Troma: Gloriously Rubbish!

Posted By on March 9, 2013

A Troma Team Release

As film fanatics, we all have particular niches that we enjoy and quite often, in the world of the nerd, there are films within those niches that we still enjoy, even when in theory we should hate them.  More often than not, this occurs with films that are classified as B-Movies; films that have been made poorly, or made with a low budget, or both!

For me, I have always had a fondness for the output of Troma, which is probably because of the ludicrous nature of many of the films, but while that is true, I will always have the utmost respect and admiration for Lloyd Kaufman.  Through thick and thin, Lloyd Kaufman has persevered with filmmaking, film distribution and the creation of his art (?), despite never really getting the recognition of the critics.  He is an inspiration to artists everywhere, and is a great role model for anyone wanting to start out in a creative industry (his books are especially useful for new filmmakers), even if his films are gloriously rubbish.

So, are Troma films good?  In a conventional sense, no, and many of them would annoy me greatly if there wasn’t a certain amount of self-awareness about how preposterous the films are.  I will say that knowingly making something bad could be seen as pretentious, as opposed to the work of Ed Wood, for example, who was serious and who unknowingly made bad films, but ultimately I feel that the sense of creative fun overrides this problem.  It is also interesting to note, that although the term ‘Troma film’ has become synonymous with dodgy exploitative films, Troma have stated often that they have a policy of not being sexist, unethical, or glorifying violence.  When asked about sexism for example, Kaufman himself says “Actually, no. Women are the smart ones in Troma movies. We call them gynos because ‘women’ has the word ‘men’ in it. Gynos save the men in ‘Troma’s War’.  Toxie’s wife urges him to stop working for the man.  ‘Tromeo and Juliet’ is all about Juliet. She’s the focus.  Sure, the gynos are in small clothing, but so are the men”.  Whether that kind of argument holds true across all their films, or is even valid is debatable, but interesting nonetheless.

That aside, this list is really about my introduction to his work in my teenage years, so therefore, here in no particular order, are 5 Troma films that impacted my viewing history:

Toxic Avenger Part II

1.  Toxic Avenger: Part II (1989)
This one makes the list for two reasons: firstly, because I think it was one of the first Troma films I saw and secondly, because I won a copy of it in a TV competition.  Back in 1990, there was a UK TV VHS video review show called ‘Video View’, hosted by Mariella Frostrup.  For some reason, I entered one of those phone in competitions that has the ridiculously easy answer and somehow won a copy of the film.  There are parts of me that wish I hadn’t won it.

Plot wise, it deals with the typically odd story of Toxie going to Japan to find his long lost Father.  It is, unfortunately, not Troma’s best work and lets down the Toxic Avenger name!

Rabid Grannies

2.  Rabid Grannies (1988)
A splendidly terrible film from Belgium, about 2 Aunts (not grannies!?) who hold a birthday party for themselves, which goes horribly wrong due to a present from the black sheep of the family.

This classic piece of nonsense, quite apart from the awful dubbing, has a terrible plot, the weirdest collection of characters that are drawn from a random bag of stereotypes, and some hilarious gore.  The relatives attending the party are all one dimensional characters, and at no point is anything resembling a decent plot allowed to surface, although plenty of offensive clichés are.

Strangely, it is remarkably silly, enjoyable fun and the awful dubbing just makes it better.

Chopper Chicks in Zombietown

3.   Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (1991)
The ‘plot’ here is that an all female motorcycle gang, the ‘Cycle Sluts’ cruise into a town, run by a megalomaniac intent on creating a Zombie army, and have to rescue a bus full of blind teenagers.  Cue sub, sub, sub-Romero action…

Is it good? No…  Is it really just the title and some funny moments that sell it? Yes…

Oh, and it has Billy Bob Thornton in it!

Class of Nuke 'Em High

4.  Class of Nuke ‘em High (1986)
This is a typical Troma film of the period, with a ridiculous plot, terrible acting and rubbish effects; perfect!  In a standard Troma fashion, the plot here is that the local power plant in ‘Tromaville’ leaks radioactive ooze and mutates the students next door.  Chaos ensues.

This film, and much of the Troma catalogue, is what would have been produced by John Hughes in a twisted alternative world, or had he just been in it for laughs; (although I still don’t like The Breakfast Club).  Much like the Hughes films, and many others after them, this film is set in that ‘Everytown USA’ with a school campus, and has all the same clichés, tropes and stereotypes you’d expect.

Gloriously trashy and bad.

Troma's War

5.  Troma’s War (1988)
Definitely not politically correct and very offensive in some places, this is both typical stuff for Troma, but also a disappointment in other regards.  It’s very, very 80s!

In its simplest terms, the plot is: a group of Tromaville citizens are in a plane crash and then get caught up in the plans of a terrorist army, thus having to save the day.

For a war film, this is exceedingly low budget, but the gore/comedy violence is off the charts and it has some very silly moments, which do endear it to the viewer.  So, while it may be claimed to have ‘epic’ battle sequences, this is stretching the facts a little and the budget shows.  In no way is this Apocalypse Now!

If you think of it as Lost meets The A-Team, you’d be fairly close!

As you can see, by no means are these great films, the best Troma films, or even my favourite Troma films, but they are the ones that I saw, which first introduced me into Lloyd Kaufman’s world; this may or may not have been a good thing.  All I know is that, much like Mystery Science Theater 3000, there is fun to be had!

 

PLEASE NOTE:  I have deliberately not put in any gore screenshots… This is a family site!

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Comments

3 Responses to “Troma: Gloriously Rubbish!”

  1. Jen Sylvia Jen Sylvia says:

    I laughed, out loud, with my actual face, reading the descriptions of the five films. And, because I couldn’t choose one to add to my Horrible Movies That Must Be Seen List, I simply added them all.

  2. Steve Harcourt Steve Harcourt says:

    A wise choice! :)

  3. Edward says:

    I liked the first ‘Toxic Avenger’ movie when a guy gets into a toxic waste than he physically transforms into the deformed monster. Well, I simply think that Lloyd should have his crew do eighty new Monster Transformations movies with billions of makeup air-bladders special effects.

    I really hope this year or next year Lloyd will continue doing billions of Air-Bladders Special Effects to make many alien mutation movies and make thousands more new Body Bulging Transformation Horror movies.

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About the Author

Steve Harcourt
Steve is a musician, moving about in the film world. He also runs a music venue, is in various bands and runs a film company, to combine the music and film strands of his output, with a view to enhancing both sides. Recently, as an offshoot of the film company, he has started producing a radio show: 'Free Seed On Soho' Website: Free Seed Films. Twitter: @slackwagon.