Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Troma Films

R0 NTSC

3 DVD Special Edition

Poultrygeist is the latest in a long line of outrageous horror comedies from Lloyd Kaufman and Troma. Troma began with in the mid 1970s when Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz began producing and distributing sex comedies such as The First-Turn On and Squeeze Play. However, it was in 1985 that Troma experienced true box office success with the horror comedy superhero film The Toxic Avenger, this was followed by many sequels and even an animated series. Troma also produced a large number of other cult films as well as being a major distributor in the field. Over the years Troma has developed its unique brand of irreverent humour, which while politically incorrect and potentially offensive, actually has an undercurrent of social criticism. For example, even in Toxic Avenger, it is the nerd who becomes the superhero, while the sports jocks are portrayed as the villians. The superhero doesn’t kill indiscriminately, but only attacks criminals. I have always found Troma titles hilarious, shocking and horrifying at the same time, the mixture of gore and humour is a truly winning package.

Poultrygeist is really the ultimate Troma film, it seems to be the climax of over 30 years of refining humour, biting satire, sex and bodily fluid jokes and gore. It is quite extreme so be warned, it has many scenes which are uniquely perverse. While there are certainly lots of politically-incorrect jokes about ethnicity, sex, gender and religion, the movie offers some surprisingly intelligent dialogue about consumerism, sexism, racism and even animal rights, admittedly in a truly bizarre package.

Arbie (Jason Yachanin) , a recent high school grad can’t afford to go to college, in his own words his mother is blind and his father is a retard. He is having a good time in the local cemetery with his girl Micki (Allyson Sereboff), when attacked by a strange creature, they escape – but not because Arbie has got hold of its finger from his arse and kept it as a memento. (This is a good warning that this movie has a lot of backside and defecation humour!). Micki is off to college and promises not to change or lose her love for him, but they drift apart.

Some years later he goes to the opening of the local American Chicken Bunker store. American Chicken Bunker is a powerful conglomerate which has destroyed a local Native American burial ground to build its new premises in Tromaville. General Lee Roy (Robin Watkins) is the CEO of American Chicken Bunker and is a member of the KKK just like his daddy.

Arbie is shocked to find his girlfriend is now an avowed lesbian and is protesting against American Chicken Bunker, in fury, he launches into one of the many musical numbers in the movie and then starts to work as ACB as a “counter girl”. Other staff include a gay Mexican named Paco Bell (Khalid Rivera), an redneck animal lover (a true “animal lover” ) named Carl Jr. (Caleb Emerson), and a Muslim woman named Humas (Rose Ghavami). The manager, Denny (Joshua Olatunde), is an African American. Of course, these characters allow for every possible joke and comedy situation you can imagine, most made in terribly bad taste. However, for all their potential shock value, they are actually used to ridicule prejudice rather than reinforce it. It is one of things that endears me to Troma, it may seem to offend on the surface, but when you look closely it has a very open and subversive attitude. At the same time, these characters are lots of fun and offer some highly outrageous humour ranging from the chicken scene with Carl Jr and the suicide scene with Humas (see in the extras). There is also lots of lesbian humour and, of course, the required semi nude shots.

As the curse of the Native American Indian Burial Ground takes effect the horror begins and boy, does the horror pack a punch. It begins with the death of various staff including Carl Jrn as he “plucks a chicken” (literally) and Paco as he tries to add “his special sauce” to the chicken mix ! However, death is not the end, they are transformed in to possessed chicken zombies !

This is truly impressive entertainment, with lots of humour, satire, musical numbers, bizarre set pieces, gore, sex, more gore and more sex ! It is really the climax of years of evolution within the Troma studios and is the ultimate Troma extravaganza !

The three DVD special edition package certainly gives the film the attention it deserves.

Disc 1 includes the features and a range of extras accessed via a very fun chicken storefront menu with lots of clucking. There is a excellant audio track from Kaufman and the team, a strange trailer called Lovely Scenes From Bergman's 'Virgin Spring ' and a couple of music videos - Calamari Safari Music Video - Not By New Found Glory and Count Smokula Music Video. There are also Troma previews (six) and some hidden Easter eggs. (These are not too difficult to find)

Disc 2 Poultry In Motion: Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken is a feature length behind the scenes documentary that is brutally honest about the work that goes into creating an indie low budget film.

Tromahawk Nuggets includes such gems as a clip from the New York City Premiere, Blow Me... Away - Shooting The ACB Explosion Sequence, Recording the Songs on how the music was made and Designing the Monsters on how the special effects were done on a budget. There are also a few other special effects sections and related background information on how the film was developed.

There are four deleted scenes including the original ending planned for the film and the controversial but fun Huma Suicide Song which was cut from the film.

Disc 3 is the Kara-Yolk-E disc. Here you can play some of the songs with lyrics and sing along (I kid you not) The songs included here are Poultrygeist Theme Song, Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Fried, Fast Food Love, Generous General, Longing To Live - Waiting To Die, and Suicide. There are also some further trailers.

This is really quite an astounding collector’s edition and only a limited number of these sets will be released (15,000), considering the popularity of Troma films you better get in quick.