You might even learn what so many Toxie devotees already know: beyond all the bloodletting and nudity, the stupid slapstick humor and hopelessly dated designs, this is actually a wildly entertaining film that holds up as well – or maybe even better – as when it was originally released. If you haven't visited Melvin and his mother, his sexy, sightless girlfriend Sara, or the perverted popular gang of Bozo, Slug, Wanda and Julie, perhaps this new digital release is your chance to play catch-up. Over time, it has become the ultimate Troma release, the film that fans come back to over and over again.

It proved that invention and originality could overcome even the most rudimentary cinematic elements to make something both crowd-pleasing and profitable. From its initial trip to theaters, to this, its 21st Anniversary DVD release, The Toxic Avenger has literally rewritten the rules about independent moviemaking. So it's no wonder that a single film defines and describes these b-movie mavericks to a perfect 'T'. Naturally, many find their motion pictures to be puke-inducing crap, thus the noxious connotation.

They wallow in excess and excrete seedy fun from every celluloid orifice. And the films they've created (or distributed) quasi-classics like The Class of Nuke 'Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die, and Fat Guy Goes Nutzoid, have all redefined redolence. For over 30 years, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz have been certified cinematic champions, bucking the nepotistic studio system to make movies so far removed from the mainstream that Hollywood hardly notices them – that is, until the revenue statements come cashing in.

Amazingly enough, both descriptions fit Troma and its catalog of films perfectly. The combination of words alone brings up a nice set of contrasting images: an avenger - someone out to seek truth, justice and the American way toxic – poisonous or foul, something so noxious it nauseates you to even think about it.

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