David Bridges
Key Highlights
- Release Date: The Toxic Avenger movie premieres in theaters on August 29.
- Trailer Style: A new trailer mimics the original 1984 film’s style and humor.
- Promotional Efforts: Troma is heavily promoting the film to reach a wider audience.
- Comic Return: The character is also making a comeback in comics with a new series from Ahoy.
After two years of uncertainty whether it’d come out, the next Toxic Avenger movie is hitting theaters this upcoming week. But in case you’re not aware, the folks at BloodyDisgusting—a subsidiary of Cineverse, the film’s distributor—commissioned a trailer that it hopes will make you, in its own words, “show the fuck up.”
This new “grindhouse” trailer comes courtesy of Wilson Cleveland, a producer and actor who’s previously made fan trailers for Weapons and other films. Cleveland’s approach for Toxic Avenger was to directly mimic the trailer for the original 1984 film from Lloyd Kaufman, right down to the narration and visual filters. What updates he gives the reboot play up its humor (poor Toxie gets called a “fucked up hot dog” in the same clip he gets something thrown at him) and the gnarly violence, including an electrifying new kill involving Toxie’s radioactive mop.
Suffice to say, Troma really wants this Toxic Avenger to be seen by as many people as possible and revitalize the brand: Kaufman, reboot director Macon Blair, and its cast have been doing a lot of promo lately, and the character’s even made a return to comics thanks to Ahoy’s just-started ongoing series. The movie hits theaters on Friday, August 29, and you can get tickets here—and if it gets you interested in the earlier movies, Kaufman seems to recommend starting with 2000’s Citizen Toxie, his personal favorite.
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Daniel Mercer
