This weekend I finally got around to watching Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Poultrygeist was made by Troma, a studio known for making gross-out style horror exploitation movies. Poultrygeist is about a boy who falls in love with a girl, who leaves him to go be a militant anti-corporate lesbian. The two meet up later at a protest rally just before the grand opening of a fried chicken fast food hut. To spite the girl, the main character takes a job at the American Chicken Bunker. The main characters all have fast food inspired names... The protagonist is Arby, his lesbian girl friend is Wendy. The manager of the store is named Denny and the gay mexican cook is called Paco Bell. This film lived up to my expectations, in that it was full of low budget mutilations, frequent decapitations and rampant nudity.There is plenty of politically incorrect humor throughout the movie, which is to be expected from Troma. For example, the muslim character, named Humus, wears a burka until the end of the film when she strips down to a bikini and suicide bombs the zombies. Or, the sage advise to use the zombie Tromahawk indian-Chicken's weakness against them, which we learn is their addiction to the white man's fire water. Political correctness isn't really something you should expect from a movie in which a third of all deaths are farting or shitting related. One big surprise for me was the use of "Drop Kick the Punks" by The Faint in the background during the main zombie melee scene.
My main gripe with this movie is the acting. I realize the actors are purposely overacting and intentionally sucking... but some times it's a little too over-the-top. Not a major complaint given the calibre of film we're talking about, but still...
As with any Troma movie, the series' creator, Lloyd Kaufman makes an appearance. Ron Jeremy also shows up towards the beginning of the film. If it weren't for Troma I don't think Ron Jeremy would be able to put food on the table anymore. Another recurring element that shows up in Poultrygeist, is the stock footage of a 1970s sedan doing a barrel roll after crashing during a car chase. Classic. Anyone watching a Troma movie for the first time has to be made aware of such things ahead of time, otherwise it'd be like watching one big inside joke.
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is worth the trouble of watching if you are a fan of Troma, bad movies or if you just don't have anything better to do for ninety minutes. Here is the trailer if you aren't convinced:
Troma is just too weird.