The Plot
Arbie (Jason Yachanin) and Wendy (Kate Graham) are high school sweethearts who must face the inevitable separation caused by college. Unfortunately for Arbie, Wendy develops a new hobby during her first semester in school: militant lesbianism. As a member of C.L.A.M. (Collegiate Lesbians Against Mega-conglomerations), she returns to town -- where Arbie has remained busy doing nothing -- to protest the construction of an American Chicken Bunker restaurant on a Tromahawk Indian burial ground.
Arbie, upset that Wendy has dumped him for both a woman and a cause, seeks revenge by getting a job at ACB...as the "counter girl" (skirt in tow). However, unbeknownst to him and his new coworkers -- a crude cross-section of various races and religions -- vengeful Indian spirits have permeated the restaurant's food, turning the eggs into pulsating, green, slimy messes. Of course, this doesn't stop the workers from serving them for breakfast.
Through a series of increasingly graphic bodily function-laden set pieces, the customers and protesters all turn into half-chicken zombies with a taste for human flesh. It's up to Arbie and Wendy, along with African-American manager Denny (ironic, given Denny's past lawsuits for racial discrimination), Arab cook Humus, gay Mexican Paco Bell, dimwitted hillbilly Carl Jr. and the Colonel Sanders-ish owner General Lee Roy, to uncover the secret behind the zombie invasion.
The End Product
Troma films are an acquired taste -- or lack thereof. They're love 'em-or-hate 'em affairs in which sophomoric humor, scatology, crude sex acts and splatter gore are the names of the game, and Poultrygeist is no exception. It's an uncompromising farce in the tradition of director Kaufman's Toxic Avenger films and demands immediate consideration for placement in the upper echelon of Troma features (for whatever that's worth).
You can't really judge a movie like this on the same scale as, say, The Orphanage, but for a film with frozen chicken sex, projectile vomiting and an obsession with anuses, it proves to be entertaining. However, Kaufman & Co. aim so specifically for their core audience of juvenile camp aficionados that some of the gags feel like in-jokes, and there's little chance of winning any mainstream converts (not that that should be a goal). That said, there's something to be said for Troma's ability to maintain its energetic independent streak and wacky flavor; Poultrygeist looks and feels like it could've been made on the heels of The Toxic Avenger back in the mid-'80s. (Kudos to Kaufman for not giving in to the digital video craze; film just adds a level of class -- even to a Troma release.)
Despite the low-brow humor, there is intelligent life in Poultrygeist (see references to the Securities and Exchange Act of 1932 and chemist Jacob Marinsky), thanks no doubt to Kaufman's Yale-educated brain. The social satire is at times sharp, mining current events from Abu Ghraib to Mel Gibson, and always biting. It's an equal-opportunity offender, picking on big business, liberal hippies, fast food and practically every race, religion and sexual orientation known to man.
It's all the more frustrating, then, to realize that Kaufman intentionally turns off his brain for long stretches of the film, favoring cheap poop jokes to more insightful fare. (Did I really say "insightful fare" about a Troma film?) Granted, poop jokes make the world go 'round, but a better balance between style and substance would've made Poultrygeist a more successful parody -- something that Troma fans Trey Parker and Matt Stone have mastered on their TV show South Park.
In fact, Poultrygeist is about as close as you'll get to a live-action South Park -- with more poop jokes. Like the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, it incorporates musical numbers -- from rock to country to pop ballads -- although the actors' singing might be the weakest part of the film. (Dubbing, even for comedic effect, might've prevented some eardrum trauma.)
For most people, Troma movies are like reggae music: fine for 20 or 30 minutes, but a relentless, repetitive assault on the senses after the 60-minute mark. Some might find this the case with Poultrygeist, but for its intended audience, it's finger-lickin' good.
The Skinny
- Acting: B- (It's hammy, but hammy is the goal, and the actors -- particularly Jason Yachanin -- commit fully.)
- Direction: B (Kaufman knows what he's doing, and he delivers the camp in all its gleeful excess.)
- Script: C (The poop jokes wear thin by the second half, and not enough is done with the subplot of Arbie "finding himself.")
- Gore/Effects: B+ (Exceptionally gruesome. Campy, but well done.)
- Overall: B- (One of Kaufman's -- and Troma's -- best efforts to date.)
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is directed by Lloyd Kaufman and is not rated, but has tons of gore, language, sexuality, nudity and other naughtiness. It opens in New York on May 9, 2008, and in Los Angeles on June 13, 2008.
