The Toxic Avenger Movies Ranked: Worst to Best

Macon Blair’s riotous remake of The Toxic Avenger has hit theaters, so it’s the perfect time to revisit the long-running splatter film series and its sequels, ranked from best to worst.

Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Entertainment have built a reputable name for themselves in the low-budget independent film world, but their Toxic Avenger movies have arguably made the biggest impact on audiences. The original film functions as a bizarre parody of the horror and superhero genres with a comedic origin story of a meek janitor who is turned into a grotesque defender of justice after he’s exposed to toxic waste.

Sequels are par for the course in the horror genre, but The Toxic Avenger has also managed to spawn a video game, Marvel comic series, musical production, and even a children’s animated series. Toxic Avenger appreciation was renewed in 2020, heralded by news of a new reboot on the way with Peter Dinklage set to play the movie’s titular toxic waste hero.

The remake suffered a delay between its 2023 debut at Fantastic Fest, as Blair and Troma Entertainment had difficulty securing a distributor over concerns about the movie’s outrageously violent content. However, Legendary Pictures jumped on board to bring Toxie to moviegoers across the country.

It’s often difficult to produce good and justified horror sequels, and unsurprisingly The Toxic Avenger franchise’s low-budget nature and absurdist narrative yielded a contrasting collection of movies. Here’s how they stack up compared to the 2025 remake.

Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000)

The final entry in The Toxic Avenger series prior to the modern remake came out over a decade after its predecessor, and claims to be “the real sequel”. It erases the events of the past two movies in favor of a new angle for Toxie, which is unfortunately far less entertaining.

Citizen Toxie has the loosest, most abstract plot of the entire franchise, and yet it’s also somehow nearly two hours long. It’s a sour note to end the series on, and its new additions, like Toxie’s sidekick, Lardass, or his evil doppelgänger, The Noxious Offender, don’t do the movie any favors.

It even turns into a gratuitous crossover with fellow Troma character, Sgt. Kabukiman, which is jarring and frankly off-putting for those expecting a moder modernized take on Toxie. Frankly, The Toxic Avenger series picked the wrong time to flex its connected universe muscles.

The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)

The original Toxic Avenger is hardly a subtle piece of art, but its follow-up manages to get even more puerile. The Toxic Avenger Part II is a testament to Kaufman and Troma’s confidence after the surprise success of the first movie, as they continued to push the envelope in just about every direction.

The sequel doubles down on Toxie’s significance as a figure for environmental causes, and the introduction of the hyperbolically evil Apocalypse Corporation works well enough. Ultimately, The Toxic Avenger Part II is tied down by unneeded spectacles, like recurring musical numbers or Toxie’s trip to reconnect with his family.

Part II also introduces a new actor for Toxie, as Ron Fazio replaces Mitch Cohen from the original movie. It’s entertaining enough for those who loved the original, but it doesn’t measure up to its predecessor with the goofy aesthetic and splatter-film nature no longer a shock.

The Toxic Avenger (1984)

1984’s original Toxic Avenger introduces Melvin and the surprising turn that his life takes after he’s exposed to toxic waste and transforms into New Jersey’s first superhero. The Toxic Avenger is a fun deconstruction of typical hero narratives and knows not to take itself too seriously, which is what makes the unhinged tone of the movie work in the first place.

The movie builds a fun, bizarre world, yet still demonstrates a little restraint, a trademark of the franchise that gets more extreme the deeper into the franchise you go. The Toxic Avenger is a film that’s frequently disgusting and juvenile, but also manages to shine a light on the aggressive impulses that lie dormant in people.

Supernatural creatures are often the source of danger in horror films, but The Toxic Avenger highlights the fine line between man and monster. To be clear, the emphasis is not on highlighting morality and heroism in the face of evil, as the traditional superhero movie might. The Toxic Avenger is a cult classic for a reason, and if you can stomach the gore, it works to reel you into Toxie’s world.

The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation Of Toxie (1989)

The Last Temptation of Toxie, the third movie in the series, is somehow the best and most ridiculous. After making Tromaville crime-free and peaceful, Toxie has difficulty adjusting to life without crime to fight and baddies to dismember. He eventually agrees to work for the very corporation that is responsible for his transformation so that he can afford eye surgery for his beloved Claire (named Sara in the first movie).

After Claire regains her sight, she sees Toxie as he is for the first time, and falls even more in love with him. Toxie’s anxiety over whether she’ll still love him when she can see is assuaged, and gives both characters more depth than they’ve had in previous entries.

The humanization of Toxie is most definitely an improvement from previous entries in the franchise, and it’s part of what makes the threequel the series’ best. It gets even better when things go completely off the rails midway through, when the Chairman of the evil corporation that Toxie works for reveals that he is the literal Devil, ultimately leading to a battle between Toxie and the Devil in a video game-inspired clash.

The Last Temptation of Toxie was released right at the end of 1989, but its meta impulses and wilder tone feel more representative of the wave of ‘90s horror that followed. It’s a rarity that the third entry in any movie series is its strongest, but The Last Temptation of Toxie manages to accomplish the feat.

The Toxic Avenger (2023)

How do you take a great cult classic concept and make it better? You cast an Emmy-winning actor as Toxie, sprinkle in fun-loving stars like Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood, ratchet up the production value, and update the narrative to reflect modern society. Macon Blair manages to make Toxie resonate better than he ever has before with his reimagining of the mutant hero, and sets a new standard for the franchise.

Blair learned the right lessons from the previous entries in Troma Entertainment’s flagship series, and that starts with fully fleshing out the character and motivations of Toxie himself. Seeing more of Winston Gooze (the stand-in for the original’s much-maligned janitor Melvin Ferd) before he becomes Toxie makes his mission to rid St. Roma‘s Village of the evil corporation that poisons the locals more impactful.

Toxie became a symbol of ecological preservation as the original movie series and its subsequent spinoff media evolved, but modern-day Toxie rails against Big Pharma and the modern healthcare system instead. The out-and-out misogyny of the original movies is punted in exchange for a tighter, more coherent narrative that leans into the heroic side of Toxie as opposed to his more monstrous inclinations.

It all comes together for a better overall movie than anything that came before it, and The Toxic Avenger‘s excellent Rotten Tomatoes score acts as proof that both critics and audiences agree about its quality. While the unrated movie’s box office haul might not be enough to spawn a sequel, The Toxic Avenger is destined for streaming success and cult classic status when it finally lands on VOD.

The Toxic Avenger

Release Date

August 29, 2025

Runtime

102 Minutes

Director

Macon Blair

Writers

Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman

Producers

Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz, Alex Garcia