Midnight Movie of the Week #84 - The Toxic Avenger

If I can be serious for a moment, the likes of Troma Films and I don't always get along.  It's not their fault...if anyone's to blame, it's society.  Growing up in the rural Midwest, films like theirs weren't readily available to a budding cinephile.  Instead, I learned from a steady diet of mainstream cinema on HBO - along with the films of Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Hackman, and Robert De Niro whenever I could get them - which burned certain standards into my mind at a young age.  When you raise yourself on films directed by Hitch or Scorsese or Friedkin and starring the likes of Jimmy Stewart or De Niro or Hackman, you kind of start to put a premium on the Hollywood style.  To say that low budget companies like Troma break from that norm is nothing that anyone who's familiar with their output would disagree with.  And when that Hollywood norm is what you grow to consider the baseline for "good", a studio whose films can't reach that baseline just might rub you the wrong way.

Now that I've said that, I should point out that The Toxic Avenger - which kind of put that studio on the map back in the day - is about the most glorious argument against the standards of my youth that I've ever seen.  Unlike most dirt cheap genre trash out there, it's clear from start to finish that Toxie is a 100% B.S. free labor of love by a lot of people who a) were having a ton of fun and b) actually have a little bit of knowledge about how to make a film.  That second point gets overlooked sometimes, but I think it's the most important thing to note about this production.  I've seen my share of independent horror films that come from people who think they know what they're doing, but very few of them actually have their head in the right place.  It's sad, but it makes you appreciate the ones that get it right even more.

When I say that this movie is made by people who know about "making a film", I can't admit that I'm saying this looks like the kind of thing I'd have found in normal rotation on my TV screen when I was young.  But there are little things, things you don't often think about. that shine through in the work of the Troma team.  Their camera moves within the scene (most noticeably when Toxie takes on the drug dealer in the Tromaville Health Club and the camera cuts at least a dozen times in a few seconds to get the full effect), their lighting changes as needed to create mood (like the slasher-esque scene that leads to the sauna kill), and theor side jokes in the film aren't allowed to overpower the plot.

Too many independent makers of sleaze get caught up in doing things their own way and bucking the system that is in place without considering these kind of things. The folks behind The Toxic Avenger - Troma kingpin Lloyd Kaufman and his co-producer/director Michael Herz - seem to recognize that those who came before them have much to offer.  One could make the argument that some parts of the film are directly influenced by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and other parts of the film seem to owe a debt to comic book heroes across the globe.  Lots of people make films that are "inspired" by the things they love - but again, it only works if the people behind the film don't go too far and forget the little things.

Now, I suppose I should stop insinuating that the people behind The Toxic Avenger show restraint and fit the norms of Hollywood - because that would be terribly wrong.  This is a movie about a nerdy janitor who gets dumped in toxic waste and becomes a hulking mongoloid in a tutu who fights crime and falls in love with a blind babe - so it's not exactly Gone With the Wind.  The film offers maximum gore, over-the-top acting (I should add that the acting - as silly as it is - really sets the film's tone for us.  You can't really see a roided out freak like Bozo and not know what you're in for.), and some of the most random and silly scenes you'll ever see.  The nontraditional love story between our hero and the blind Sarah (who kind of looks like the '80s version of Sarah Michelle Gellar in all her wide eyed glory) is quite comical...but it's also kind of sweet in a weird way.

I've barely even talked about what the movie is all about - that sentence about the toxic waste and the mongoloid and the fighting crime basically sums it up - because I don't think that's what matters about The Toxic Avenger.  A lot of independent filmmakers think that the little movie their making is revolutionary because it bucks all the trends that one expects it to follow.  The Toxic Avenger is revolutionary because it accepts simple trends - like telling a hero's story and making your movie look like you thought the images on screen through ahead of time - and then creates its own ridiculous reality where carnage can reign supreme.  The Toxic Avenger rocks, but The Toxic Avenger rocks because it realizes that there are times when rocking too hard might cause it to rock less effectively.  No one else is gonna tell you this - and by spending so much time on it I've completely minimized just how bat-stuff crazy the film really is at times - but I think someone needs to point it out.

Putting that all aside, the bottom line should be that The Toxic Avenger is a masterpiece of independent trash, and that's why you should see it.  See it for its Frankensteiny bits, see it because it's a love story, see it because a kid's head gets run over by a speeding car full of a bunch of hooligans who drug and sex too much.  Don't see it because it conforms to the standards of real filmmaking....just keep an eye out for the signs that show you that Kaufman, Herz, and friends do actually care a little bit about that kind of stuff.  They're there, even if the rebels of Tromaville don't want you to see them.

Oh yeah, and see it because Marisa Tomei used to look like this. Creepy, right?

Scream Week Midnight Top Five: The "Before Scream There Was..." Edition

With Scream 4 (or Scre4m, if you're mentally disturbed and don't like grammar) due out in theaters Friday, I figured there was no better time to take a look back at the film that is undoubtedly the most popular and socially relevant horror film to come out of the 1990s.  Thus, I present FMWL's Scream Week - an entire week dedicated to that movie and the legacy it has in horror.

We all know what Scream wanted to copy - it name drops most of the films it is inspired by - but what we don't often look at are some of the films that indirectly paved the way for Wes Craven's self-referential slasher film.  I want to take a look back at some of the films that looked at horror cinema in their own ways in the days before Scream.  Here are five of my favorite (mostly) horror films about horror films, and why they're important as we look at Scream itself.

Mark of the Vampire (1935, Dir. by Tod Browning.)
If you thought remakes were a new thing, you'd probably be surprised to know that this 76 year old film is actually a remake of the director's own (no-longer-in-existence) 1927 classic London After Midnight.  (Sure, I have no way of knowing that this lost film is a classic, but...duh people!  It is.)  In the film, a murder where a father and daughter team of "vampires" - played by the legendary Bela Lugosi and the haunting Carroll Borland (pictured below) - are the main suspects is investigated, and a wise Professor/Vampire Expert - played by Lionel Barrymore - is called in to investigate.  The film is a relatively modest story that lacks punch and is a bit dated - Browning had little ability to block studio interference after his now iconic film Freaks flopped at the box office - but it features a few haunting visuals and, most importantly to this article, a one of a kind twist that set the tone for future films.

Of course, to tell you what that means, I have to use some of those dreaded SPOILERS - so read the next paragraph at your own risk!

The trick of the film - which is revealed in future Scooby Doo fashion in the final minutes - is that the vampires and the professor are actually just playing a part to weed out the real murderer.  The professor is actually the chief of police, and Lugosi and Borland's vampires (who were written as incestuous before the studio blocked Browning from filming this subplot) are actually real life everyday ACTORS.  That's right.  The director and actor who made everyone terrified of Dracula four years earlier - had made a film which revealed on-screen that the man who terrified millions was actually a jovial actor who got a kick out of wearing a cape and scaring people.  Though the plot is a far cry from Scream, this is one of the first films to ever blatantly wink at the audience before implying that these monsters aren't always as ominous as they appear.

By the way, if you don't want my commentary on Mark of the Vampire, Trailers From Hell has some commentary on it...from the legendary John Landis!

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, Dir. by Frank Capra.)
I know.  Dudes, I know.  It's not really a horror film, it's a madcap comedy adapted from a play.  It also happens to be one of my favorite films, and it also happens to be a film about a family of feuding insane people who have combined for at least 26 murders. 

While Mark of the Vampire took its shots using Lugosi and Dracula, Arsenic and Old Lace uses Boris Karloff and the Frankenstein monster to create its torture.  Before Raymond Massey's Jonathan Brewster is even introduced Aunt Martha remarks about how she was taken to one of those "scary pictures" a few weeks earlier, and when we do meet Jonathan, she confirms our suspicions - Jonathan's face resembles that of Boris Karloff. 

Karloff is name dropped a couple of times throughout the film - though I don't believe the Frankenstein name is - and several scenes hinge on Jonathan Brewster flying off into a monster-esque rage when compared to Mr. Karloff.  The joke is even funnier when you learn the back story - that the role was originated by and made famous on stage by none other than - you guessed it - Boris Karloff.

The incredibly dark comedy - especially for the early 1940s - is also notable because Cary Grant's Mortimer Brewster is a dramatic critic, who spends part of the film explaining murderous acts that he's seen acted out - which then are acted out upon him.  Though Frank Capra's adaptation - and the play before it - aimed to create laughs - it's one of the first indications that characters who are wiser due to the things they've watched (like Scream's Randy Meeks) would be coming to cinema screens.

Targets (1968, Dir. by Peter Bogdanovich.)
Speaking of Boris Karloff, let's talk about Targets.  I've talked about Targets before, but I ain't gonna stop talking about one of my favorite films that easily.  But truthfully, Targets is kind of the Anti-Scream.

An aging Karloff stars as aging horror icon Byron Orlok, a man who spent his life playing the kind of characters Boris Karloff would have played.  In fact, the film features real works of Mr. Karloff, primarily featuring a few minutes of Roger Corman's 1963 film The Terror (that first-time director Peter Bogdanovich was required to use by Corman) as Orlok's latest film, which has pushed him over the edge toward requirement.  In the picture below, Karloff as Orlok watches himself on TV in 1931's The Criminal Code, and laughs about the things he's done to scare innocent people from behind a screen.

But Orlok knows something that most real world viewers were already realizing.  Real world horrors were a lot more frightening than gothic castles and the ghosts of the past.  These fears are personified in Targets not by Karloff, but by young Tim O'Kelly - who kind of looks like a mini 1960s version of John Cena - who plays a trained sniper who decides he's sick of the ordinary and heads off on a senseless killing spree.  The paths of the old ghost and the new killer path in the final scenes of the film, and the result is one of the most telling statements about horror cinema that's ever been filmed.  Like Scream, Targets knew that audiences were sick of the status quo in horror cinema.  And like Scream, the film dared to point out the flaws in the horror system that were holding the genre back.

Popcorn (1991, Dir. by Mark Herrier.)
I've also covered Popcorn before, but the 1990s' first horror-about-horror must be mentioned here.  Though it primarily connects to films of the '50s and '60s for inspiration, Popcorn blazes its own trail by mimicking cinematic kills, and also happens to connect with Scream by making the "survivor girl" be connected to the killer through her parents.  The result is one of the most fun horror films of the '90s, and a nice little piece of counterprogramming to offset Scream's shiny side.  What Scream offered in criticism of the slasher genre, Popcorn offered in love toward the drive-in and B-movie favorites of a simpler, less demonic time.  I love that about it.

(By the way, do you love Popcorn like I do?  Or do you want to see it, but are dissuaded by the poor transfer on the OOP DVD that is now available on Instant Netflix?  If you answered yes to either of these questions, I've got a treat for you.  The indomitable Kristy Jett - of FMWL favorite The Bloodsprayer and many other fine places - has spearheaded a campaign to get Popcorn the proper - nay, the FANTASTIC - release and restoration that it deserves.  You can check out the progress made by going to the production site HERE, or - more importantly - you can check out the Kickstarter campaign that's funding the project.  The project could certainly use your help, and I think it's a darn worthy cause to support.)

(Yes, I just skipped talking about the movie for a paragraph to insert a shameless plug into my list.  BUT IT'S FOR A GOOD DVD RELEASE OF POPCORN, and I'm willing to sacrifice for that.  Go read my earlier Popcorn post if you need more of it, OK? Thanks much.)

There's Nothing Out There (1992, Dir. by Rolfe Kanefsky.)
There's Nothing Out There is first and foremost a Troma release - within the first 40 minutes I felt like I had seen every pair of naked breasts on set, and the special effects rival those of a three year old playing with toy dinosaurs - but it also features a hero that any horror nerd - like myself, I proudly admit it - will fall absolutely in love with.  If you like Randy Meeks (And who the heck doesn't like Randy Meeks?  By golly, he was THE best thing about the Scream films!), you'll get one heckuva kick out of TNOT's Mike.  (Hey film, great choice of name!)

There's Nothing Out There offers a basic horror set up that combines elements of The Blob and The Evil Dead, in which a bunch of youngsters go to a secluded place to part and fornicate, without knowing that a bunch of carnivorous things with green slime are loose and hungry.  But Mike - who claims to have rented every horror movie possible - immediately sees the warning signs and starts to run through how horror films can help him and his friends survive the day.  As he tries to shed his nerdy exterior and save the day, he gets to say things like "This reminds me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and coach his friends on what they need to do to get past the threat around them.  The result is absolutely one of the most fun horror films to come out of the early '90s, and one of the few great male and nerdy heroes in the history of fright flicks.

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And that's five.  I suppose I could have talked about Craven's own New Nightmare - in which Freddy Krueger visits actress Heather Langenkamp - but Craven will get his due throughout the week.  And though I don't think these five films directly influenced Scream, their place in history is worth noting.  Horror has a long history of referring back to itself - ask any horror film that takes a break to tell the story of some terror gone by.  Like, for example....

On second thought, that's another list for another day. ;) 

Come on back tomorrow for more of Scream Week!