‘Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1’ Review: Sex, Drugs and Toxic Tacos

“Return to Nuke ‘Em High Vol. 1” is a over the top comedy filled with sex, violence and toxic tacos; the perfect formula for a good ol’ fashioned Troma cult film.

RTNH Vol. 1 is Troma Entertainment’s latest film, one Lloyd Kaufman (Troma President and the film’s director) has branded as the event film. One story told over the course of two films.

The film opens with a narration from the living legend and father of the Marvel Universe, Stan Lee. We are taken back to Tromaville High School. It has been years since the Tromaville Nuclear Power Plant, conveniently located right next to Tromaville High, was bulldozed after nuclear waste transformed faculty and students into mutated freaks. Cut to present day, the Power Plant is now Tromorganic Food Stuff Inc. a company that is all profits, profits, profits. When Taco Tuesday rolls around at Tromaville High, students and faculty chow down on tacos filled with waste left over from the Power Plant. The tacos inexplicably transform the Glee Club into a merry gang of violent cretins who terrorize the school. After a sexual encounter that gives a lesbian couple the power to fight the Glee Club, it is up to them to end their reign of terror.

Oscar worthy stuff right?

Troma has been able to craft its own brand of humor and story telling that is so self- aware and ridiculous that it is hard not to laugh when a blind security guard is trying to take away the wrong student. It is not a brand of humor that sits well with everyone though, as not so PC jokes like you can’t walk in this town wearing a hoodie and carrying skittles without getting shot will have some people heading towards the exits rather than laughing.

Although the story will make you shake your head in disbelief, at the center of the story is a romance that adds a light heartedness to the film. This is a nice touch as the world is slipping into chaos, Chrissy (Asta Paredes) and Lauren (Cathering Corcoran) are able to find love. It’ll remind Troma fans of Troma’s holy grail, “The Toxic Avenger.”

Like the Troma films before it, RTNH Vol. 1 has some of the most over the top performances you will ever see but its hard to judge a film on acting when the film is set in a school where School shootings are so common CNN will not cover it anymore. The films leads Asta Paredes and Catherine Corcoran are fun as the mutant lesbian duo and the rest of the cast has fun with their roles. Cameos by “30 Rock” star Judah Freidlander and Troma mascot Toxie add to the ridiculous and fun world Kaufman has built. It is not a Troma film without a partying Toxie.

The soundtrack adds to the fun, compiled of indie bands Kaufman discovered on twitter. Rape Door’s “I’m Going to Kill Myself Tonight” fits right into RTNH’s twisted self-aware world.

One huge knock on the film is its ending. The film ends at a pretty weird point in the story. The story will continue with its sequel, but there were several points in the movie that would have been a better way to conclude this part of the story. It have you yearning for Vol. 2. Rather than building an epic crescendo that most event films have, the ending will just make you forget how much fun the film actually was because of bland it is.

Troma aficionados will flock in droves to pick up RTNH Vol. 1 as it is one of their most fun films to date; however the uninitiated will not take too kindly to some of the insensitive humor and violence. RTNH Vol. 1 is a return to form for Kaufman and Troma who have been off the radar for a couple of years now; they have reminded movie goers why they have been a landmark in cult films for nearly 40 years. It is fun, violent and sweet in a kind of mutated sick kind of way, all the makings of a cult classic.