Troma has been around for a long time. A long time is forty years, in fact. The company was founded in 1974, which is
forty years before the year that we just exited on this past Wednesday night. (Happy New Year, by the way.) They’ve spent the forty years making
independent movies in multiple genres, as well as acquiring many other
independently made movies in those multiple genres and releasing them. Famous people have come and gone throughout
their doors but one thing has remained constant. Lloyd Kaufman.
Before I get into Lloyd Kaufman and the full history of
Troma as far as I know, let’s take a few moments and have a small discussion
about my history with Troma. This won’t
take long. Two, maybe three
paragraphs. There’s not much since I
haven’t delved too deep into their catalogue.
The movies that I’ve covered on in the Sunday “Bad” Movies are it for
what I’ve seen from Troma. But the
timeframe is a little bit different.
It was 2007 or 2008 when I first introduced myself to
Troma. I have satellite television at
home and at the time, I had a DVD burner with a large harddrive. I basically used it as my own DVR sort of
thing. I would check to see what was
coming on the movie channels on the satellite, and pick and choose things to
record for later enjoyment. One night I
saw that a movie called Poultrygeist was going to be coming on. I thought, in my typical way, that it sounded
odd but ingenious and that I wanted to see it.
So I set the timer for recording and got the movie. Little did I know what I had gotten myself
into.
When I saw the movie, I hated it. It was crude, it was obnoxious, and every
single moment of it was dumb as rocks.
The only thing I liked about it was the Slow Fast Food Love song. I never wanted to see the movie again. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience
Troma again.
Oh, I missed something in here, so this might actually be a
lot of paragraphs. Anyway, I was at
lunch in high school. One of the guys
that typically sat at my lunch table came in.
The few of us that always sat together were talking and he said he saw
the greatest movies ever on the weekend.
The Toxic Avenger movies. He
described them. THAT was my first
introduction to Troma. I didn’t know
that at the time. I didn’t even know
that when I saw Poultrygeist. But that
was my introduction. So back to the
linear story…
Along comes the Sunday “Bad” Movies. For the first many weeks, not a Troma film
was in sight. I don’t believe that was
intentional. I think it was just a
subconscious thing, excluding them. It
wasn’t until I began taking suggestions for movies that one snuck in. I didn’t know it was a Troma movie. When I hit play on Chopper Chicks in Zombie
Town and the Troma logo appeared, I got a little worried. Those worries went away quickly as I began
watching one of my favourite inclusions in the blog up to that point.
And so the curse was broken.
I included Monster in the Closet as a tribute to Paul Walker, and I
would later dip my toes back into Poultrygeist.
This week’s post is a result of having seen all four Toxic Avenger
movies for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. So
I’ve been including them as I go along now.
The reason for their inclusion is that they play in that b-movie realm
that I try to look for when it comes to many of the movies I choose. I don’t want a bunch of mainstream stuff that
was just plain boring or headache inducing.
I want something enjoyable sometimes too. B-movies tend to be enjoyably bad, and Troma
tends to make b-movies. It’s a good
match.
Now back to Lloyd Kaufman, the man known for Troma. And where better to start than with the birth
of Troma. Forget the stuff between
school and his creating a studio with Michael Herz. That stuff is not too important. It’s the Michael Herz collaboration that is
of true importance to the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
Troma was created by the two men in 1974, and soon began producing sex
comedies. Yes, Troma produced sex
comedies back in the day. They didn’t
begin as the studio that people know and love.
They began in a completely different genre, which shared elements with
what they would become.
The sex comedies didn’t pay the bills as much as Lloyd
Kaufman would have liked. That meant
that he had to do work in other areas of film.
Just a couple of examples include some adult films that he directed and
produced throughout the 70s, as well as location scouting for Saturday Night
Fever, production managing for My Dinner with Andre, and providing editing
equipment for Rocky. That’s right,
Kaufman worked on those films. And Rocky
has another important meaning to Troma outside of being a movie that Lloyd
Kaufman worked on.
Rocky was the movie that inspired Lloyd Kaufman to make The
Toxic Avenger. Well… Sort of. Rocky gave Lloyd Kaufman the idea to set a
movie in a health club, or a gym. Apparently,
Kaufman had heard that horror movies weren’t popular anymore, so he turned it
into a horror movie. Because that makes
sense if you want a popular movie. He
turned his health club movie into a superhero horror movie, and The Toxic
Avenger was born. It is probably Troma’s
most well-known movie. They even took
Toxie as their mascot.
The Toxic Avenger was followed up by Class of Nuke ‘Em High,
and you have your two big Troma franchises.
Both movies spawned at least three sequels. And both are the go-to examples when someone
is trying to explain what Troma is. As
memorable as Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
might be, the two franchises are what made Troma into the studio that they are. They are the flagship franchises, and the
perfect examples of what the studio stands for.
The premiere movies of each of the two franchises were Troma’s closest
foray into mainstream filmmaking. That
attempt at becoming a mainstream studio got squashed by the failure of Troma’s
War, an anti-war, anti-Reagan movie. It
did poorly, and put financial strain on the studio.
Since the collapse in the late 80s, Troma has found itself
as the producer and acquirer/distributer of many low budget features. In 1990, Troma acquired a movie called Def By
Temptation that featured an early performance by Samuel L. Jackson. He’s not the only future famous person
featured in a Troma acquisition. Paul
Walker made his film debut in Monster in the Closet. Vincent D’Onofrio was featured in My First
Turn-On! Trey Parker and Matt Stone made
Cannibal: The Musical for Troma. And
director James Gunn began his career by working on Troma films, notably writing
Tromeo and Juliet, and having a small appearance in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic
Avenger IV. Troma has a history of finding
people who would later go onto stardom and featuring them in their work.
More recently, Troma has made another foray into Hollywood
as some of the movies have been licensed out for Hollywood remakes. The Toxic Avenger has been rumored to have a
remake in the works since 2010, with Akiva Goldsman attached. Arnold Schwarzenegger even showed interest in
being involved. But that’s not the only
movie up for this sort of treatment. Mother’s Day, a 1980 Troma film, was remade by
director Darren Lynn Bousman in 2010.
Lloyd Kaufman himself has said that there is also interest in a remake
of Class of Nuke ‘Em High. So there is a
chance that we’ll be seeing much more of Troma in the future.
Troma is a company with an interesting history. Their beginnings as a sex comedy company
transitioned into a couple of mainstream horror films, then into low-budget
horror infamy, and now back to being somewhat known. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz have been
along for the ride the entire time.
They’ve made some highly entertaining movies as well as a few
clunkers. But they’ve made a great
catalogue for the Sunday “Bad” Movies to pull from, and for that I am
thankful. Thank you Troma, and thank you
Lloyd Kaufman, for over forty years of entertainment. Thank you for the people you have found and
introduced to the world. Thank you for
the interesting, though many times bad movies that you have given us. You have changed the movie landscape for the
better. Thank you.
There are a few notes that I have to present here before we
part ways, and by a few, I mean that this is going to be a long one:
- Dan Snow and Rick Collins were in all four Toxic Avenger movies. They have yet to appear in another Sunday “Bad” Movie.
- Lisa Gaye appeared in The Toxic Avenger Part II, The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.
- Patricia Kaufman and John Reidy were both in The Toxic Avenger and The Toxic Avenger Part II.
- There were a lot of actors who were in both The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie. They were Orentha Alava, John Altamura, Fernando Antonio, William E. Benson, Paul Borghese, Sylvester Covin, William Decker, Jessica Dublin, Ron Fazio, Mark Fucile, Bonnie Garvin, Michael Gingold, Marc Allan Ginsberg, Arthur M. Jolly, Karen King, Phoebe Legere, Sal Lioni, Doug McDonald, Benny Nieves, Melissa Osborne, Bryan Perkins, Kariim Ratcliff, Phil Rivo, Ray Seiden, Tsutomu Sekine, Raven Skye, Helen Wheels, Susan Whitty, Ichiro Yamanaka, and Jeremiah Yates.
- Mitch Cohen, Mark Torgl, and Matt Klan were in The Toxic Avenger and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.
- Eric Alan was in The Toxic Avenger Part II and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.
- Lloyd Kaufman was in The Toxic Avenger Part II and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. This was after he already appeared in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Bachelor Party in the Bungalow of the Damned, Big Ass Spider!, and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Kaufman also directed all four Toxic Avenger movies, as well as Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- Michael Herz was a director on the first three Toxic Avenger movies.
- Joe Fleishaker was in The Toxic Avenger Part II, The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie, and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. He was previously in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- Traci Mann was in The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie. She was previously in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- Charlotte Kaufman was in The Toxic Avenger Part II and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. She was previously in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- Michael Jai White was in The Toxic Avenger Part II and The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie. He could previously be seen in Exit Wounds.
- Lily Hayes Kaufman and Lisbeth Kaufman were in The Toxic Avenger Part II. They were also in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- Poultrygeist shared a few cast members with Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV. These cast members were Caleb Emerson, Gabriel Friedman, Ron Jeremy, Debbie Rochon, and Purple Pam Shelby.
- Andrew Craig was in The Toxic Avenger. He was also in Glitter.
- Marisa Tomei was in The Toxic Avenger after already being featured in Parental Guidance.
- The Toxic Avenger also featured Kenneth Kessler from Monster in the Closet.
- And finally, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV featured and appearance by Corey Feldman. He was in a little Sunday “Bad” Movie called Friday the 13th: A New Beginning.
- The three Troma movies I covered previously in the Sunday “Bad” Movies were Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, Monster in the Closet, and Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.
- What are your thoughts on Troma? What are your thoughts on Lloyd Kaufman? How about The Toxic Avenger? You can share your thoughts in the comments section below.
- Also in the comments section below, you can suggest movies for me to watch in the future as part of the Sunday “Bad” Movies. I will consider any suggestion thrown my way, as long as it is a bad movie and not just one that you dislike. You could find me on Twitter and suggest that way, too. Or email me at sundaybadmovies@gmail.com
- I don’t yet know what this month’s bonus post will be. I’ll come up with something in the next week or so and I’ll get back to you on it.
- I know this has been a lengthy notes section but I’m now onto the final one. Next week’s movie will be D.E.B.S. Do you know it? If you don’t, do not worry. You will next week. Have a good week!
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