The Toxic Avenger’s most infamous kill looks amazing in 4K

The Toxic Avenger isn’t the superhero the world wants, but it may be (once again) the superhero the world needs. In the last 20 years, American cinemas have witnessed an exhausting battle between Marvel and DC. But The Toxic Avenger This alternative offers humor, violence and bad taste. As famously pitched ahead of the film’s flop of a release in 1984, “He was 98 pounds of solid nerd until he became… The Toxic Avenger, the first superhuman-hero from New Jersey.”

This fall, the franchise (which became a cult hit and once was popular enough to spawn a children’s animated show) will reawaken in two parts. Peter Dinklage will play the titular role in a reboot helmed by Macon Blair, the producer and co-star of “punk rock kids kill nazis” thriller Green Room The director of Netflix’s oddity I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. All four films will be available on Blu-ray and 4K for home video. Word on the reboot is mum, but we’re finally getting a clear look at the latter.

This clip contains both horrific and humorous gore. Proceed with caution.

It is filled with contextual information that shows how the bomb of 1984 spawned an incredibly successful film franchise. Lloyd Kaufman, co-director and one of Alt Cinema’s greatest pitchmen, will famously chat with anybody who will listen about how he and his studio did for Gen X what Ed Wood and Roger Corman did before them.

But there’s another reason to watch these complicated classics that’s not so academic: they’re a queasy kind of fun we don’t see as much in 2023 — for better and for worse. You can immediately see how the midnight cult film status of this first movie was so successful.

Troma Entertainment has shared an exclusive 4K clip that shows the context as well as the extreme 80s violence. The clip begins with an introduction from Kaufman, before moving on to the notoriously meaty killings of slasher films.

Troma and Toxic Avenger would soon fall out of style, giving way to new B-movie phenomenons. But it’s fitting that as the series steps back into daylight, its most famous acolyte has positioned himself to save the studio superhero film. James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy films and now overseer of the DC cinematic universe, began his career as a screenwriter on Troma’s Tromeo & JulietThe cameo of in Toxic Avenger Part IV. From his reboot script of to his work on the remake of Dawn of the DeadHis viscera-soaked scenes of The Suicide Squad.

The Toxic AvengerThe box set, which will be released just before Fantastic Fest (Sept. 19), will include the premiere of reboot at Fantastic Fest.