The Toxic Avenger is a 1984 American superhero black comedy splatter film directed by Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman (credited as Samuel Weil) from a screenplay by Joe Ritter, based on a story by Kaufman. It is the first installment in The Toxic Avenger film series.

Plot

Melvin Ferd Junko III is a weakling who works as a janitor at a health club in the fictional town of Tromaville, New Jersey, where the customers—including Bozo, Slug, Wanda and Julie, a particularly sadistic quartet—harass him constantly. They trick Melvin into wearing a pink tutu and amorously hugging a sheep. He is chased around the health club and out a second story window, where he falls into a drum of toxic waste, which sets him on fire. After running down the street, Melvin douses the flames in his bathtub, but the chemicals transform him into a hideously deformed mutant with superhuman size and strength.