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!

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.

This move is an odd mixture of gross out raunchy, and wonderful satire, mixed in with surprisingly appealing musical numbers.

I mean really really raunchy and gross out. Not for weak of stomach, but the satire makes up for it. If you liked Rocky Horror Picture Show, you may like this.

The story has been detailed elsewhere. I think it could have been a better film without all the gratuitous raunchiness..it still would have been as funny as all get out.

Satire is not seen in films today and this one is done very well in that aspect, poking fun at many aspects of popular culture.

Oh joy of joys,why aren't there more movies like this around.From the opening scene in the cemetery,the songs,"Fast Food Love",is no.1 on my hit parade"MY MEAT IN YOUR BUNS MAKES A SPECIAL SAUCE",LOL,and should be on everybody's,funny as hell yet somehow,bizarrely,touching.The chemistry between the two leads is obvious,and is why this movie works so well for me,apart from the hundreds of other crazy scenes and dialouge.Troma somehow melds all this craziness and disgustingly hilarious anarchy into an almost perfect piece of z-grade pap,but as with almost all Troma film's,there always seems to be an underlying "eco" message in there somewhere,where i'm not exactly,sure but you just know it's in there somewhere.But hey don't take my word for it,buy it,rent it,watch it at a drive-in,(perfect drive-in fare),but whatever you do ,indulge.8/10.

By offending absolutely everyone, POULTRYGEIST can offend no one ... and even if it did, they would be laughing too hard to do anything about it. Nothing is safe from ridicule in this gory TROMA comedy -- fast food people, lesbian people, fat people, Middle Eastern people, Latino people, zombie people, middle-aged male people in scout skirts and thongs ... they all get Tromatized! In addition to buckets of chocolate pudding, chicken guts and lime gelatin, this movie also contains singing and dancing, which sends an over-the-top film right over the edge. Bring a strong stomach, a sense of humor ... and any friends who don't take themselves too seriously.