Toxic Schlock

As if you couldn’t guess from the title, Toxic Schlock wants to be a gooey, nasty good time in the vein of Troma-produced titles. Sure enough, the studio did pick up this independent British film for distribution. Directors Tony Newton and Sam Mason-Bell, who also wrote the motion picture, attempt the exaggerated cartoon-like world that the best of Troma, and John Waters, exists in. Are they successful?

The film starts with a man walking along the beach when he stumbles upon a nude person lying in the sand. The walking man gets closer to check to see if the person, whose face is done up like a demented clown, is okay. That is when the nude male wakes up and kills this person.

“…another grisly murder by the clown-faced Seaside Strangler. Meanwhile, the activists discover a strange green slime pouring out of the faucets at the house.”

Cut to a house where Mae (Cindy Valentine) and her Dad (Martin W. Payne) hear about the latest attack of the seaside strangler on the radio. Mae laments that their little guest house is empty, so she has no one to talk to. The two are joined by their gimp-dog friend (Sam Mason-Bell), and the three of them go for a walk.

While they are out, Peter (Simon Berry), the leader of a small environmental and animal-rights activist group, brings himself and his cohorts Lucy (Rebecca Rolph) and Gav (Chris Mills) to the house; as it was his uncle’s place and he recalls going on holiday here as a child. The three activists are lying low after a successful job.

When Mae and her family returns, they are, of course, surprised by the people in their home. Since Dad uses it as a bed and breakfast-type place anyway, he agrees to let them stay. Once again, a radio program describes another grisly murder by the clown-faced Seaside Strangler. Meanwhile, the activists discover a strange green slime pouring out of the faucets at the house.

And that description definitely makes Toxic Schlock sound more fun and action-packed than winds up being. There are some good elements to be found, but the movie as a whole is dull. The biggest problem is that Newton and Mason-Bell never go all-in on the absurd reality they have set the film in. Troma’s best movies and some of their nobler unsuccessful titles as well exaggerate everything, to the point of using actual cartoon sound effects at times.