The Toxic Avenger (2023)

So this was a mystery screening that I was 99.9% sure was The Toxic Avenger because somebody decided to list the mystery screening above the option for this film which had the same certificate and the same duration. This version is a remake of the 1984 cult classic which I confess I haven't seen (yet). The set up of the film is that Peter Dinklage plays Winston who lives with his step son and works at a dodgy place run by Kevin Bacon and after attempting to steal cash he is thrown into the toxic water and then exacts revenge and that's pretty much it. 

The plot is pretty straight forward, Kevin Bacon is the comedic baddie with Elijah Wood as his brother. Wood seems to be channeling Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s nice to see Kevin Bacon is something that isn't a phone advert. Last time I saw him was in MaXXXine and he seemed to be hamming it up and he has turned that up to 11 in this. When he turns he seems to be chewing the scenery and having fun with it. I was slightly distracted by Winston’s Doctor. His Doctor is played by Sunil Patel and he is currently featuring in a series of bank adverts alongside Dominic West and I did chuckle when he first appeared and then suddenly appeared at the end.

The tone is an odd one but it works very well for this film. The black humour might put some people off but I think that most of the time it did work. It's played straight enough that it makes it feel like there is purpose to the film but at the same time acknowledging the absurdity of the situation.

The thing that became distracting is that it clearly wasn't Peter Dinklage under the Toxie make up, there were a couple of shots where it is him but for the most part it's not. It’s his voice but some of the ADR doesn't quite work and it's clear that Dinklage’s voice is being played over someone else’s mouth movement. I saw a film earlier this year (Watch the Skies) which used AI to match the english dubbed dialogue with the swedish actor’s mouth movements. It does take me out of it at times but it doesn't make the film bad. The gore is also a bit of a let down. A lot of it looks like it is CGI and so doesn't have the horrific weight that proper prosthetics can have. The costume that Luisa Guerriero wears instead of Peter Dinklage does look good at certain angels but up close it does look like a costume. If they had applied slime to it to make it look more organic then I think that would have helped. Peter Dinklage is good as Winston and does add some charm to Toxie but I just don't understand why he didn't play Toxie all the time.

The Toxic Avenger is dumb but it's entertainingly dumb and that's not a bad thing. The film clocks in at just over 90 minutes and that is the perfect running time for a horror film. Not sure if it's worth trekking all the way to the cinema to see but it's the sort of enjoyable horror film to watch around Halloween. 

In a Violent Nature (2024)

This film has a unique selling point in that it is seen from the killer’s perspective. Otherwise this is just another slasher film set in the woods. The plot sees a group of annoying young people in the woods and one of them takes a locket hanging by some remains of a tower. This brings the killer rising from the ground and sets his sights on retrieving this. Despite it being a horror film like all good horror films it has a comedic tone which isn't surprising that a horror film could have funny moments but such moments as when the killer throws the beheaded body into a cabinet to break the glass.

There are some great shots there is one where the killer (now with a helmet), walks under water and towards the girl going for a swim in the lake and the camera stays still, it doesn't cut to a shot of something else or the POV of the killer but holds onto that one shot for what felt like an age. There are also a couple of shots where the killer is walking through the woods and we are just following him and there is something that feels like we aren’t supposed to follow him and that adds to the tension I think.

The deaths are quite good which is another essential thing for a good horror film. I’m not the greatest when it comes to gore but there is an appropriate amount of gore and the goriest by far is when the girl doing yoga has her head pulled through her back. Got to admit I’ve never seen that sort of death before. The deaths did have a Friday the 13th vibe to them and not just cause they take place in the woods. But because they are gruesome in their simplicity. 

It is a shame that we do see the killer’s face. It might not be until the halfway point of the film but it's a shame when they do this as I think it provided some mystery up until this point. Don't get me wrong the effects are very good but I would have liked to go through the film without seeing what he looks like.

If I had a problem with the film then its that it slightly runs out of steam towards the end and also the rather abrupt ending did leave me a little disappointed. We do see that the locket put on the gas canister is gone suggesting that this will be the end of the killer’s pursuit. I don’t know if have a big long speech towards the end of your horror film was such as good idea but I suppose it is what it is.

Overall, this was a very good horror film. It does run out of steam towards the end but I thought for the most part it worked very well. The idea of seeing it from the perspective of the killer was a refreshing one and shows that there are still original ideas in horror. People think its easy to set a film in the woods and it is but its harder to make the film interesting an effective and In a Violent Nature pulls this off