REVIEW: Poultrygeist
It’s been several years since I’ve rekindled my guilty love for Troma Pictures and with their new film Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead already out I felt that I had to watch it somehow… and I did. The films is about a nerdy kid who takes up a job at The American Chicken Bunker as revenge for his girlfriend leaving him and becoming involved with another girl who is out to bring the corporation down. Little do they know, the restaurant was built on an Indian burial ground and the spirits have possessed the dead chickens and they come alive to feast on the brains of the living, as well as turn others into rabid chicken zombies. “What the hell?†is what I have to say about this movie. It has sex, boobs, and disgusting scenes involving feces, singing, dancing, blood, zombies, violence, perverted imagery and sodomy so basically it’s your typical run-of-the-mill Troma movie.
Let me first state the obvious here; the acting is really, really, really bad and it’s almost laughable at how there is no thought or effort into the characters but Troma is notorious for doing this on purpose. It actually adds to the film’s b-movie quality. There is also, and this is key to any Troma picture, really bad voice dubbing and voice-overs. I think it’s a hallmark quality of theirs and I think that’s why I really enjoyed Class of Nuke ‘Em High and The Toxic Avenger. Despite these insufferable bad qualities, the production of the movie is astonishing.
I am the type of person who loves potty humor and dick jokes as long as there is a method behind them and not just there just to be there and boy is this film chuck filled with them. You literally see a fat guy take a crap into the toilet from the toilet’s perspective with liquid crap pumping, like a fountain, out of his ass on to the walls behind. There is hardcore (fake) sodomy and dead people shoving their fingers up people’s asses. In once scene they shove the end of a broom up a zombie’s ass and it shoots out through his crotch and it becomes part of his penis. On top of that, the dialogue is so brilliant and raunchy that is holds up to the film’s perverted nature; everything from being a ‘chicken shit’ to ‘choking the chicken’ is told and showed.
Poultrygeist also shows no effort into being P.C. and what I mean by that is: people describe the gays as being flamboyant and wearing pink colored shorts and one of the main characters in the film is a Muslim girl who is wrapped in a burka. The employees think that she killed one of the fry cooks just because she is Muslim and throughout the film the characters constantly harass and poke fun at her about blowing the place up. Even the Mexican employee turns out to be gay and some of the stuff he says… oh man.
To my surprise, this movie is also a musical and I have to admit that it is quite catchy and some of the musical numbers are really nice. One of my favorite songs is ‘Fast Food Love,’ oh I can hum that all day. I also want to point out that, much like The Stuff, this film pokes fun at the controversy surrounding the fast-food industry killing people with fatty foods and abusing animals. It’s satirical and the film makes no effort to side with either side and in the end it stays neutral… surprisingly. It’s also funny to note that the characters are all named after major fast food corporations such as Arbie, Wendy, Denny, Carl Jr. and Jose Paco Bell. It’s done in the similar fashion that Night of the Creeps did with horror directors
Even the zombies in this movie were pretty original looking. Everything from the zombie frozen chicken to the zombie/chicken crossbreed humans was wonderfully designed. Their flesh was rotting, they spat green good and yet they had the logic and motor skills of a fully functioning human being. I liked that each of the zombies grew giant beaks, cawed and grew feathers… it was kind of like Black Sheep in the sense that the chicken monsters retain their human qualities. The gore was also really satisfying.
I should probably end this review quickly because I can really get down into the greasy morsels of this movie. All in all, this was such a stupid movie but I was entertained, to say the least, by it and that’s what it all boils down to. Put your mind on cruise control, forget about the healthy film diet and sink your teeth into this deep-fried juicy goodness. After all that was said and done, I am craving me some friend chicken.
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