as an adult, I kind of struggled to stay interested purely because its a bit slow honestly.

The script has some real pacing issues, with the opening of the film being both slow and somewhat annoying as we go into painful detail setting up the characters, the 2nd act introduces the monsters, but…you dont really feel the historical ‘weight’ behind them, I mean, these are some of movies greatest horror icons for the time…and the film just kind of dumps them into the film without THAT much explanation, and then doesnt really do much to flesh them out either…And worse still. The monsters only have VERY minimal interaction with the present day. before leading to a 3rd act that feels like its finally found its feet, builds a good pace, but ends way too soon and abruptly.

Tonally, it feels like its trying to appeal to teeens strongest, it has a very base style humour that wasnt really for me (‘Wolfmans got Nards’) is probably the best part of this thing. The characters feel cribbed from other 80s movies and dont feel as fully fleshed out as characters, they feel very one note and largely seem to just shout gimmicky catchphrases every so often and little else.

I will say they do seem to manage to handle character growth fairly well here. but its rudamentary. they give 2-4 characters ONE thing thats going to change over the runtime. and then it does in a really bland and beige way…But the fundamentals of the characters pretty much stay the same.

While I think in terms of act structuring and overall pacing, they just about get it right (this is 82 minutes and I think that feel about right) its pacing within the acts is problematic to say the least, and really could have done with just…a bit more pep, and probably a bit more focus on the monsters truthfully.

On the other hand however, this is the first time we’ve seen all the ‘Universal’ era monsters on the screen at the same time, and the first time we’ve seen more than 2 sharing the same screen since the early 1950s. and they look INCREDIBLE. Honestly; this is some fantastic practical work in refreshing the Universal Monsters looks. and I think, barrig Dracula (who doesnt look nearly menacing enough for me) everyone else looks fantastic.

The direciton is creative, rock solid and has a clear and consise vision. Its a shame its applied to a somewhat lacklustre script. But I can see how this COULD have captivated audiences back in the day. The cine is sharp, well composed with plenty of B-roll to help bring the scenes to life. Colour work is consistent and really helps give the film a strong sense of self identity. and the lighting work is superb as well. Its all held together by a rock solid edit. I can accuse this film of having a less than steller script, thats seemingly more of an excuse to wheel out and refresh the ‘Universal Monster’s’. I CANT accuse it of skimping on the visuals. This is a VERY good looking movie.

The performances here are very hit and miss. The biggest problem for me? The Monster Squad themselves. Im not going to go into detail on the quality of the performances, because I dont really pick apart child actors, they’re still learning their craft. But what I will say is that realistically, it feels a bit crowded with there being upwards of between 5 and 7 members of the squad, especially when the script is so poor from a character depth perspective. Honestly, I think this could have been SO much better had the squad been 3 kids and a 4th interchangable character dropping in to help them battle the monsters.

Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert for my money probably would have been a solid pairing together in this. they both seem to get the lions share of the dialogue, they have a strong screen presence and seem to get the most distinct characters out of the lot.

Leonardo Cimino is also fantastic as the elderly ‘scary German man’ who helps the squad out in translating Van Hellsings journals. he has a real presence and transitions nicely across the runtime from being an intimidating figure to a very warm one.

The scores probably the best thing about the movie. it really has a nice atmosphere and the timings rock solid for JUST coming in EXACTLY when its needed.

But…Ultimately, I kind of struggled with this one. It didnt really give me enough to well and truely hook me, and while I really appreciated seeing the ‘Classic’ monsters out with a new lick of paint. the fact the core plot was so basic, and the tone and vibe was so skittish between being kind of fun and kind of offensive…it wasnt really for me.

I can absolutely appreciate it on a technical level. I think there are moments where the script really shines…But The tone pacing, basic plotting, performances and how the cast and monsters were utilized were just too underdone for me. Maybe a rewatch around Halloween could change my mind. but otherwise, this ones ‘Above Average’ by the skin of its teeth. thanks largely to its technical aspects.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-monster-squad/

Tom Greens absurdist masterpiece, ‘Freddy Got Fingered’ is everything as it is nothing, an hour and 27 minutes of everything that made Tom Greens ‘movement’ in the 90s as popular as it was, crystalized into an over the top, extreme screeching belch of a movie, that delivers intensity and rawness in what can only be described as a ‘freewheeling’ manner.

The plot, follows Gordy (played by Green) an aspiring animator who wants to sell his cartoons to Hollywood. After getting turned down by an exec. Gordy returns home to unhappy parents who want him to stop the nonsense and just get a job and get on like the rest of the family. Gordy however is completely unable AND unwilling to fit into society’s mold, and this sets off a series of events that will see Gordy swing a baby over his head by its umbillical chord, wear a ‘cheese helmet’, break his best firends leg on a skate ramp, and accuse his own father of molesting his 20-something younger brother ‘Freddy’.

To me? this is a film you have to be in a VERY specific mindset to enjoy. If your not in that headspace, this is a screeching fever dream of a movie that will probably make you loath the 90s and early 2000s as a cultural movement with every fiber of your being. If you ARE in the headspace for something completely incoherent and rambly however, there is quite litereally NO other kind of movie out there that will scratch that itch quite like ‘Freddy Got Fingered’.

The scripts plot is ultra basic, it goes exactly the way you’d expect it to go, and you can tell that from around 10 minutes in based on the tone of the film alone. With this film however, the main plot isnt the reason to tune in, its the journey Gordy goes on to get from point A to point B thats the real meal ticket here.

Greens manic energy is pulsing through this script and its totally breakneck pace and tone means you will NOT get even a second to catch you breath before we’re onto another totally rediculous and over the top sequence that’ll likely have your jaw somewhere between your collar bone and the floor.

The direction and cine are fine, this is a studio picture. I got no complaints on my end.

This is a fantastic turn for Rip Torn, who seems to be having the time of his life here, and Green seems to be almost fully enjoying creating film that seemingly exists purely to screw with hollywood executives and the film critic community at large. I almost admire the sheer gaul of Green to take 14 million dollars and produce such a bizarre piece of ‘anti-cinema’

Oh, and the score for this thing? is easily one of the best scores of the 2000’s. full of rich punk deep cuts. I really had a soft spot for this one.

What IS shocking is the fact this film is currently trapped on VHS and a 2002/03 DVD release. This ACHES for a proper Bluray or 4k release. With its recent drop on the Criterion channel, I sincerely hope more people find this film and that it gets the HD remaster that it so desperately deserves.

Funny, quotable and, when viewed in the right conditions, PERFECT ‘watch with friends’ fodder. I have a soft spot for ‘Freddy Got Fingered’ its imperfectly perfect, and while I cant say this is a regular watch for me. it IS a film that does what it does like no other film can.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/freddy-got-fingered/

The first time I caught ‘Skip Tracer’ I wasnt really in the right headspace to appreciate what it was trying to do. Now a year or two on from my first viewing, Part of it was my own fault, I went into this thinking it was going to be a bit more of a charismatically bleak piece (Ala ‘Withnail & I’) only to find it to be an incredibly nihilistic picture, with punctuations of hope and positivity.

Tonight, I was finally in the right headspace to sit down and take it all in properly, and while Im still not 100% confident I nailed EVERY aspect of what this film was trying to do and say (which IS a good thing, I’d rather a film with multiple layers of complexity over a base level picture when it comes to this kind of tone and subject) What I was able to process, was really quite incredible given the scope and budget.

The film follows John Collins, a ‘Skip Tracer’ (basically a hardened repo man/baliff) who uses intimidation tactics and stop just short of violence (some do cross that line) in order to recover acrude debt thats been given to folks via the company used to recover the debt.

The film opens with John putting a ‘For Sale’ sign up at the home of George Petigrew. a man deep in debt with a wife and kids who are struggling badly, they beg for more time, but John tells them straight that its not him asking for the money, its the company.

Johns a ruthless character, he’s won ‘Man of the year’ at the company for 3 years and he’s not far off winning it for a 4th. This is acknowledged by Brent, a new starter to the business whos just…TOO nice for the job, and so in an attempt to harden up, he cozies up to John asking if he can shadow him and support on jobs in order to learn from the master.

John tells him up front ‘No.’ but Brents persistent, eventually to try and shake him, John sets Brent up to run the jobs he doesnt want to do (I.E the ones where he’s most likely to get filthy, or beaten to within an inch of his life) But Brent doesnt use intimidation, he uses kindness…and it somehow seems to work more than being cold to the clients. Johns confused by this and begins to question how Brent even got into the job in the first place.

Problems slowly start to creep in however, John has a couple of mistakes happen on the job that prevent him making a claim, and a message from upper management, curious about ‘how dedicated John is to his job’ results in John losing his private office and being forced to work on the floor with all the other agents working low level cases. Johns Boss Henry tells him he needs to beat last years record, and if he does, he’ll get his office back.

But things slowly start to go even further off the rails when word gets to John that Petigrew is slowly breaking down due to stress and that he’s taking it out on the wife and kids. Brent continues to open up Johns thoughts to life beyond the business and after a chance encounter with a (possibly) hired thug resulting in a stabbing that puts John in the hospital, he begins to evaluate his life and where he’s heading if he stays in this business.

I really fell in love with this picture on this rewatch truthfully, It should be noted that its a VERY slow burn for 94 minutes long. But its a slow burn thats rewarding, doesnt baby the audience and works a satisfying range of thoughts and feelings that really does give it a strong rewatch value.

As mentioned, the script takes its time here, but the pacing rarely if ever drops. its consistently pushing forward the narrative themes and ideas right across the runtime. Its a film that deals largely with themes of humanity, life and moral values, as John really struggles with the idea of whether this industry really truely is for him. When we join John he’s closed off from the world, he’s shut himself down to deal with the trauma he has to deal with on a day to day basis to keep his numbers up.

But the introduction of Brent and veteran Skip Tracer ‘Leo’ really introduce that definition that takes the script to the next level. With Brent bringing the element of ‘fresh facedness’ an offer of hope, possibility and life beyond the graft. and Leo offering the other side of the coin, a cold, fully shut down, stuck in his ways, self described ‘Asshole’ who’s so deep into the life he’s made, he feels nothing but whatever it takes to get him to the next gig. He’s considered ‘one of the best’ But this leads John to begin questioning ‘At What Cost’

And I think they handle those themes expertly here, particularly in the 3rd act when those feelings really begin to boil over and a particularly nasty exchange near the end of the film is a total rug pull for the audience, and from that point onwards, you know exactly what John needs to do.

The act structurings a little slack, I think the first act overruns slightly and the 2nd act underruns a bit. But on the whole its solid. the act changes are a little too overt for my taste. I think a few more unexpected surprises to help better mask the shifts in tone would have helped smooth things over a little better…but thats a minor issue, if any honestly.

The characters are all wonderfully crafted, multi layered compelx and naturalistic believable roles. The director had previously had experience working with his father in selling life insurance and a lot of the influence from working in that field was transplanted into this film. It feels like a real world, it feels like these events COULD (and no doubt DID) happen in one form or another.

and only enhancing that still is some superb dialogue which feels very naturalistic. doesnt drown the atmosphere of the picture, is select, poigniant and brings with it a level of charm and bleakness that really helped keep the pace up when the slow burn started getting a little too slow.

The direction here is pretty rock solid too, if im being honest I dont *quite* feel like this is something revolutionary. But given this was Director Zale Dalen’s first feature production. Im honestly quite impressed, as most experienced directors fail to hit this level of quality consistently.

While theres not much in the way of creative experimentation, shots clearly had a lot of creative thought put into them, and given this was a fairly light crew, it only makes how professional this production looks and feels, feel that much more unique and special.

Direction of the cast really is a winning point here, with clear communication, there isnt a WHOLE lot of folks to physically do in this picture, but its clear strong conversations were had around how best to deliver dialogue, and there was clearly some slack around improvising with set space and props. Which the cast run with, again really helping to sell this world and being realistic and naturalistic.

Performance wise, David Petersen gives the performance of a career here as John, a transformative act, he works a FULL range across the runtime, and seemingly does the impossible, making a deeply unlikable character utterly watchable through a full redemption arc. he brings a subtle, but perfectly timed performance to proceedings and I honestly dont think anyone could have bettered him on this one truthfully.

Rudy Szabo as Leo is also excellent, he doesnt get that much screen time, but every scene he was in, he FULLY pulls you in with just a TOTALLY uncomfortable level of slime and sleaze. He’s playing a man long past caring and he really gets to the heart of the role, fully convincing you that there is NOTHING behind the eyes of this character by the third act.

The rest of the cast are also pretty rock solid (no complaints from me) in fact, the biggest flaw I think I have for the whole film is probably in its soundtrack. and even then its not THAT big of an issue. But basically, for this film, they’ve chosen to go for a pretty minimalist score. its pretty much one of two sounds, a really cheap synthesizer playing basic melodies. or a drum, bassey synth combo leading a percussive range.

For the most part, its used well. Punctuating key scenes as required. It works and I quite enjoyed it. But there are just a few moments across the runtime where that high pitched warbling synth really makes its presence known a little too hard, and it really kind of threw me, because the films so well handled in almost every other regard, to see it then jump to the kind of music that only really existed in direct to video self help guides in the late 80s…was a bit odd.

All in all, I highly recommend ‘Skip Tracer’ particularly if your a fan of bleak character driven drama pieces such as ‘Midnight Cowboy’ or ‘Taxi Driver’ while not 1:1 with the those films, tonally they share similar grounds. and given its VERY clear how much passion and heart went into this production. I frankly feel like the more people who can see it the better.

[Skip Tracer is available via ‘Gold Ninja Video’ and if you are going to check this out, I highly recommend going for that release, as it includes two different cuts of the film plus a TON of extras that are all really quite wonderful]

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/skip-tracer/1/

Just…go read my ‘Camp Blood 4’ review again…because that’s basically all this movie is. Rejigged footage of ‘Camp Blood 4’ intercut with about 15 minutes of new footage of Raven ‘post Camp blood 4’ talking to her therapist and watching TV with her friend, which gives Dustin Ferfuson an excuse to show 20 minutes of ‘Thingz’ and ‘Meathook Massacre’

There’s about 10 minutes ringfenced for a conclusion that makes NO sense and answers nothing.

This really is truely the pits. Below the pits. This is pure cinematic tar.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/camp-blood-5/

The final entry in ‘The Toxic Avenger’ franchise (well…until the new one finds distribution) was a bit of a scattershot ride for me to say the least, After ‘Toxic Avenger: Part 3’ failed to do the numbers, the franchise went dormant for the better part of just over 10 years. But then, at the turn of the milennium. Lloyd Kaufman decided to try again to bring New Jerseys lone superhero son back to the big screen…and the results? Well, they’re not so good.

For a starters, the film opens by slamming the previous two entries in the franchise, announcing that they ‘dont count’ at this point and that ‘Part 4’ is now the OFFICIAL sequel to the original ‘Toxic Avenger’…Which…I dont mind so much…But then they spend a huge chunk of this film re-introducing elements (such as Tromatons) back into the series…

The other thing to prepare yourself for, is a distinct change in the approach to the way these movies were (and still are) made. Y’see, up until the mid 90s Troma movies main goal was (seemingly) to bring cartoon level violence and humour into live action scenarios complete with all the real world gore that would inevitably follow it.

But at some point around 1995/1996. Attitudes changed, and a shift took place AWAY from making films that were absurd first, and offensive second (the idea being that these productions were too cartoony, crazy and absurd to ever really TRUELY be taken seriously when they did offensive things) to instead riding on a wave of ‘anti PC’ humour.

In short; from the mid 90s to the present day, rather than anti PC rhetoric being a more casual played down byproduct of the absurdity of a Troma film filled with aggressive characters and tones…It became THE drive of Tromas films…and thats important to differentiate, because a film casually dropping racial slurs when its firing a hundred jokes a minute and its CLEARLY not using those racial slurs or rhetoric as THE main drive of a joke CAN sometimes be funny…But a film where the central joke is picking on minorities and just shouting slurs over and over again, apart from being lazy and annoying is in fact NOT funny (not in my opinion anyway.)

I mention this because a core central element to ‘The Toxic Avenger 4: Citizen Toxie’ is predominantly the abuse and slurring of people with physical, mental and learning disorders. In fact…MOST of the film is spent with actors pretending to have learning difficulties, twitching, putting on ‘voices’ and HARD leaning into stereotypes.

The film basically RELIES on this, alongside gags involving actors in ‘Blackface’, racial and homophobic slurs, and graphic toilet humour to get by. Which, to me at least pretty much instantly made it one of THE most offputting things to try and work through in quite a long time.

The basic plot is that a local gang called ‘The Baby Mafia’ infiltrate a School for ‘special’ children, giving the police 30 minutes to meet there demands or they’ll kill a student, and then every 5 minutes AFTER that, they’ll kill one more student. Eventually; Toxie and his faithful asstant ‘Lard Ass’ (a morbidly obese man who fights with a baguette and ‘lard spray’) tackle the mafia, but in doing so a wave of children end up murdered and the Baby Mafia activate a bomb, killing Lard Ass, but…As luck would have it, at the exact same time in a parallel dimension, a bomb was set off at the exact same location at the exact same time. causing a rift in space time that forces two Toxies to swap universes. Toxie ends up in an evil version of Tromaville called ‘Amortville’ and his doppelganger, the evil ‘Noxious Offender’ is sent to Tromaville.

The pair eventually realise whats going on and while Toxie tries to clean up ‘Amortville’ and make his way back to his own dimension, ‘Noxie’ actually kind of likes Tromaville, and decides it’s going to be his new place to cause carnage and sow chaos…Oh! and theres a B plot where Toxies girlfriend (who for some reason is now called ‘Sarah’) is trying for a Baby with Toxie, but ‘Noxie’ finds out and sets about impregnating Sarah with his evil demon baby seed…So yeh, if your sensitive to SA and rape content…be aware that this things also CHOCKED full of SA and rape jokes AS WELL AS actual scenes of SA and rape…

The first time I watched this, I remembered actively hating it. LOATHING the fact that they essentially turned a daft, shocking but ultimately charming series of films into edgelord fodder for seemingly no reason. On this rewatch, my opinion softened on it a little bit, but my main thoughts still remain the same.

The script is simultaineously lazy in the sense that its just a load of nonsequiters *occasionally* tied together by a very thin plot device and propped up with an ungodly amount of racist, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist bollocks. but then equally it gets overly complex when its trying to deal with multiple universes…To the point that it really kind of stops making sense…But the thing is, I dont think that was intentional, I dont think Lloyd and his writing team were trying to satarize ‘sliding doors’ style movies here…I think they just didnt really take the time to BOTHER hashing out a movie that would at least TRY to hold together…

The pacings all over the place, at an hour and 40, this thing DRAGS so bad. Tonally its trying to recapture the aggression of the first Toxie…But because it cant quite nail the absurdist humour of the first film, it just comes across as an angry movie that using humour to mask how angry it is, rather than a funny movie thats using anger as a mask to amuse.

The act structuring is more or less non existent, the characters are all stereotypes or charicatures…and not good ones. the dialogue has the odd moment that made me gaffaw…but those moments were well and truely few and far between…

Its a script that feels rough, unfinished and most importantly, it just isnt that fun. most of it is quite mean spirited and the handful of times it does manage to capture the energy of the first film, its very fleeting and feels almost of of place amongst the rest of the film.

On the direction front, we’re once again having to deal with stock footage on and off to get by, Kaufmans work here is consistent, but feels phoned in. Given they took over 10 years off from Toxie, you’d think they’d be coming back with an appitite, but that doesnt translate on screen. Theres no consistent vision. its chaos, but not the kind of organized chaos that shows thought and craft went into the production. Its chaos in the sense that it feels like everyone was handed a camera and told to ‘have at it.’

And thats not mentioning the cheapness of the whole thing, almost every aspect of the set design and direction within the locations feels cheaper. most of the signs on buildings are just written on pieces of paper. Toxies makeup has been downgraded to just a generic halloween mask, and the recent 4k remaster makes it PAINFULLY clear that it wasnt even moulded for the actors head. as his mouth doesnt really fit the moutpiece of the mask leaving random flaps between his face and the latex.

The handful of times it DOES feel like a budget was present, they kind of ruin it with an inconsistent edit, that has WAY too many cuts going on for its own good, is overly busy and generally feels a bit lost in itself. There were moments watching this that I had to stop and try and take stock of what was ACTUALLY going on onscreen, because it was cutting to things for LITERAL seconds, then cutting away.

The cine isnt great either, theres a lot of handheld work, it feels rough and rushed. But not in the frenetic way that made the original ‘Toxic Avenger’ feel like something anarchic and new, in a way that makes it feel like they hadnt planned out the scene, so they just decided to free hand it and wing it.

composition is messy, vision isnt great and the edit really suffers as a result, with inconsistent shot variety, everything feels like it was assembled via blender…and the end product really didnt do it for me.

Throw in some weird performance stylings. Folks here are either angry without being funny, or are comedic without any other kind of personality type to offset the comedy…meaning they’re either irritating or migraine inducing. Again; sometimes the film does have its moments and Clyde Lewis as the voice of Toxie is probably the best thing about this film. Hes decided to voice the character in the same way Adam Wests Batman delivered lines. He plays it more or less totally straight and in doing so, he makes some of the deliveries here genuinely hilarious.

I suppose honestly, the best thing about this film (easily) is the score. Which is 90s and very early 2000’s style pop punk and a real shake up to the synthy stuff we’ve had in the previous films. Theres some genuinely great tracks on the soundtrack for this one, and while Im really not a big fan of the film itself, the OST is one i’d really quite like to get my hands on.

‘Citizen Toxie’ was quite a dissapointing watch for me. I didnt exactly have high hopes for it after ‘Part 3’ but I’d at least hoped that Kaufman and Hertz maybe would have used the 11 or so years gap to try and plan a future for the series…Instead, this comes across as rushed, insincere and offensive in a way that isnt funny, its just depressing…Its overly long, boring in places and never quite manages to hit the ‘Troma’ mark that made some of their other more notable works successful.

I could see myself revisiting this one again in future. But I really cant recommend it unless you’re doing a marathon of all these films. the first 2 films are really all you need.

(Additional: the 4k remastering for this one is night and day over the old Bluray release. its the best this films looked on a home release…but again, given the content. While it looks incredible, it isnt enough to warrent ACTUALLY sitting through it.)

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/citizen-toxie-the-toxic-avenger-iv/

‘The Toxic Avenger: Part 3 – The Last Temptation of Toxie’ Really is the beginning of the downfall of the franchise for me honestly, the moment that things quickly and sharply started going downhill. and the only thought that really ran through my mind through all of this is ‘Wow…this is actually pretty boring.’ Which is astounding given this series only one entry prior was turning people into ramen bowls and two entries prior was gorily running over children.

The plot? things more or less pick up shortly after the events of ‘Toxie: Part 2’ With ‘Apocalypse Inc.’ banished and Tromaville back on the straight and narrow, things are looking up! with Tromaville turning into one of the most crime free and pleasent places in New Jersey to visit…In fact, Toxie has done his job TOO well…theres no crime to fight, and what was (at best) a ‘making ends meet’ job as a superhero has all but dried up. Leading him to commit the ultimate in moral degridation…He has to work for the tax office.

However, a thread of hope arrives in the mail when Toxie’s fiance Claire gets an offer for elective advanced laser surgery that could entirely cure her blindness. However, theres a catch…the operation costs $375,000. Obviously they cant afford it, and Toxie begins to question his life choices, is he the right person for Claire?, or his he still just some dweeby mop boy deep down. Haunted by nightmares in which he’s mocked by his dweeby ‘inner’ melvin. He eventually recieves an offer of work from a mysterious company…they offer him the full 375 grand up front, and in exchange all Toxie has to do is advocate for the company and run a few business deals.

However, the company is non other than ‘Apocalypse inc.’ and part of their contract means that Toxie is legally bound to follow their orders in perpetuity and that Toxie must ‘Worship’ the companies owner…Toxie mishears ‘Worship me’ as ‘Work for me’ and signs immediately, granting Claire sight…and turning Toxie into the poster boy for a city wise chemical dumping scheme AND transforming him into the worst kind of monster of all…a YUPPIE.

What I will say is that this film does open strong with a pretty nice couple of scenes featuring some muggers trying to rob and intimidate a video store filled with ONLY troma tapes (I had to chuckle at the muggers threats to restock the video store with ‘top 20 bestsellers’ which made the store customers shriek in horror.)

Unfortuantely for me, that was probably the best of the film…and it all happens in the first 10-15 minutes or so. The rest of the film is just a pretty flat plotline about Toxie being seduced by money and power into doing bad things. They start to become really picky with what ‘Lore’ to follow in this edition, which…I know Lloyd Kaufman isnt exactly a shining beacon of ‘preserving contiunuity’. But you cant base your entire last film around ‘Tromatons’ driving Toxies moral compass and causing him to beast out when evil is afoot…then in this film have him spend MOST of the movie with bad guys, but not even get an inkling.

The film clocks in again at almost an hour and 45…and while last time I could just about manage that because things were so high energy and it still had a real tone and feeling of being snarkily self aware. But this entry is much more reliant on stock footage from the previous two films and spends a good chunk of the runtime going round in circles and things pretty much collapse into just…’showing unrelated scenes one after another’ by the time we get to the third act… This film pretty much tonally shifts us even FURTHER into comedy and away from graphic horror. To the point that we’re now pretty fully into ‘Bad Comedy’ terratory for most of the runtime.

I can handle some bad comedy, but this ones kind of triple bluffed itself into a situation where its a anarchic, snarky and acidic franchise, parodying a parable and the whole Yuppie/Clean living movement…But because it gets SO engrossed in the detail of its parody…it pretty much just ends up BECOMING the thing its trying to parody…only with more gunge and softcore thrown into the mix.

There also doesnt seem to be that much of interest going on in the film, bearing in mind the first film had high speed car chases and visceral gore, the second had extravigant locations and unique comedic kills…this film, at most; has a few interesting ‘dream sequence’ effects, a couple of interesting transformation effects, and a shot of a school bus going off a cliff in a quarry…thats about it, which is quite the step down from the last couple of films.

Add to that, that the characters arnt particularly engaging here. Toxie doesnt really get any particularly great lines, the Apocalypse Inc. folks are all pretty muted throughout…

In fact, I think thats this films biggest problem, its not chaotic enough, theres no bite here, no hunger to really truely do ANYTHING with these characters…the vibe I get from this film is that it was made almost out of obligation, because the last film went down well and they thought they should strike while the irons hot. Unfortunately; this wasnt the kind of story I imagine most folks had in mind.

That being said, outside of the script, the direction and cine are easily on par with the last film, the quality is there given the budget…though obviously; given that the majority of the film is set in Tromaville, it means we’re not QUITE as well off as the last film which shot extensively in Japan…I appreciate that they maintained visual continuity between the two films though, this one may not have much interesting to say, but it still looks really nice and isnt TOO big of a departure visually from the last film (Believe me, we go into freefall on that front with ‘Toxie 4’…)

The performances arnt particularly great in this entry…everyone seems massively toned down from last time. all that aggression and mania has basically been replaced with comedy and screwball characters playing on stereotypes…everyones still kind of goofy and doing what they can to make their roles interesting. But this is not Tromas finest hour (and thats SAYING something)

All in all, I dont think ‘Toxie 3’ is inherently a bad idea…But I do think it was poorly executed. a lukewarm script and an unenthusiastic cast and scope basically hobble any chance this thing had of really properly trying to land a good impression. While this film absolutely has good moments, its too slow paced, overlong and the tone is now trying WAY too hard to be funny…to actually be funny or engaging.

Not one I can recommend. I think if you’ve watched Toxie 1 and 2, doing 3 probably wouldnt hurt. But I cant honestly envision myself actively watching 3 on its own…

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-toxic-avenger-part-iii-the-last-temptation-of-toxie/

5 Years after the original ‘Toxic Avenger’ tore through cinema screens with its distinctive snark, excessive gore and manic titlation, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz returned to screens with a second heaped helping of ‘Traumatic Toxie Terror’ in ‘The Toxic Avenger Part 2’ A film that, in my opinion was *PAINFULLY* close to surpassing the original. But just falls short of the mark.

The plot opens a few years after the original film and establishes that, since Toxie has been on the scene, crime in Tromaville pretty much no longer exists. Instead all the criminals have either been killed or forced out of the city to do there business elsewhere. But all thats about to change, as we follow a company called ‘Apocalypse inc.’ as they attempt one of the most fiendish plans that Tromaville has experienced up to this point. They wish to buy up all the vacant lots within Troma and turn them purely into chemical and radioactive dumping sites. Witht ultimate goal being to own enough of Tromaville, that they can basically just invade the bits that ARNT theres and reduce the entire town to radioactive rubble.

Of Course, Toxie is dead against this and fights off an initial take over of a ‘home for the blind’. When Apocalypse Inc. boardmembers get wind that Tromaville is protected, they plan to take Toxie out of the picture by getting his freaudian psychiatrist to convince him he needs to go and find his father (Big Mac). After asking around, its revealed that ‘Big Mac’ is currently living in Japan, and so; Toxie takes up a windsail and travels abroad trying to rekindle his relationship with his dad.

And on landing; as you can imagine, the chaos pretty much continues, as its pretty quickly revealed that Toxie is now living with a lifelong ailment caused by ‘Tromatons’ an element that surrounds evil-doers which, when Toxie is exposed to, causes him to blindly turn into an active killing machine until the evil is defeated (as you can imagine. Japanese street gangs are on the menu).

While on the other side of the pond, Apocalypse inc. waste no time in sending there agents into Tromaville to seize assets and wreck up the place. With the aim being to dissassemble Tromaville as quickly as possible.

And, realistically; pretty much every aspect of the production here has had a HUGE upgrade over the original film.

The script eases off the aggressive streak that was a heavy influence in the original, and instead leans way more into conventional comedy. Don’t get me wrong, the nastiness and excessive gore is still there. But its played more comedically and cartoony than in the previous film where it could actually get really quite dark in places. In some ways I really like the tonal change as it makes the film much easier to digest. But at the same time, that lean into comedy does come with some issues, chiefly that some of the comedy is just plain rubbish for lack of a better descriptor.

The pacing is incredibly nippy, wasting no time in getting us back into the action after a prolonged absence, that high force energy is still raring away under the hood and its nice to see the utterly boundless mania that this film is STILL able to produce given just how hard the first film pushed in getting ‘everything and the kitchen sink’ into the final production.

However, I will also say that towards the back end, basically from the 2nd half of the 2nd act. Things do start losing momentum a little bit, mercifully; it winds up before things get problematic on that front. but it feels a bit like they didnt quite know how to end this one, or that the ending they had planned didnt translate quite as effectively as they’d hoped to screen…So they just quickly threw something together and stapled it onto the end of the script. Its not a terrible ending, but it does feel rushed.

It also doesnt help that this is the longest ‘Toxie’ film clocking in at just shy of an hour and 45 minutes long. Which this film absolutely didnt need. it could easily shed 15 minutes and would have felt a lot more solid as a result.

I also feel that the script seems a bit unsure of what to do with Tromaville in this instance, with Toxie away, a lot of the characters we were introduced to in the first film, who’ve come back for the sequel, seemingly are only there to be terrorized on screen on and off for collectively about 10-15 minutes. Which is a bit of a shame as, at that point Tromaville was still really only just beginning to be properly documented and it would have been interesting to get a bit more of a sense of the towns history.

Outside of these points however the scripts still as razor as ever with quick witted hyjinx, low brow humour, guts, gore and nudity all present and accounted for. But now the production actually has a bit of a bigger budget, its enabled bigger set pieces, grander ideas and more over the top fight scenes than the last entry. I think this one (in my opinion) is more fun than the first one, but I do think it kind of lacks the total and utter conviction and rawness that the original had.

The direction here has also had a big boost across the board. Japans a fairly iconic location for a monster movie, and Kaufman and the Troma team capitalize on that ten fold, really brining the spirit of Japan to this film in a big way. Again much like the first film theres endless opportunities for creative and experimental visualizations, and Kaufman and Hertz really grab every opportunity they’re given here and go for it.

But beyond that, the enhanced budget has also enabled a larger crew, meaning scenes are now better lit, have better quality sound, and much MUCH higher quality film stock. It results in some of the best moments in the ‘Toxic Avenger’ franchise and some of the cleanest nicest looking visuals Troma have ever produced. ts clear everyone involved in this knew EXACTLY what they were getting into and they really deliver on the brief.

Same goes for direction of the cast too, with a format established in the original, this film uses that film as a template to demonstrate the madness in action and the crew have clearly worked VERY hard with the cast to try and capture that sense of aggressive mania that the first film had. Which I think they largely successfully manage. As mentioned they do tone back the aggression a bit (the first film felt like the cast members were about to anurism at any minute) but this scaling back I think actually makes the film a bit more accessable, as its aiming more for laughs than shock.

The cine is crisp, clean and the bigger budget means we have MUCH more scope for creative scene building. that rough and ready pop punk edge of the first film has been really cleaned up. and the end results are a film that still feels pretty anarchic, but better structured, better presented and better managed. the edits a bit more typical of a studio picture, which I think is another aspect that effects the pacing unfortunately, but its clear to see that, at this point in time Troma considered ‘Toxie’ to be their flagship product, and they really wanted to put a lot of time and care into shoring up and solidifying his 2nd ever appearence.

As for the performances? my thoughts are about the same as the original. we have a really unique over the top hyper campy energy present throughout. its a little more reserved than the first film. But that kind of makes it a bit funnier in my opinion. Though, a knock on effect of that really is non fo the villains truely feel *properly* demented in the same way the villains in the first one did…That and we’re dealing with a much MUCH larger active cast in this than the first film too. So its really kind of a miracle the end product was as solid, crazy and enjoyable as it is.

All of this is tied up with a ROCK solid score that leans more into Pop, Rock and J-pop style synth work, It sounds a lot more unique to this franchise than the original films score (which I felt was a little generic) and I think its used very effectively throughout. not being overused, and punctuating key moments perfectly. The sound quality of the on set audio also seems to have had a big boost thanks to the increased budget. so, its nice to have crystal clear clairty on people screeching and screaming their heads off truthfully.

‘The Toxic Avenger: Part 2’ is a personal favourite of mine, a big daft silly epic that takes the off the wall acidic framework of the original, and dials up the silly. and I really find it quite endearing for that. Its hard to be truely shocked by a work, when its so self depricating and creative in what its trying to do, I think its a quite wonderful comfort watch.

Unfortunatley, by a VERY thin margin, I feel it just misses out on topping the original. if it had been just a tiny bit shorter, a tiny bit more gory and the 2nd act a tiny bit tighter. This would be my overall favourite. As it stands, its a ruddy good sequel. and one that I can definitely recommend.

(Additional: checking out the 4k vs the original Bluray release on this one was astounding. much like the first film, it feels like several layers of murk have been lifted off this edition. The bluray release was overly dark and desaturated. They seem to have corrected this issue for the 4k release and its now vivid, the film stock is crisp with a good mid-level grain, its easily the best this film has looked outside of cinemas and its jam packed with both ported and new features. it was MORE than worth the price I paid for it.)

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-toxic-avenger-part-ii/

I ‘d been holding off revisiting ‘The Toxic Avenger’ films for a while now; ever since it was announced that Troma and Vinegar Syndrome were working together to remaster all 4 movies in 4k. I previously owned the movies on the old 88 films bluray releases, and thought the picture quality was fine enough. But the opportunity to see these films re-graded to restore them back to the original visions Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Hertz had for them when they were all respectively released, alongside seeing them all get a pretty decent resolution upgrade, was just too big of a pull for me not to try and nab the set. And; after a chance run in with a pretty decent price drop (I managed to grab the set for £57) I can say that this is an upgrade definitely worth grabbing.

The film follows the titular ‘Toxic Avenger’ formally a painfully awkward, weedy janitor by the name of Melvin. Melvin cleans the ‘Tromaville Gym’ Tromaville itself is known as the world biggest provider of land to dump nuclear waste, and the radioactive materials appears to have taken its toll on the towns population, with insane punks, lawless perverts and octuple XL size mayors running the town into the sewer.

When a group of punks try to pull a cruel prank on Melvin, things go too far and Melvin ends up plunged into a barrel of toxic waste which transforms him into mucle bound, mop mauling hero we all know and love. At first, his mission is vengence on the bullies who pranked him, but eventually, he finds love, settles down and decides to take on the corrupt injustices of the world.

And This films frankly just SUCH a wonderfully silly slab of counterculture work. I find it really quite hard to dislike it. It has enough of a budget that they can do fun and cool things like set multiple people on fire, collapse old buildings and rent army vehicals and hold high speed car chases. but at the same time the budgets so low that most of the cast are family and friends of troma, and a lot of the film has to take place outdoors because…sets are expensive y’know?

The scripts ultra light, acidic and brimming with a pop punk sensibility. Later era Troma movies would trade purely on ‘Anti PC’ monikers and an attitude that basically amounted to ‘doing gross or graphic stuff = eyes on the film. So do that at all costs.’ This film does have some questionable moments (racial slurs, homophobia and some anti trans rhetoric) but the things SO intensly unserious, and SO utterly goofy. it kind of lands itself in the same pot as ‘The Evil Dead’ where, realistically Its too daft to ever really be taken as an intent of malice or controversy. Its the equivilent of a rambling mad man, it doesnt MEAN anything its saying, the film doesnt really MEAN anything broadly speaking…it simply presents us with a LOT of very disturbing, hypersexual, hypermanic characters and lets the plot figure the rest out.

The pacing is largely breakneck throughout the whole thing, though it does start to slow down a little bit in the 3rd act…Mercifully, just as it starts slowing down, the film itself starts wrapping up…So its not like we’re stuck with the movie for any prolonged period of time. The act structuring is clean, clear and fairly effortless. Tonally; this things insane. running on a constant hypermanic energy and just…CONSTANTLY throwing the audience curveballs via eccentric characters, ultra gory and unexpected scenarios or if all else fails, it’ll just randomly start blowing things up.

The dialogue is DRIPPING with dark humour, aggrivation and spite. its a very quotable film that’s a bit of a ‘lightning in a bottle’ type situation, as I dont feel they quite managed to be as ‘switched on’ in ANY of there other films, as they were here.

Again; this film neither takes itself seriously, nor does it expect the audience to take it seriously. I firmly believe that Lloyd and Michael obviously WANTED people to come and see this film, but their attitude is very much a tone of ‘We made what we wanted to make, if you like it, good. If you dont?…no refunds.’

I admire the grit that it must have taken to push this film onto the market given just how anti studio friendly this thing really is. Had they aimed to try and give this thing a more serious ‘real life’ edge, I think it would have been horrific. But because of its ‘Merry Melodies’ sensibilities. Its jawdroppingly absurd for the most part, and VERY likeable as a result.

The directions quite rough and ready, Theres absolutely a strong creative vision behind this production, and the careful planning (for budgets sake) of the practical effects elements of this production really drives home that, when he wants to, Lloyd Kaufman can really deliver a genuinely enthralling watch.

while this is absolutely a wobbly production, with ropey lighting in places, shakey handheld shots, audio quality that varies throughout and cast direction that feels like Lloyd basically just purposfully riled everyone up to get them as aggressive and manic as possible, then shouted ‘Action!’ This is offset, once again, by the fact that the film really doesnt care to be ‘studio fodder’. it revels in the rawness of its own creation and takes a lot of inspiration from the new wave movement and the midnight movie circuit. Lloyds ability to really sell the practical effects here is probably the only time a genuine attention to detail was had during this films production. Because those are the moments folks will remember. Otherwise its rough, but lovable.

The cine, as mentioned is quite rough around the edges, compositions are largely ‘of standard’ and I feel like ‘radioactive green’ as a colour choice runs RIFE through this thing. But realistically, outside of the effects shots…its an amateur affair thats ultimately saved by its edit.

Here? the edit follows the lead of the script, rather than the footage. cutting excessively, jarringly and speedily. and it works. it totally helps to cement the sense of freneticism that the script offers up, it ampliphies and emphisises the sense of chaos that the characters and scenarios hold, and I think the edit on this is probably its saving grace. in lesser hands, this film could have been utter junk. but the keen eye on cuts and not holding on shots for too long really does take it to the next level.

And I swear, you will seldom find ANY other film that has performances like this. EVERY. SINGLE. CAST MEMBER. is hopped up, positively vibrating and appears to be ready to implode at a moments notice. its incredibly intense and one that I think you really have to be in the right headspace to truely appreciate. But I love whats shown here. whether its Melvins bullies who are all absolute psychopaths. or; just random villains like ‘Cigar face’ . They’re all just utterly mezmorising to watch and frankly delightful.

I do however have mixed feelings on the score, its an all synth pop punk piece. Some of it, I thinks brilliant, but in places I feel like they went for slower compositions when they should have kept the energy up. Its not a bad score at all. I just feel they warmed down when they really could have stood to rev up.

I honestly have a real soft spot for the big daft energy ‘The Toxic Avenger’ holds. Its probably my favourite Troma movie, and with good reason! an underdog production that, with every passing year, gains the respect it probably deserves. at a time when society was pushing back on ‘excessive cinema’, Troma said ‘FUCK YOU.’ They may not have been right every time on that one…but they were absolutely spot on here. And it’s definitely worth your time.

(Additional: I also need to say the 4k remastering on this is astoundingly good. it felt like a layer of vaseline had been removed from the print. its crisp, clean, the new colour correction really brings the thing to life. Its a 2 disc set thats packed with extras… in fact other than some minor scratches. I think this is about as good as the films ever going to look. and if ‘Part 2’ is of the same standard, the set will have paid for itself)

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-toxic-avenger/

Im not a huge fan of the ‘parody’ horror genre. I find it a little bit predictable as a format because these things generally always run the same ‘take a much beloved IP thats been held by some copyright ghoul for the better part of half a century and release it to the general public’ and whats the first thing people do? they make twisted, demented cheap and lazy horror or pornographic parodies of it.

Its almost like withholding something from peoples use for prolongued periods of time causes people to narrow their views on the potential said IP COULD have once it IS publically accessable.

Things like ‘Winnie the Pooh’ could find a new life with a whole new generation of children, if the right soul took the much beloved character and applied it successfully utilizing more modern sensibilities…but no, instead we get ‘Blood and Honey’ and a clambouring to make gory Pooh content and porn parodies…This is why we cant have nice things…

So when ‘The Mean One’ landed on my desk this week, I was a bit hesitant to hit play, knowing that essentially I was letting myself in for a predictable 90 minute dance of ‘heres a loved character, now he’s goring people and swearing’…But y’know what? out of all the ‘Parody’ horror films i’ve seen. This ones probably one of the best. Its by no means perfect! but I thought it handled itself pretty well right up until the 3rd act.

The plot? the films set in the town of ‘Newville’ (gettit! cuz ‘Whoville’ lol…ugh…) and we open 20 years in the past to a young girl named Cindy catching a mysterious green figure (who…they may or may not legally be unable to call ‘The Grinch’) wandering around her living room and possibly stealing presents. Cindys mum wakes up and sees the great beast and tries to attack it, ‘The Mean One’ as he’s dubbed here retaliates and accidentally kills cindys mum. traumatizing her thoroughly before dissapearing into the night.

Now 20 years later (in the present day) Cindy is returning to the family home for the first time since the incident, after years of being ridiculed and labelled as crazy. Her dads picked her up, and the pair of them are going to spend christmas together. But no sooner do the pair deck the halls and get the christmas cheer swinging. then ‘The Mean One’ comes back causing carnage. Cindy is clearly re-traumatized by the Mean Ones return. and so she begins to plan to gather evidence and to do whatever she can to ensure the Mean One doesnt ruin another christmas ever again.

And…for the vast majority of this movie. I was actually pretty alright with it. The script starts off strong with some likeable, but not particularly unique characters in a solid, but not particularly ‘original’ storyline. it opens with a bit of a clip behind it and it seems to have its tone about right.

Unfortunately, around halfway through the second act, the film begins to lose a little momentum. things slow down as the towns sheriff starts pushing back on Cindys requests to perform a manhunt in the mountains for the beast, and the introduction of a fairly charming, but also fairly generic ‘crazy ralph’ type mountain man who’s hunting ‘The Mean One’ for his own personal vengences does nothing to really help pep things up.

Things get slower and slower as the 2nd act progresses until, by the third act we kind of hit a fork in the road when the inevitable ‘final confrontations’ occur, where the film could choose to either rev up and take things to a new and unique place, or play it safe and rev down…Unfortunatley, in my opinion, the film chooses to rev down…meaning we get a kind of generic ‘home invasion’ piece for the last 10 minutes that devolves into 2-4 people just hitting each other in a not particularly interesting way.

While the final FINAL plot twists in the film are kind of interesting and fun takes on the original books. By the time those twists had come around, the film had warmed down and slowed down so much I was already starting to clock watch a bit. it’d lost me. Which is a shame, because there IS a genuinely pretty solid picture beneath the surface on this one, and I feel they utilize the ‘Mean One’ quite well here.

One of the bigger stumbling blocks with the script for this is that it doesnt really seem to know what kind of tone it wants to go for, and as such it kind of dances around multiple styles, never quite committing to any one piece. and as a result it leaves a trail of unfinished concepts lying in its wake.

For example, in moments of this film they play around with the ‘Psychological horror’ angle, questioning if this is all in Cindys mind or not. But they never really develop it beyond some of the locals calling her crazy, and a few scenes where they really play up the horror, only to reveal it was all just a dream.

I think it would have been interesting to really lean into the psycho horror aspect of this, maybe make a real attempt at blurring the lines between what Cindy *thinks* she sees and whats REALLY going on. you could have really played with the idea that Cindy MAY in fact be more involved in things that she really realizes. But no….the film sticks on a pretty rigid ‘generic horror/ghost train’ 3 act pathway…

They play around with comedy in places here (I assume to live up to the ‘Parody’ monikre) but that feels really out of place and innapropriate when its lined up against people experiencing PTSD and battling alcoholism.

they dont even really seem to fully know HOW HARD they want the horror to go, as some of this film is pretty tame even by YA standards, and then there are a few moments where it goes full ‘Terrifier’ or ‘Ash Vs The Evil Dead’

I feel like this film lacks a sense of consistency in its scripting which is a bit of a problem throughout…

that being said the characters are pretty solid, they’re given just enough character that you get a feel for them, but not enough that they get *TOO* pigeon hole’d into the horror architypes, which was good because it did add an extra layer of tension, as you cant quite tell who’s on what side of this thing.

Unfortunately; an element that does hold the characters back a bit is that the dialogues a bit spotty. at best theres a couple of fun lines here and there. on average its a bit middling, pithy and ‘worn’…at worst, there are a few lines here where they tried to make the characters feel a bit more. ‘ethereal’ and ‘wise’…and I shot soda out my nose gaffawing. it was SO bad. the kind of writing an angsty 13 year old puts into a poem to impress a girl…On the whole, its PASSABLE, but those bad moments…eesh.

Outside of the script however the rest of the films jsut kind of ‘on the level’ not good enough to be notably praised, not bad enough to be derided…’Better than fine’ is how i’ve phrased it when talking about this film to friends.

The direction is WELL above the standards of this subgenre, delivering a clear and creative vision with some pretty decent visual plans and its clear that communication was critical to this thing, as everyones in lock step.

theres some decent colour usage, the lighting throughout is pretty rock solid, direction of the cast is good. with some clear set space usage and utilization and it seems like the cast were given some flexibility on their movements and line delivery…with mixed results…but mostly good ones!

the cine too is WELL above the standard for these kind of films, really well composed they make the best of the lighting and set space to really drive the cold christmassyness of the mountain town and the cozy warmth of a christmas laiden home. I really quite enjoyed this thing for the most part. But there were a couple of things I took umbridge with.

The first being the overealiance on CGI effects in the 3rd act. theres a LOT of CGI blood and fire used in the finale, and its obvious, and its ugly…and while I appreciate practical effects can be expensive and at time impractical. shoving some fire overlays onto a shot without blending them properly and then calling it a day gave me real ‘rush job’ vibes and really pulled me out of the story.

the other issue is the overeliance on stock video and imagery. again, this seems to mainly be in the ending. But a good 2-3 minutes of the finale is just purchased stock footage or stock images. it didnt match the rest of the film footage, they’d ‘enhanced’ it with more CGI overlays…It again just kind of pulled me out of the movie and made me think ‘oh…I guess the money ran out’ rather than ‘Oh wow! look at all that stock footage!’

The edit too, while largely fine on a scene by scene basis, I feel could have done with another pass through, particularly in the second half of the second act, and the third act. I think they nailed the first. but the back half of this film felt like a good 10-15 minutes could have been chopped and would have resulted in a much stronger end product.

Ultimately, this is probably the best ‘IP Parody horror’ film i’ve seen make it through the full production process. did I love it? no. would I rewatch it? maybe…I think in the right circumstancer I could see myself revisiting this one…but it probably wont be for a while. its a solid enough work, but just those odd niggles here and there stopped it from ultimately being the absolute best it could have been. Which is a real shame as, for the most part. I really quite enjoyed this one.

Maybe recommended if your doing a movie marathon with some hits and misses intentionally thrown into the mix. I think your milage may vary on how forgiving you are towards IP parody horror honestly.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-mean-one/