Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) Troma Films/Comedy-Horror-Musical RT: 103 minutes No MPAA rating (extremely bloody violence and gore, graphic nudity, strong sexual content, language, racial slurs, icky special effects, gross bathroom humor, alcohol abuse) Director: Lloyd Kaufman Screenplay: Daniel Bova, Gabriel Friedman and Lloyd Kaufman Music: Duggie Banas Cinematography: Brendan C. Flynt Release date: May 2008 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham, Allyson Sereboff, Robin L. Watkins, Joshua Olatunde, Caleb Emerson, Rose Ghavami, Khalid Rivera, Joe Fleishaker (as “Mega Herz”), Lloyd Kaufman, Ron Jeremy, Faith Sheehan (as “Faith Sheenan Gallivan”), Tessa Lew, John Karyus, Brian Cheverie. Box Office: $13,804 (US)/$22,623 (World)
Rating: *** ½
I may never eat fried chicken again.
No, I’m not going vegan on you. I just watched Troma’s horror spoof Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and it does for fast food fried chicken what Stand by Me does for blueberry pie. You’ll never even want to look at a KFC sign after bearing witness to what goes down at the grand opening of American Chicken Bunker in scenic Tromaville, NJ (home of Toxie!).
The first mistake made by ACB founder General Lee Roy (Watkins) was building his newest franchise on what used to be the Tromahawk Native American Burial Ground. Bad things tend to happen when you desecrate sacred ground. Have we learned nothing from Poltergeist? But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me start at the beginning.
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead opens with high school sweethearts Arbie (Yachanin) and Wendy (Graham) attempting to have sex in the dilapidated cemetery. It’s far from the most romantic spot on earth and not just because of the creepy guy with an axe masturbating while watching them. It’s also because of the zombie hands sprouting from the ground trying to get into the act. Needless to say, poor Arbie remains a virgin.
One college semester later, their special spot is now home to a new ACB franchise. Not only that, Wendy turned into a “left wing, lipstick lesbo liberal” courtesy of her activist girlfriend Micki (Sereboff). Arbie spots them making out in a crowd of demonstrators picketing the chicken joint. Understandably hurt and angry, he promptly goes inside and applies for a job. That is, after he belts out a heartfelt number called “Revenge Is a Dish Best Served Fried”. Yep, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is also a musical.
ANYWAY, the manager Denny (Olatunde) hires Arbie as a “counter girl”. It isn’t long before the weirdness begins starting with a fat facsimile of (former) Subway spokesperson Jared taking a wicked, messy dump all over the bathroom. It’s the side effect of consuming a slimy, pulsating alien egg inadvertently served with his Sloppy Jose sandwich, their equivalent of the Big Mac.
Let’s just cut right to the chase. It’s the angry spirits of the Tromahawks AND the billions of chickens slaughtered in “concentration coops” taking revenge. When people eat the food tainted by the alien eggs, they turn into homicidal chicken zombies with a taste for human flesh. It’s up to Arbie and Wendy to save the day. It bears mentioning Arbie isn’t the brightest bulb in the pack. For example, it takes him forever to figure out the mysterious old co-worker (Lloyd Kaufman himself!) is his future self. Is it any wonder he decided against college?
In order to fully appreciate a Troma title, you first need to understand their movies are intentionally bad and incompetent. Do you honestly expect high cinematic art from titles like The Toxic Avenger, Class of Nuke ‘Em High, Surf Nazis Must Die and Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD? I certainly hope not! Thankfully, none of Troma’s films are even remotely serious. Once you let go of any and all preconceived notions of cinema as fine art, you might have a good time with any one of their movies.
That is definitely the case with Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, a wild, zany and insanely OTT goof on zombie flicks that’s equally apt to trigger the gag reflex as tickle the funny bone. It’s riotously funny, extremely disgusting and totally bizarre. It’s what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum. Director Kaufman doesn’t hold back at any point in any area. Over the course of 102 nauseating minutes, we’re treated to gallons of green vomit, projectile diarrhea, repulsive body horror and a river of blood. One of the goriest bits is a scene where a Mexican co-worker by the name of Paco Bell (Rivera) gets pushed into a meat grinder by an uncooked chicken. He’s reincarnated as a talking Sloppy Jose. I swear I’m not making any of this up. Other highlights include a guy getting his penis bitten off by a chicken head and another fellow getting his head ripped off by a chicken zombie.
There’s plenty more to Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. It has out-of-nowhere musical numbers, lesbian sex, bestiality (in a manner of speaking), slimy effects, zombie-finger butt plugs, reanimated frozen chickens, bad acting, worse dialogue and Ron Jeremy. It also gives us a POV shot from inside the toilet bowl when fake fat Jared takes a dump. Yeah, it’s a first for me too.
In addition to all else, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is exceedingly un-PC with its exaggerated stereotypes (racial, ethnic and otherwise). The line cook is a burqa-wearing, suicide-bombing Muslim named Hummus (Ghavami). A redneck co-worker, Carl Jr. (Emerson), likes to have sex with uncooked chickens. BTW, do you notice something odd about the characters’ names? Uh-huh, they’re all named after fast food places. That explains the other ACB employees Hardee, Long John and Red Lobster.
The musical numbers, performed by non-singers/non-dancers, are really something. I don’t know what, but they’re definitely something. The toppers have to be Arbie’s three-way sex fantasy with Wendy and Micki “Milk Milk Lemonade” and one (“Slow Fast Food Love”) that features topless lesbian dancers prancing around the bad where Arbie (also topless) sings his heart out to Wendy (also topless) while she’s fooling around with Micki (also topless).
No two ways about it, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is NUTS! It’s vile and revolting, yet you can’t avert your eyes. It gives new meaning to the term “over the top”. It’s clearly not for everybody. I can think of a few people that would bolt from the room before the 20-minute mark. Me, I think it’s great even if it isn’t great filmmaking. I’d call it ballsy. Kaufman is like a very low-rent Mel Brooks. He aims to offend and gross out audiences with Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. I’d say he more than succeeds in this case.
