Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead Starring Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham & Allyson Sereboff Directed by Lloyd Kaufman Written by Daniel Bova, Gabriel Friedman & Lloyd Kaufman

So if you’ve ever seen a Troma movie and loved it, then you’ll love Poultrygeist. If you have seen a Troma film and were disgusted, then disregard this film and its review.

Now, for those of you who have no idea what the hell I’m talking about, here’s a taste.

Poultrygeist begins in a cemetery on a cold, dark night. A couple of teens frolic among the graves, in love, looking to give in to their carnal desires. Aided by a corpse’s finger jammed in the posterior of young Arbie, he and his best girl Wendy are finally going to consummate their love, when they suffer from ‘coitus interruptus’ in the form of a couple of dirty rednecks with nothing shy of a little sodomy on their minds. With some undead intervention, the two lovebirds escape, but they part ways after the traumatizing affair, not to see each other again until…

Later, that same graveyard is bulldozed to make way for a new American Chicken Bunker restaurant. Arbie is employed as the typical cashier & whipping boy for the place, but dismayed when he finds his love Wendy joining the picket line, protesting the restaurant’s use of an ancient tribal burial ground as the location for its newest diner. Furthermore, Wendy is now a lesbian, her strong-arm girlfriend beating that point into Arbie, while simultaneously torturing his testicles.

Arbie swears he’ll reconvert Wendy to her former hetero ways, or at least get some sweet revenge, but his plans are put on hold when the ancient burial ground’s curse overtakes the Chicken Bunker, turning its patrons, and eventually the protesters, into an army of flesh-eating chicken zombies!

Sound ridiculous? Well… it is. Did I mention Poultrygeist was a musical?

Ahh, but there is a point to all of the mayhem. While the film does eventually turn into a slaughterhouse, finding new, inventive ways to use fast food utensils and giant chickens to rend people limb from limb (puns spewing at a rate only matched by the gushing blood), Troma’s patented political commentary is never lost on the viewer… in fact its probably more heavy-handed in Poultrygeist than in any previous Troma film!

Legend has it that the film was inspired by a McDonald’s franchise opening up next to Troma’s New Jersey headquarters. At first, everyone was okay with this, but one day, Troma’s building was infested with rats, teeming in the basement, and wandering to upper levels to nip at the toes of unsuspecting workers. Poultrygeist director and Troma co-founder Lloyd Kaufman wandered into the basement to fight off the fiendish vermin with his trusty broom, only to find that the rats were being attracted and sustained by the waste that was carelessly being left out by the McDonald’s and its workers. Complaints were issued, little was done, and Lloyd began to investigate his neighbors, their habits, and the practices of McDonalds and other fast food corporations. From their selfish failings comes Poultrygeist.

Of course, while the fast food industry is Troma’s main target this time around, no one is safe, the corporations, their workers, their customers, vegans, Indians, lesbians, Virginians (they’re for lovers), no one is safe from Troma’s typical “hurt them till they laugh till it hurts” practice. Even PETA is lampooned, and Lloyd is supportive enough of PETA to place their ads in the special features sections of many Troma DVD’s. In the Troma-verse, everyone is equally retarded… except the retards, I guess. They get double.

This is the finest of low-budget hysteria, and its funny, very funny. It takes a bit more build up than most Troma films before the yuks start rolling, but once they do, the jokes fly by, almost faster than you can process them. The blood and guts are tremendous, and often surprising… as always Troma continues to push and push and push the boundaries of good taste, leaving you feeling awestruck, and maybe even a little dirty by the end of it all.

The weakest part of the experience really is the songs though, as much as I hate to say it. I credit Lloyd for trying something new in a Troma feature, and I know he was very proud of them, but the songs are just horrendous. I’d have liked the idea if the songs were funny AND sounded good, something that you’d find yourself singing under your breath all day (somehow, Team America’s “America, Fuck Yeah!” comes to mind). Instead we get a handful of songs that are embarrassing to listen to and are probably the blandest part of the movie. Arbie’s song to the lesbians has a few gags, but the Colonel’s musical Chicken Bunker commercial is atrocious. Even the boob-a-licious Tromettes in the background can’t save it. Next time guys, hire a song writer, maybe a producer, for the music. As it is, the songs are probably why the movie seems to take so long to build to a head. Every time the jokes start rolling, and the mania looks to be coming to a head, another song pops up, causing more eye-rolls than laughs every time.

Gripes aside, it’s a good outing from Troma, fitting happily on your shelves next to Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke’em High, and Cannibal the Musical. The DVD itself is a thing of beauty, but then, Troma has always been exceptionally generous in their DVD offerings. The 3-disc set, just released last month, is packed with documentaries, extra footage, and tons of trailer of other Troma films, new and old, for you to view and enjoy.

For the uninitiated, go forth, and be prepared. If you aren’t sure just how much flesh-eating, blood-flying, shit-spewing filth you can take, this movie is sure to help you gauge it. Beyond the buckets of bodily fluids, there’s some really clever comedy to be enjoyed.

Good Night, and Good Cluck!

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