Macon Blair's remake of low-budget Troma classic The Toxic Avenger debuted its first trailer back in October of 2023 before completely dropping off the radar. Fans had been wondering about the status of the movie ever since, and late last year, a report claimed that the gory splatter-fest - which has a 92% score on Rotten Tomatoes - had been deemed "unreleasable" and "not safe enough to market."
One distributor was willing to take a chance on Toxie, and Cinerverse and Bloody Disgusting recently announced that the movie will arrive in theaters on August 29 - as an unrated release.
A list of hilarious (and suitably gross) reasons why the movie has not been given an official rating followed, including ultra violence, toxic content, mutant nudity, splatter, monstercore, and, errrr, piss play.
Bloody Disgusting has now shared a new NSFW still, spotlighting Toxie (Peter Dinklage) unleashing his mutated monster member and letting a stream fly (something about using his radioactive urine to escape from his predicament).
"Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 both made theaters nervous too, but that worked out pretty well for everyone," Cineverse’s VP of Network Strategy Tom Owen says of the controversial unrated cut. "We gave Damien Leone full creative freedom to do whatever he wanted with those movies, and we feel the same way about Macon Blair and The Toxic Avenger. If we weren’t going to release the full Unrated cut, then it didn’t make sense to release the movie at all. Some studios fear pushing the limits. We welcome it and by giving filmmakers true creative freedom, we ensure their work reaches audiences in its purest, most uncompromised form.”
Check out the image below, along with a gruesome - and very funny - tie-in Liquid Death advert.
Peter Dinklage stars as downtrodden janitor Winston Gooze who, after falling into a vat of toxic waste, becomes none other than The Toxic Avenger. This timely reimagining is up to its eyeballs in environmental themes as Winston goes up against the evil forces of greed and corruption to save his son, his friends, and his community. Even as this story exists on its own terms, the spirit undoubtedly remains connected to the original. Troma fans old and new will be pleased to know that the film has been rated “R” for violence and gore – as per Troma tradition.”
The Toxic Avenger was first introduced in the 1984 movie of the same name from indie studio Troma Entertainment, and has since gone on to achieve cult status with several sequels, a comic book series and even a short-lived 1991 children's animated show called The Toxic Crusaders.
The Toxic Avenger stars Peter Dinklage as Winston Gooze, along with Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon.