Peter Dinklage And Kevin Bacon's '80s Sci-Fi B-Movie Remake Is Only Streaming On One Service

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is almost magical. Being able to follow a thread of stars that somehow connect to the screen legend of sci-fi classics like "Tremors," "Flatliners and more is a fun little trick, and in 2023, "Game of Thrones" legend Peter Dinklage cut out the five degrees and starred opposite him, instead. Pulling from a forgotten cult gem from 1984 of the same name (which also spawned an animated show in 1991), "The Toxic Avenger" was directed by Macon Blair and retold the gory and excessively slimy story of Winston Gooze (Dinklage), a janitor for a pharmaceutical company, who, after crossing paths with some no-good criminals managed by the company owner, Bob Garbinger (Bacon), gets brutally murdered and then dumped in toxic sludge. The toxic waste revives him, leaving him monstrously disfigured but also providing him with super strength and near invulnerability.

Taking heavy inspiration from its predecessor, "The Toxic Avenger" is a gory action comedy that shocks with schlock as Dinklage's oozing hero (played by Luisa Guerreiro when it was time for Toxie) fights the bad guys led by Kevin Bacon's shady gangster figure. With incredible special effects and prosthetics that harken back not only to the original but to body-horror classics like "The Fly," "The Toxic Avenger" might very well earn similar cult status, and its critical and public reception proves it deserves it.

"The Toxic Avenger" got a surprising amount of love from critics and fans. Sergio Burstein from the Los Angeles Times said, "Ultimately, this is a fan-made effort for fans, though we're sure it will be appreciated in different ways by fans." Jarrod Jones from The AV Club also praised the film for giving the original property some modern-day polish, writing: "The quality of this reboot, its dutiful nods, and its end-credits sequel tease all clear a path for Toxie to explore stranger, grodier frontiers."

But while the creature feature side of things was the biggest draw, the talent of Dinklage and Bacon was also worth the admission. Ed Potton of The Times said, " The effects are resolutely lo-fi, though, which is rather endearing in this age of CGI-splurges — and Dinklage and Bacon are a riot."

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can find "The Toxic Avenger" on Prime Video; we'd just advise you to bring a mop and bucket to clean things up when you're finished. Unfortunately, even with the tease of a sequel at the end of the movie, nothing has been mentioned since. Perhaps, if the movie earns cult status on streaming, Toxie might come back into action and be ready to clean up crime, while people's faces melt off in the process. If you want to see more of Macon's work, you can get some laughs from "Idiots," which stars Dave Franco of the equally underappreciated horror movie "Together," O'Shea Jackson Jr., and Mason Thames.