Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

I'm not a Troma fan, usually finding their films too amateurish and puerile for even me to enjoy. Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, however, is actually pretty good.

Like most of their output, it's been made for chicken feed, and features the usual Troma ingredients: gratuitous T&A, shonky OTT gore FX, awful politically incorrect gags, crap direction, and shoddy acting from an extremely untalented cast. But it also manages to be pretty damn funny (there's loads of biting satire and some fun one-liners) and is so deliriously demented that it's almost impossible not to enjoy. Oh... and it's also a musical!!!

The plot to Poultrygeist is every bit as bird-brained as the title suggests: when a fast food outlet is built on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, the result is possessed deep-fried portions of chicken which turn those who eat it into carnivorous zombie fowl. Battling for survival against the feathered undead are American Chicken Bunker counter-'girl' Arbie (Jason Yachanin) and his lesbian girlfriend Wendy (Kate Graham). Will Arbie and Wendy successfully fly the coop, or will they end up pecked to death?

Directed by Troma head honcho Lloyd Kauffman, this film is aimed squarely at the kind of twisted freaks who actively seek out the outrageous and the downright disgusting—so naturally I had to watch it. And, for the most part, Poultrygeist hits the target.

With loads of gross-out gore, plenty of nekkidness, and dubious jokes about bestiality, lesbianism, terrorism, homosexuality, racism, and bowel movements, there is something here to offend everyone! All of this unwholesome content is regularly punctuated by song and dance routines that, although hardly on a par with Sondheim or Lloyd Webber, are still a lot of fun.

The only thing that really lets the film down is its running time: 103 minutes is a bit long for this kind of movie, and the joke does start to wear a bit thin towards the end.

Still, after all that I've said about Troma films in the past, Poultrygeist leaves me with egg on my face!

When Arbie's girlfriend turns out to be a lesbian, he decides not to go to college but to work at the American Chicken Bunker where she always protests. One thing, the American Chicken Bunker was built on an Ancient Indian Burial Ground and on Toxic Waste.

This is bloody, gory, full of gratuitous nudity, vomit and bodily fluids (not to mention poop)... this is Troma. And it references other Troma films (Toxic Avenger, Tromeo and Juliet). And it is a musical.

I recall Uncle Lloyd promoting this film for years, and I half-thought it would never happen and half-thought if it did that the film would be pieced together so poorly that it would be worthless. I was wrong on both counts. While not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, that would not be a Troma film if it was. Not since "Terror Firmer" (1999) have we seen a film like this. Welcome back!

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is Troma's latest offering and easily one of their best movies. Loaded with everything that makes Troma awesome; copious gore, breasts, sex, lesbians, political incorrectness, scatological humour, fat people, slime, car crashes...did I mention gore and sex?? Poultrygeist tells the wonderful story of an American Chicken Bunker fast food store being built on an Ancient Indian Burial Ground (the 'Tromahawk' tribe, to be precise). Young Arbie decides to work there to defy his now ex-girlfriend (who is now a lesbian). What follows is, in typical Troma style, the employees fending off a horde of zombie-chickens who want to the humans flesh.

Lloyd Kaufman has returned to his 'Toxic Avenger' roots and gone for a gross-out comedy/musical/horror that is so much fun, it is hard not to love. Consistently funny the whole way through, with some excellent musical numbers and some truly disgusting special effects, 'Poultrygeist' proves that morally incorrect satire is still alive and kicking. The fact that movies like 'Meet the Spartans' get theatrical releases and this doesn't further proves something needs to be done to get these far superior flicks out for everyone else to enjoy.

Of course, you have to take into account that the acting is not that good (although surprisingly passable), it looks cheap, the story is incredibly random and illogical and it IS shocking. The point of the movie is to be as foul as possible, and it works. The last 20 minutes are a non-stop gore-fest that is bound to please gorehounds around the world.

4½/5

I'm a huge fan of Troma films, especially the Toxic Avenger flicks, although I haven't seen a lot lot of Troma movies (Tromeo and Juliet's one of my faves also) This movie is freaking hilarious! It's very low budget, but watching the movie, it doesn't look like it. The acting, for a Troma film, is great, the effects are good, and just the production values look good.

The whole film is satire, and you'd have to have a really good, open sense of humor to enjoy it. Those who hate it obviously didn't "get" it, thinking it took itself too seriously, or maybe they just think Juno is the only funny movie out there.

It's insanely gory and over-the-top with some pretty disgusting moments (durrrr) and just plain fun and hilarious. Also, the musical numbers are pretty sweet!! ANY Troma fan should see this and love it, and even if you've never seen a Troma film, THIS is where you should start! Poultrygeist is an 8/10 !!

It was disgusting, perverse, and childish, and I loved every minute of it--including the times I wanted to throw up. There were quite a few of those. If you're a longtime Troma fan, or if you just like the idea of a musical about zombie chickens full of nudity, gore, and satire, then this movie is for you. The first five minutes delivered more than most movies can in two hours. It was the best Troma movie I've ever seen. The acting was actually good! Don't wait for it to come out on video. Find a theater near you that shows it. I drove 2 hours to see it, and I regret nothing. Nothing. Thank you, Lloyd Kaufman. Thank you, thank you, thank you.