Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead (2006)
How do we even begin to describe Troma, the East Coast independent shlock factory founded by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz?
These guys were far from your ordinary shlockmeisters dealing in cheapo sexploitation, horror, action and tidal waves of gore.
Their films did more than wallow in bottom-of-the-barrel grindhouse atrocities.....
They didn't just glory in shlock. They mocked shlock.
Which would explain why no critic could possibly deride a Troma movie any better than the films themselves.
Troma films, sometimes literally drowning in vomit, blood, excrement and assorted body parts, raised a defiant middle finger not only to so-called civilized, polite society at large, but at themselves.
No one could parody or imitate films like "The Toxic Avenger", "Class of Nuke'em High or "Sgt.Kabukiman, NYPID". Troma films arrived already drenched in self-parody and a nihilistic contempt for the world at large.
"Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead" may stand as the epitome of the Art Of Troma. Think of it as every Troma film trope packed into one convenient package.
The first thing everyone notices: the sheer level of manic frenzy on display.....the pacing, the editing, the actors' performances......like a Warner Brothers Loony Toom stretched out to 105 minutes. And none of it ever lets up.
It's like an afternoon in an insane asylum, locked up with the most manic patients.......
In the little lunatic town of Tromaville (where, naturally, a lot of Troma movies take place), the fast food chain American Chicken Bunker has just unwisely opened atop a sacred Indian Burial ground.
Cue the madness.
Mutated chicken eggs hatch monstrous monster chicken puppets who go about their work......
What work, you ask? Where do we even begin.....
The chicken monsters proceed to eviscerate the customers, forcing them into bouts of fatal, explosive diarrhea, massive projectile vomiting, much spouting of entrails and rectums....
Oh we almost forgot. The victims also turn into chicken zombies, feasting on more victims.
And from time to time, everyone breaks into Broadway song and dance numbers, with bluntly satirical lyrics. Yes, they really do.
Here's our only real quibble with Troma movies and fair warning to anyone who hasn't sampled one yet.
They're exhausting to watch straight through. Since they exist in a state of perpetual mania, there's no highs or lows to experience.....only endless, shrieking lunacy. with not a single moment or character that resembles real human beings or real human life.
If the raging Id Monster from 'Forbidden Planet' were capable of writing and directing movies, they'd all look like Troma movies.....
So how can we sum up"Poultrygeist" in any sane way?
To quote one of the Chicken Zombies, as she's happily munching on somebody, "I know it's fattening, but I love the skin..."
Newbies to Troma, approach with extreme caution. For Troma-ites, it's finger-lickin' body fluid fillin' gooey goodness.
4 stars (****). But don't way we didn't warn you.
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