Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is a tastefully budgeted film released by the undisputed King of Independent Films, Troma Entertainment and directed by the studio's figurehead, visionary, and spokesperson, Lloyd Kaufman. One semester after teen-aged Arbie and Wendy have sex for the first time in Tromahawk Indian burial ground before she leaves him behind for college, they meet again at a protest which Wendy, now a lesbian, even after promising not to change, is a part of. Her and her fellow lesbians are protesting the fact that a fast-food restaurant, American Chicken Bunker, has built their newest location on top of the Indian burial ground. To get back at Wendy for her betrayal, Arbie gets a job with the fast-food establishment. Soon afterward, otherworldly chicken madness ensues.



Why I Like It: First and foremost, I find this movie exceedingly fun. The plot is a potent mixture violence, gore, sex, naked lesbians, romance, sandwiches possessed by gay Latinos, stereotype-spewing Muslim women, chicken zombies, and social commentary. Throw in a number of catchy musical numbers, and the result is a film that is presented to audiences by everyone involved with it with tongues firmly planted in cheeks.



As with quite a few of Troma’s Kaufman directed catalog, Poultrygeist is not only able to juggle the ridiculous and serious, but combine the two. The film is quite up front, laughingly so at moments (and that isn't a bad thing in this case), with its message of fast-food chains being evil and damaging to regular people, like so many corporations in America. There’s also a layer beneath that, a call to arms to young people everywhere to strive to do more with their lives, to leave the dead-end jobs behind, to take responsibility and charge of your own destiny, to do anything and everything to be with the one you love.



For the more technical inclined Poultrygeist gets a lot done on a smaller budget than most Hollywood pictures. In fact, Kaufman has, in interviews, damned the gross budgets afforded many Hollywood films of lesser quality. And the film does not suffer for it at all. The make-up is top-notch. The film is very crisp and shot very pleasingly, and the gore effects are practical (Yay!) and often gut-busting.



And if you don’t like all that, there’s a pretty extended scene of Jared from Subways (not really) having the WORST case of explosive diarrhea EVER. That’s just some good old-fashioned fun.



Why You Don’t Like It: Troma gets a bad rap. Their movies are always written off as schlock of the worse variety. There’s also the unfortunate lack of more widespread notoriety of Troma films, and Independent cinema in general. Poultrygeist is, perhaps, the highest-grossing film Troma has ever had. But it continues to be ignored as stupid by many of those aware of its existence or undiscovered by the ill-informed mass who are force fed ‘real’ pictures churned out by certain studios as though they were produced on an assembly line.



Why You Should Give This Film a Chance: Poultrygeist is, in my opinion, Troma’s shining achievement. It’s a fun, heart-warming, and insane film that, given the chance, will entertain and surprise you. When I first watched it, having ordered the DVD from Netflix a few years back, I was pumped to see a no-brained exploitation that my gathered friends and I could get a few laughs out of. But Poultrygeist is so much, much more, though it can get what some might call "offensive" (whatever that means). Now I have a poster of the film signed by Lloyd Kaufman hanging on my wall. It is, for my money and 2 hours, a cinematic experience like no other. Plus, there’s explosive diarrhea. And it is available for streaming on both Netflix and Youtube, so there's no reason why you shouldn't give Poultrygeist a shot. You won't be sorry. 

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For more information on Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead and Troma Entertainment, visit www.troma.com. And if you ever get the opportunity to meet the face of Troma, Lloyd Kaufman at the Troma table at many of the Comic Cons around the country, please do so. He will gladly give you his autograph free of charge, pose for photographs, and spend a great deal of time speaking with you. I met him at the most recent New York Comic Con, where I got my previously mentioned poster of the film signed by the filmmaker. He is a very energetic, personal, and interesting individual. And buy a DVD or two!