Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)

The Worst Film Ever

Strong and Moving!

A Masterpiece!

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Studios again assault your senses with this typically insane combination of horror, comedy, musical, and social satire. It's not likely to convert people if they already can't stand this brand of entertainment, but it will almost certainly be catnip for devoted fans of Troma and their "art". It's exactly what you'd expect from them: WAY over the top, gleefully tacky makeup effects and gore, utter shamelessness, a cheerful skewering of several different targets (they are diplomatic in their approach here), and a never ending amount of childish enthusiasm.Jason Yachanin stars as Arbie, an aimless young man whose girlfriend Wendy (Kate Graham) became a lesbian during her time in college. He sees that she and her new partner Micki (Allyson Sereboff) are protesting the installation of a fried chicken restaurant dubbed American Chicken Bunker over an ancient Indian burial ground. The Indian spirits are angry, of course, so they possess the chicken, the customers eat the chicken, and they all turn into demons. Arbie gets a job there in an attempt to spite her, but it will be up to him and Wendy and a few others to save the day.Uncle Lloyd and company go for broke with their screenplay, which embraces being as politically incorrect as possible. They make fun of just about everybody. And the actors, while they may not be master thespians, just go to town with this material. Subtlety? Who needs it! This IS a Troma film, after all, and they never were known for their restraint. One very obvious joke: key characters are named after major American fast-food and restaurant franchises: Arby's, Wendy's, McDonald's, Carls' Jr., Taco Bell, Denny's.Particularly amusing are Robin L. Watkins as a Colonel Sanders-inspired villain, Joshua Olatunde as the manager, Kaufman himself as a weary veteran of the fast-food industry, and porn legend Ron Jeremy in a very quick cameo as a doomsayer.The songs are fairly catchy, there is enough bare flesh to pique voyeur interest, and some viewers are sure to be chortling at the sheer volume of gross-you-out gags. All in all, this is reasonably fun, but it does go on longer than it really should, and it loses some steam.Six out of 10.

I had high expectations when I settled in to watch this, (well, as high as one can get with a Troma movie), however even for them this seems to be nothing more than an drunken excuse to sully their "So bad it's good" reputation. To say that this movie took so many years from script writing to the final product is really indicative of the problems that are obvious throughout the movie as it doesn't gel together like many other Troma films seem to do.This movie is just plain bad in every sense. It starts off fine enough with a young couple, (Arbie & Wendy), getting it on in a old Native American burial ground and before you know it, in typical Troma fashion, the place gets bulldozed and paved over to make way for a burger joint. Suffice to say, the deceased members of the "Tromahawk" tribe are none too happy about it.Arbie has returned to the spot of his one and only sexual encounter and found that burger chain, American Chicken Bunker now stands on the site and Wendy has become a lesbian who's in the midst of protesting the fast-food chain along with her activist girlfriend. So naturally Arbie decides the best way to get revenge, is to get a job there.From there the movie seems to really lack that panache that made many other Troma movies, as low-budget as they may be, enjoyable to watch. I didn't really see the point in having musical numbers throughout the movie, which just slowed it right down. After the first 2 songs, I found myself fast-forwarding the rest as they didn't even add to the story.With a movie like this, you expect bad acting, poor effects, little story, nudity and over-the-top death and dismemberment scenes, yet even knowing this before hand, still won't prepare you for this futile attempt at making a low-budget and watchable movie. The sort of stuff that made Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke Em High and the original Mothers Day etc. the trashy classics that they are.There are quite a number of disgusting and inventive torturous death scenes and random displays of nudity in Poultrygeist to keep most fans of exploitive movies happy throughout, (the woman who gets her breast implants ripped out is a new one), however if you're no stranger to Troma films, there's very little that hasn't been done before. Instead of Zombie Rednecks, Zombie Kids or Rabid Grannies, it's simply Zombie Chicken people who are now disemboweling people, which leaves me to wonder why even make a movie like this. The overall premise of the story is trashy enough to make a fun blood-drenched movie, but the singing, child-like acting and recycled humour just made it boring to watch, (I fell asleep twice while watching this), so there's my summation of Poultrygeist - A snooze-fest.

The movie is in the same time gory, funny, stupid, musical (complete with dance routines), offensive, gross , racist and it features Ron Jeremy in a cameo. It's what you get when you build a chicken fast food on an Native American burial ground in Tromaville.You have to understand that I just had to watch it all. I knew it was sick, but I did it anyway. I rated it 3 stars because the musical scenes annoyed me, otherwise I would have rated it 2, that is: so bad it is worth watching.Truth be told, the movie had great potential for fun, I was in a continued state of disgust but with a happy smile on my face at the same time. However, the jokes almost turned into one of those Scary Movie kind and that potential was partially lost.It is not with zombie chickens, but people zombies with chicken attributes. It is not really a horror movie, but a parody. It is what you would get for crossing American Pie with Poltergeist, Scary Movie and a political movie against fast food chains. Damn effective, too. I can't imagine anyone actually eating chicken after they saw this film. You will find yourselves unconsciously ordering veal or pork and not know why :)Bottom line: could have been better, but who am I kidding? They never went for quality here. Had some good jokes amongst a lot of average to bad ones.

It is impossible to describe the movies from the studio Troma Films to the people who have never experienced the sensory aggression provoked by the combination of amateur enthusiasm, technical ineptitude and grotesque humor offered by films like Terror Firmer, Tromeo & Juliet, Class of Nuke'em High and the saga of The Toxic Avenger (composed by four films so far).This legendary studio has made of its filmography an ode to the bad taste, political in-correction and nudeness.In other words, there are not any taboos for Troma Films, and even though its director (corporative and film) Lloyd Kaufman is not tired of classifying his movies as "art" (ironically, I hope so), it is obvious that his main intention is making us laugh, showing us scenes of a very bad taste and maybe making us to think a little bit in between.Or maybe Kaufman takes his art too seriously, and he is the blindest director to his own incompetence.But I am sure it is not like that.Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is the 10th "Tromatic" film from Kaufman, and I have to admit this is the most ambitious and polished film from the studio.By "ambitious", I wanna say it has more special effects, more extras and more nudeness.Anyway, like most of the Troma films, I found Poultrygesit to be a fascinating experience, although I am perfectly conscient it is not a movie for everyone.What I mostly appreciated in this film is that it uses its story to bring a genuine message about North American obsession with fast food.I truly appreciated to see that there was a real purpose behind the stylistic and visual excesses.And when I mean "excesses", I am talking about things that even director and screenwriter John Waters would consider as bad taste.For example, there is a scene showing a fat man defecating...shown from the lavatory's point of view.I liked Poultrygeist very much, and I found it to be an excellent example of authentic independent cinema.However, I perfectly understand why some people may hate this movie and consider it as a precursor of the Apocalypse, and that is what makes it difficult to recommend.In summary, this is definitely not a film for everyone.