Despite fears that the film would need cuts to get an MPAA rating, the new Toxic Avenger heads into US cinemas without a rating at all.
Macon Blair – who made his directorial debut with the terrific, offbeat Netflix thriller I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore in 2017 – has followed up that project with a take on Toxic Avenger starring Peter Dinklage.
However, the film has been stuck in limbo for years now, seeking a buyer, with the film being seen as unreleasable in US cinemas due to its violence and erm, ‘other’ weirdness, putting off any potential purchasers.
In January of this year, though, Cineverse – the company behind the Terrifier films – purchased the film.
Given the success it’s had with the aforementioned Terrifier films, it’s clear that the studio knows exactly how to successfully sell an ultra-violent, offbeat B-movie to a niche audience. When the studio acquired the rights to Toxic Avenger, it was suggested that Cineverse would – as it did with Terrifier 3 – skip the MPAA rating altogether and release it as an unrated film. Thanks to World Of Reel, we now know that that is indeed the plan and that the film will release ‘unrated and uncut’.
Naturally, the company is banking hard into the more bizarre and shall we say ‘provocative’ aspects of the film, even releasing an MPAA-style ‘warning’ that promises joys such as ‘mutant nudity’, ‘piss play’ and ‘gnarly theater fun.’
Well I never.
Marketing unrated films is a speciality area for Cineverse, whose CEO Chris McGurk explained the distributor’s alternative methods last year on an episode of The Town podcast. A trailer for the film released in March which you can find below. It’s well worth a watch.
The film releases in the US (and hopefully here) at the end of August. In the meantime, if you want to read about the strange story of 1980s toxic waste movies, as always, we have something for you right here. We’ll leave you with the synopsis for Toxic Avenger below.
A horrible toxic accident transforms downtrodden janitor Winston Gooze into a new evolution of hero: The Toxic Avenger! Now wielding a glowing mop with super-human strength, he must race against time to save his son and stop a ruthless and power-hungry tyrant bent on harnessing toxic superpowers to strengthen his polluted empire.
