Title: Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006)
Director: Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham, Lloyd Kaufman
Review:
So I’m quickly gaining lots of respect for Producer/Director/Actor
Lloyd Kaufman. Why you may ask? Well, I’ve been seeing a lot of Troma films
lately and I have to admit I’m having a blast checking them out. They are
trashy, they are cheap and gross to the max, but they are also fun. This is my
mantra when I watch Troma films. But other then that, Lloyd Kaufman is to me
the embodiment of true independent cinema, the kind you make simply because you
want to, without all the restrictions, bureaucracy, bullshit and snobbishness
that comes from making a studio production. Kaufman just makes his movies. He
gathers his friends; he gathers a crew, and shoots the damn thing! Most of the
people that work on this film do it for free, just because they want to be in a
Troma film, the extras, all worked for free! Of course situations and
complications always arise in a low budget production like this one, but at the
end of the day, everyone has a grand old time and the result is a film that
simply emanates pure fun. I recently had a chance of checking out Kaufman’s
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. Was it as fun as the rest of Troma's repertoire of films?
Lloyd Kaufman prepares to shoot a scene while in full wardrobe!
Hell to the yeah my friends! Poultrygeist: Night of the
Chicken Dead is every bit as zany and crazy as you might expect a Lloyd Kaufman
film to be with an added bonus: the film has a message! And it’s dead on! The
film is all about this chain of fast food restaurants called ‘American Chicken
Bunker’ and they’ve just opened a new restaurant in Tromaville! Complications
arise when we learn that the restaurant was built on an ancient Tromahawk Indian
burial ground! The shit really hits the fan when we learn that the chickens (and
those who eat them) are being possessed by the spirits of angry Indians hell
bent on revenge! It isn’t long before we have a restaurant full of zombie
chicken people! You have to see this to believe it.
Troma films have always had a subversive angle and a message
in the midst of all their projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea. Yeah the
films are juvenile and repugnant in many ways, but deep in the heart of it all,
they always have something to say, a critique on society. Take for example the
Toxic Avenger movies, the villain in those movies is a gigantic corporation
hell bent on world domination. This evil corporation is looking to privatize
everything and kill small businesses, its name? Apocalypse Inc. How about Class
of Nuke ‘Em High (1986)? A film that speaks about the dilapidated state of education
in the United States
school system. And all of these films I’ve mentioned also speak about a fear people
suffered from during the 80’s: the fear of nuclear meltdown, of nuclear power. So
it comes as no surprise that Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead also has a
message attached to it. What did surprise me is how clear and resonant that
message was! Fast Food is Poison!
So yeah, Kaufman aims his guns this time at the fast food industry
and my hats down to the man for that because I agree with him 100%; fast food
is poison! It’s not the kind of food that might be detrimental to your health
in a small way, no, the crap they sell you at Mc Donald’s, Burger King or KFC
(and other fast food restaurants) is pure poison for your body. I have
personally stopped going to these kinds of places because every time I went, my
body would react in negative ways. In Kaufman’s film we see people getting
explosive diarrhea and vomiting violently after eating at the American Chicken
Bunker, which in my book is not that big of an exaggeration of what can happen
to you if you eat at these places. Of course, this being a Lloyd Kaufman film,
he cranks the volume to 11 and so we get a restaurant full of people vomiting
green slime! Be ready for some extremely gross images on this film, if you can’t
take that sort of thing, well then don’t bother! But this one gets really
graphic with its depictions of bodily fluids! In my book it’s all justified
considering the subject matter. American Chicken Bunker is an obvious allusion to
KFC, the worst of all the fast food joints in my opinion! In my book, it is the
most poisonous of all, so hurray to Kaufman for aiming his guns at these
merchants of death.
Kaufman not only attacks the idea of eating in these fast
food places, but he also attacks the idea of working in them. The film focuses
on this young kid who decides to work in the American Chicken Bunker because he
wants to get back at his girlfriend, who dumped him for a lesbian. Kaufman
himself plays an aging employee who’s worked his whole life at the American
Chicken Bunker and ends up realizing he’s led a terrible life because he
decided to go career with American Chicken Bunker. They even have a whole
musical number on the subject of wasting your life working for places such as
these.
But don’t be fooled by the films message my friends, this
film will be one of the most offensive, gross out films you will ever see! I’ve
seen a lot of weird films, but damn, this one really went far! We get gay Mexican
employees who die shredded by a meat grinder; another employee who enjoys
making love to dead chickens! One of the employees is a terrorist! I mean, these guys went all out crazy with this
movie! We get possessed chickens! Talking hamburgers! A restaurant full of
people vomiting! The walls of the restaurant get splattered and sprayed with diarrhea,
vomit and blood! And last but not least, we get chicken zombie people! Don’t ask!
Just rent or buy this b-movie masterpiece! The last half hour of this film is
pure unadulterated dementia! Craziness and cartoon gore are amped up to their
maximum expression! The gags you’ll see are too numerous for me to number here,
so rest assured you will not be bored for a second! If you like movies that don’t
take themselves seriously at all and indulge in irreverence and social critique
then this is the movie for you! Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is in
my opinion Lloyd Kaufman’s finest film to date, kudos to the man for that.
Rating: 3 ½ out of 5
2 comments:
As a special FX / grossout movie, this film is top notch. Sadly though, for me, it really ends there. Definitely one of his better films overall though. But I'm definitely on team Toxie when it comes to favorite Troma ventures. Well... part 1 anyways,...
I haven't seen the first Toxic Avenger film in a looong ass while, a re-watch is certainly in order, especially since I'm on a Troma kick lately...it certainly is one of Kaufman's better films, and his best reviewed one over all, people really loved this one.
In order to watch this type of film and enjoy it, you have a certain mind set that I'm sure not a lot of people have, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people will find this one offensive, for me it was hilarious.
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