Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead DVD Review

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 11.08.2008

Troma returns with their most critically acclaimed movie but is it actually any good?

Directed by Lloyd Kaufman
Written by Lloyd Kaufman and Gabe Friedman
Cinematography by Brendan Flynt

Cast:
Jason Yachanin ... Arbie
Kate Graham ... Wendy
Allyson Sereboff ... Micki
Robin Watkins ... General Lee Roy
Joshua Olatunde ... Denny
Rose Ghavami ... Humus
Caleb Emerson ... Carl Jr.
Lloyd Kaufman ... Old Arbie
Khalid Rivera ... Pace Bell
Joe Fleishaker ... Jared
Faith Sheehan ... Little Katie
Ron Jeremy ... Crazy Ron



The Film

The back of the DVD advertises this movie is what “Fast Food Nation could have been if it hadn’t sucked.” Welcome to Tromaville.

For those unfamiliar with Troma, it is the longest living independent film company in existence. They have now been in business for over thirty years and have a number of cult hits in their catalogue including The Toxic Avenger, Tromeo and Juliet and Terror Firmer. They have helped launch the careers of Matt Stone and Trey Parker (South Park) and James Gunn (Slither). A few of the trademarks of a Troma film are extremely low budget effects (often a smashed head is clearly a cantaloupe), gratuitous nudity (gratuitous as in for no reason other than to see boobs!), and over the top gore (as in blood and guts flying everywhere).

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead keeps all those trademarks in mind but does something unfamiliar in a Troma film: it actually delivers a message. The American Chicken Bunker is a new themed fast food chicken restaurant. In the fashion of all good horror movies, the restaurant is built on the Tromahawk Indian burial ground. While the owner of the restaurant chain, General Lee Roy, argues the remains have gone to a better place, they actually were tossed in the dumpster behind the restaurant.

It is clear from the beginning the burial grounds were haunted before the restaurant was even built. The movie starts with our hero Arbie and his sweetheart Wendy dry humping at the cemetery before they go their separate ways as Wendy prepares for college. They are quickly assaulted by hands reaching up from the ground, including a bony finger that violates Arbie’s nether regions. Of course, in Troma style, both Arbie and Wendy can only be described as slightly retarded. Neither understands they are being molested by the dead and only stop when they see a redneck masturbating while watching them. After they leave, the redneck fetches Arbie’s tightie whities and starts to sniff them only to be killed by one of the demonic hands. This all occurs before the opening credits.

Believe me, even after that jaw dropping scene, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

When the restaurant is opened, there is a giant protest by a group called CLAM, a militant lesbian faction protesting in the name of the Native Americans. When it is pointed out that the only people protesting are white people, they pull out their token Native American, who is of course drunk and pukes on the ground. The leader of this protest is a girl named Micki, who also happens to be Wendy’s new lover. Arbie, angered by the betrayal of his love gets a job at American Chicken Bunker to get back at her.

The restaurant is staffed by a variety of stereotypes. The manager is a black man named Denny. The fry cook is a gay Mexican named Paco Bell. There is another kitchen employee named Humus, who is Muslim. Carl Jr. is a retarded redneck arguing for the right to practice bestiality. Arbie is hired to be a counter girl. Finally, the owner, General Lee Roy, is a Colonel Sanders wannabe. After all these stereotypes are set into place, and many of the obligatory racial slurs passed around, the spirits of the Native Americans join forces with the spirits of the slaughtered chickens and we soon have the attack of Native American Indian Chicken Zombies.

Of course, this is all prophesized by a mysterious man - ok, its Ron Jeremy playing a guy named Crazy Ron - who tells Arbie danger is coming and then orders food for himself. The gore is then fast and furious. Paco Bell is knocked into a meat grinder and becomes a talking gay barbeque chicken sandwich, trying to warn everyone of the dangers. We also get a cameo by fat man extraordinaire Joe Fleishaker, playing Jared from the Subway commercials, who after eating one of the infected pieces of chicken shits out his insides. We see this from the toilet’s point-of-view by the way.

Of course, at first everyone think Humus is the killer everyone because she is a Muslim and must be a terrorist. Arbie meets a future version of himself (Lloyd Kaufman) who tells him what is happening, but Arbie never figures it out. Even when a dying Carl Jr. tells him what the weaknesses of Native Americans are, Arbie can’t put two and two together. Thankfully, his former sweetheart Wendy, slightly retarded in her own right, figures it out.

Did I mention the first half is sort of a musical?

There are some great song and dance numbers by Arbie and Wendy, including one with a great dance line of naked lesbians. General Lee has an over-the-top musical performance. There is also a very disturbing dance number between Arbie and the older version of himself, which features Lloyd Kaufman’s balls falling out of his thong. This isn’t your daddy’s Troma film.

By the time we reach the end where, in true Troma fashion, they once again use the Sgt. Kabukiman (a 1991 Troma film) car explosion (which was also used in Terror Firmer), Kaufman has thrown everything at you but the kitchen sink. In this movie the gore and splatstick are over-the-top, and at times horrifying, but more of the shit sticks than not in this endeavor. The fact that the movie actually has focus, a commentary on the fast food industry, helps make this less an unnecessary gorefest and it becomes an actual satire. It takes the gore of an Evil Dead or Dead Alive and adds a bit of heart.

At the end of the day, Troma might have finally made its masterpiece. If you are not a fan of Troma style horror, you won’t like this movie. If you are a fan, or just enjoy a few Troma movies here and there, this should be a treasure. It’s as vile as anything Troma has put to screen but might be the best story they have ever penned.

The Video

If you are familiar with Troma, you should know the quality is way below average. With that said, I was completely shocked at the decent quality of the movie. Yeah, the Troma staples of fake looking blood, guts and gore were there, but this actually looked halfway decent.

The Audio

See the above comments about the video and add the fact the movie sounded great, especially compared to other Troma movies.

The Extras

DISC ONE

Lloyd Kaufman and Gabe Friedman Cluck Off - This is the feature length commentary track with director and Troma head honcho Lloyd Kaufman and Gabe Friedman who wrote, produced and edited the movie. As you would expect from any audio track by Lloyd Kaufman, this one is full of anecdotes, real and fake, and he has a good repertoire with Friedman. It is a very entertaining listen.

Introduction (07:14) - Before the movie begins, Lloyd Kaufman introduces us to everyone and is excited about going to the New York premiere of his movie, which he put all his life savings into. When he gets into the theater, there is no one there. See, he is told people already downloaded bootlegs so everyone has seen it already. Instead, they are next door watching Indiana Jones. Therefore, Kaufman goes and bootlegs his own copy of Indiana Jones. He then goes on a rant against China and the bootleg DVD of Poultrygeist, including a suggestion that the president of the company who did it should contemplate suicide. Funny stuff.

Original Theatrical Trailer (03:17) - The trailer is kind of lame and commits the sin of giving away a couple of the jokes. Not a good trailer.

“Lovely Scenes from Bergman’s Virgin Spring” (01:35) - I’m sure you already guessed this was not select scenes from the 1962 Ingmar Bergman’s classic The Virgin Spring. What it is though is an exponentially better trailer than the actual theatrical one. It is moments of gore from the actual zombie attacks overlaid with an original song called “I’m a Zombie Chicken from Tromaville.” Awesome.

Calamari Safari Music Video - Not By New Found Glory (02:38) - This is the music video for the Poultrygeist Theme Song by the band Calamari Safari. It is decent if for no other reason than involving the end credits Thriller type dance routine.

Count Smokula Music Video (02:24) - If you have never heard of Count Smokula, check out his website at www.countsmokula.com. It is - well, it’s a Count Smokula video.

Deep Fried Egg-Stras - Here we get the trailers for The Toxic Avenger (03:12), Terror Firmer (02:13), Citizen Toxie (03:39), Class of Nuke ‘Em High (02:57) and Tromeo and Juliet (01:50). We also get a Troma public service announcement called Radiation March (00:55).

DISC TWO

Poultry in Motion (01:21:58) - The second disc presents us with a feature length documentary chronicling the making of Poultrygeist. Much of the crew was solicited from fans who applied to work for free. Almost everyone lived in an old abandoned church during the shoot and they shot it in an abandoned McDonalds. It is true independent cinema. This is a fantastic documentary and if you learn anything from it, you learn Lloyd Kaufman takes the filmmaking process very seriously. If you don‘t have thick skin, don’t even think of working for this guy. But he is the most passionate filmmaker I have ever seen in a Behind-the-Scenes featurette. Most of the fans admitted they would never do something like this ever again.

Poultrygeist NYC Premiere (09:33) - Everyone (cast and crew) talks about the movie at the premiere. Toxie was there too, of course. It is funny that both lead actresses claim to have never seen a Troma film before they signed up to star in the movie. We also get to see Lloyd Kaufman’s introduction before the premiere of the movie and parts of the question and answer session following the movie.

Gellu-Lloyd Closet - This involves three sections. Make Your Own Damn Omelette (01:17) is an advertisement for the Make Your Own Damn Movie DVD box set. Blow me Away - Shooting the ACB Explosion Sequence (14:48) is a feature covering blowing up the restaurant, a year after initial shooting ended. Their DP was contracted to blow up a scale model of the restaurant but refused. They had to get a different DP to shoot it. Make Your Own Damn Movie Sound Design (23:26) starts off with Kaufman and Gabe Friedman talking about how the sound studio they were using were showing them a complete lack of respect. The studio head stepped up and was completely honest with why his employees were not as professional as they used to be so Kaufman and Friedman joined the studio head himself and worked on the sound effects.

Recording the Songs (12:56) - We watch as everyone records their songs in a sound booth and then see the mix and sound design.

Designing the Monsters (08:08) - This is almost cool and annoying. We see them building one of the monsters but they giggle and laugh the entire time, which is grating on the nerves. Luckily they use time lapse because it took them over an hour just to cut the arm for the monster.

The Poultrygeist Rooftop Re-Shoots (05:37) - This took place two years later as they shoot an insert scene with actress Debbie Rochon during the protest at the restaurant. It’s funny because the protest sign behind her says Celebrity Cameo with an arrow pointed at her (which is not visible in the final edit). To clue you in on her level of celebrity, here are some sample movies from her filmography: Splatter Beach, Mulberry Street, Terror Firmer and Tromeo and Juliet. Oh yeah, in 2002 she was awarded Scream Queen of the Decade (1990-1999) by the horror magazine Draculina, based on reader voting.

Filming the Meat Grinder (03:59) - This is the actual shooting of the scene where Paco Bell was chopped up in the Meat Grinder. It’s pretty damn funny to watch - “MORE BODY PARTS! MORE BODY PARTS!”

Joe Fleishaker Gets a Head Mold (08:33) - This is the second time he did a head cast, the first being in Terror Firmer. It is a conversation with Joe and the effects workers while working on the head cast.

Deleted Scenes - These are deleted scenes from the movie, not the documentary on this disc. They include Ron Jeremy’s “Happy Ending” (01:44), Charlotte Kaufman Death Scene (00:50), Time Bomb! Deleted Scene (01:20) and Humus S-U-I-C-I-D-E Song (02:22). The Ron Jeremy scene is funny, the Charlotte Kaufman scene is slightly amusing, the Time Bomb scene was better as it was reworked and the Humus song was offensive - and retarded. This last song is the only place you learn that Hummus’ father was a suicide bomber.

DISC THREE

Poultrygeist Kara-Yolk-E! - You can select PLAY ALL or go through the songs one at a time. And, yeah, it is a sing-a-long track with a chicken introducing the songs as the karaoke DJ. Each song includes a Vocal Track and a No-Vocal Track to sing to. The songs are “Poultrygeist Theme Song”, “Revenge is a Dish Best Served Fried", “Fast Food Love", “Generous General", “Longing to Live - Waiting to Die” and “S-U-I-C-UI-D-E”.

Poultrygeist Trailer (03:16) - It is the same trailer they showed on disc one.

The Complete Toxic Avenger Trailer (00:46) - This is an ad for the full seven-disc Complete Toxic Avenger Box Set with every Toxic Avenger movie included.

Special Needs (02:41) - A trailer. I honestly feel I could go to hell for thinking this is funny. See for yourself at specialneedsthemovie.com

Bloodspit (01:37) - Another trailer, this one for a vampire art house movie.

Coons (01:16) - This is... a trailer that... uh... fake mustaches... wigs... killer raccoons... uh, wow... It looks like a feature length version of a sketch.

Crazy Animal (02:10) - Ron Jeremy and Lloyd Kaufman are in the trailer for this movie. Other than that, I have no idea what the movie is about.

The 411: The movie itself ranks at about a 7/10 to me. It is a great story and has better production values than almost anything they have ever done. The kitchen sink approach works here, but there is still an abundance of stuff that churned my stomach. The songs are actually quite good and help movie the story along, which is a nice tool to help the always slow first half of horror films. However, what raises the score is the DVD presentation. The amount of features is exhaustive. It took me three days to get through this set, making it a great bargain for the price. The commentary is great and the documentary on Disc 2 is awesome. There is over eight hours of footage included on this DVD set, excluding the karaoke crap. This is a goldmine for Troma fans, and while the extras don’t include the gratuitous nudity of DVD sets of old, the information provided here is simply awesome. Buy it for the movie or buy it for the special features, if you are a fan of Troma you won’t be disappointed.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]