As you probably know, The Toxic Avenger premieres in theatres worldwide today, in which janitor Winston Gooze is transformed into a disfigured monster. Armed with a mop, he now intends to tackle the injustices of the world.
When we saw the first trailer, it was pretty obvious that this was going to be a violent story, and now GeekTyrant says it might be even worse than we thought. They quote a bunch of people who went to early screenings, saying that folks were leaving theatres in droves because it was so gruesome.
One person writes on Reddit, for example
"Toxic Avenger. Wouldn't be my thing at all but hey, cheap ticket and I love the cinema. Four people left once the title card came up. Then another four after about 10/15 minutes. Stopped counting after another few people got up to go as well. We gave it a good 40 minutes before all six of us left, just god awful."
On X, we see the same trend, with another person adding:
"Most walkouts I've ever had with a screening at the Odeon Scream Unseen of The Toxic Avenger."
It doesn't seem to be that the film is bad; on the contrary, it has received almost universally positive reviews, and it is said to be all the gratuitous and gory violence that has caused people to react so strongly.
Are you going to check out The Toxic Avenger this weekend, and have you ever left a movie theatre in the middle of a film?