Posted in: Exclusive, Horror, Interview, Legendary, Movies | Tagged: Brett Bachman, exclusive, interview, legendary pictures, The Toxic Avenger, Troma Entertainment

The Toxic Avenger Editor on Recapturing the Troma Classic Franchise

Editor Brett Bachman (The Fall of the House of Usher) spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with director Macon Blair on the new Toxic Avenger.

Brett W. Bachman has certainly accomplished a lot in the editing and visual effects career since his debut in 2011 in the short H.O.G.'S Tooth. His work expanded into film and television, starting with the UK's Miss Holland in 2012, becoming a staple in the horror and thriller scene. His most recent notable projects include the Lovecraftian-inspired Nicolas Cage films like XYZ Films' Mandy (2018) and Color Out of Space (2019), and one of the actor's favorites in Neon's Pig (2021). While promoting his work on Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher, Bachman spoke to Bleeding Cool about the new The Toxic Avenger that made its premiere in the 2023 Fantastic Fest in September, based on the 1984 Troma Entertainment original film franchise with director Macon Blair writing the script with original creator Lloyd Kaufman and co-producer Michael Herz returning. The film follows a downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage), who gets into a horrible accident and turns into "a new evolution of hero: The Toxic Avenger."

Bringing 'The Toxic Avenger' Back on Screen

Bleeding Cool: How does it feel to be working in the Troma wheelhouse? That must be wild to be in that universe, right?
Bachman: A joy come true it. It was so much fun to work on this film and Macon [Blair], my director on the movie, knew the assignment. He knew the world to a tee. He was so smart and excited to do this. They came in and made a movie that was gloriously stupid and juvenile but also heartwarming and fun and had an abundance of self-awareness. He knows how to do camp and the experience of working on that movie. I mentioned a little bit on [House of] Usher how we recorded different voices in the office with death Rattles. 'Toxic Avenger' takes that idea of a collaboration, and everybody comes together to work on something buck ass wild and turns it up to 100 percent.

One of the things we did a lot in that movie was to get the sense of [the fictional city of] Tromaville [New Jersey] and the greater population, everything that was a bit heightened in this environment. Not only do we have some crazy sets in the production design and the art direction, but I can't wait till people probably see when you can publicly release what Toxie looks like. People at the premiere have seen it, but the public has not. The movie relishes practical effects, prosthetics, and special effects. All this to say, in the editorial, one of my favorite things about that movie to get across this sense of this heightened crazy environment; Macon always talked about how he wanted the feeling of Tromaville to be populated, but he wanted the town to be full of lunatics.

We did this by recording wild minds on our phones and microphones that populate the town's soundscape and ambiance. We were throwing in a few gags written to the script where it's like jokes and voices from off-screen that are building up to gags, but Macon loved them so much, and they work so well that we just started doing more and more. It became a thing where I would revise cutting a scene with Macon, and then he's like, "I want more like that insane, stupid Greek chorus in the background." I would begin to record some nonsense on my phone. I would go next door to my assistant editor, James Thomas, grab our other PA, and start spitballing ideas like "What the town would be saying and react, and what opportunities are there for their participation instead of just like "Walla walla walla."

We have people yell profanity at Toxie. How do you make this seem like a 'Looney Tunes' cartoon or an 'Itchy & Scratchy' cartoon with this heightened sense of live-action ridiculousness? That permeates the entire movie, and there are so many cases where we're just throwing things at the wall, hoping they stick. It became this earnest, the practice of destroying everything and anything goes. It's so rare, and you have an opportunity to do that in the movie because, most of the time, you're trying to put something in the time. The wonderful thing about 'Toxic Avenger' is that this is balls to the wall; anything goes movie requests that we get crazy. I had fun with it, and to this day, I hope I have another opportunity to do something like that.

I don't know if you can talk about this, but given all the 'Toxic Avenger' films, were there any classic scenes you could recreate, or was this original new content?
What can I say about that? I will say there are a large amount of Easter Eggs. Legendary was a great partner because they wanted to pay homage to the originals while striving to do something new and original. Macon approached it with a big amount of enthusiasm to show the fans that he knew what he was doing. He understands the heart of it, the fun and the tone of these films, the sense that we know what we're getting into. When you sit down and see the skyline go up there and the Troma logo, you know you're in for something weird, wacky, and stupid but fun and honest, I can't talk about specific sequences yet because I'm still in an NDA, even though it's been we've premiered. Until that movie comes out, I can't say too much about it.

The Toxic Avenger, which Dinklage told Empire is not a remake, will be the fifth film in the franchise. Unlike the previous films, this bolsters a higher profile cast that includes Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Kevin Bacon, Sarah Niles, Julia Davis, Julian Kostov, Elijah Wood, David Yow, Blair, Jonny Coyne, and Jane Levy. There's no current date listed for wide release yet. The Fall of the House of Usher is available to stream on Netflix.

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