jfrentzen-942-204211 Review of Toxin

Toxin (2015)

Some interesting twists and turn in low budget bio-terror thriller

[6/10 · 17 May 2016]

The bio-terror thriller is always ripe for a reboot, and TOXIN keeps alive the idea that scientists that work on creating and/or trying to control an unleashed virus are usually portrayed as at least somewhat psychotic. That approach is on view in this low budget but effective thriller, in which Danny Glover gives a good "I'm calm behind these eyes" performance as this film's resident psychotic researcher. Glover is well aided by Vinnie Jones and athletic Taylor Handle, as the heroic Dean who attempts and nearly succeeds in getting anti-serum to his girlfriend (the exceptional Margo Harshmann), who is slowly dying from exposure. Dudek gets good intensity from his leads and offers Fiona Hale a juicy part as Granny Sara. Director Dudek is, though, not well served by screenwriter Dudek. The teenage body count section dips its toe into parody territory, but it is played straight. And too many teenie characters are broadly played by lesser 2nd tier actors. Once Dean goes after Glover the movie gets more interesting, with a fairly good, logical ending for this type of anti-science movie. The science, incidentally, sounds pretty loose when it comes to the bio warfare aspect, although there are some mildly startling uses of CGI to portray 3-D computerisms and the bacterium itself.... those things give the movie some needed production value.