See First Look At Incredibly Creepy Elijah Wood In The Toxic Avenger
For any fans of cinematic bad taste suffering from PTSD—Post Troma Sleaze Disorder—there’s good news: everyone’s favorite hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength is headed back to theaters. The movies are about to get a lot more toxic thanks to the upcoming “reimagining” of the Troma classic The Toxic Avenger that just premiered at Fantastic Fest 2023. We have our first look at the film, including a creepy look at a barely recognizable Elijah Wood!
“The look came about by discussions I had with our designers and with Elijah himself. I wanted it to feel like a Peter Sellers type of performance where he just goes invisible. The idea is that you forget that it’s the Elijah that you know from Lord of the Rings or anything else.”
Macon Blair, writer/director of The Toxic Avenger
While the post also offers fans their first glimpse of Peter Dinklage in Toxie’s signature tutu, it’s the gruesome visage of Elijah Wood that steals the show. Whatever the opposite of a Glow Up is—a Dim Down?—that’s what the Toxic Avenger director Macon Blair gave to the Lord of the Rings actor. Think Frodo mixed with Riff Raff from Rocky Horror and Danny Devito’s Penguin, and you’ll get the idea.
Believe it or not, Blair used the exact same words to describe Elijah Wood’s look to Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview. Wood plays a character named Fritz Garbinger, the younger brother of Kevin Bacon’s Bob Garbinger. The brothers are the owners of the corrupt corporation responsible for turning Peter Dinklage’s Winston Gooze into the titular Toxic Avenger.
While fans that only know Elijah Wood from the Lord of the Rings trilogy or as video game boy from Back to the Future Part II might be shocked to see the baby-faced actor playing such a grotesque heel, Fritz Garbinger is actually just the latest freak in a long list of gross characters Wood has portrayed since taking the one ring to Mount Doom.
Elijah Wood’s Career After Leaving The Shire
Elijah Wood’s post-LOTR career playing weirdos started with 2004’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’s sleazy horndog Patrick. The actor followed that up with cannibal serial killer Kevin in Sin City the following year.
By the time he made 2012’s Maniac—a remake of the deranged slasher classic—Wood had firmly established a duel career where the actor was just as comfortable playing a tap-dancing cartoon penguin as he was portraying a psychotic killer that stalks and scalps innocent women.
Along with the above-named actors, Macon Blair’s Toxic Avenger reboot also stars Jacob Tremblay as Wade, Peter Dinklage’s sullen stepson, and Taylour Paige as investigative reporter J.J. Doherty. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the Troma team behind the original Toxic Avenger, helped to produce the new film and make sure it retains the trashy spirit of the original.
Despite premiering last night at Fantastic Fest, The Toxic Avenger still has yet to receive a wide release date or even a trailer, for that matter. Hopefully, horror fans will be able to see Elijah Wood’s Fritz Garbinger in all of his nasty glory on the big screen sooner rather than later. Until then, fans of “New Jersey’s first superhero” can always go back and rewatch the original 1984 The Toxic Avenger and its three sequels.
New viewers beware, though: Troma films are not for the squeamish. We definitely wouldn’t recommend eating right before watching.
