{"id":555,"date":"2015-10-11T12:03:58","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T17:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2017-05-04T09:41:26","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T14:41:26","slug":"poultrygeist-2006-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Poultrygeist (2006) – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> is a bad movie. It\u2019s really bad. The premise is dumb, the acting is bad, the production value is laughable, and the jokes are terrible, but for some reason, despite myself, I found that when the movie was over I had enjoyed the experience. Maybe it was the gleeful joy in which the movie embraced its sheer stupidity, but whatever the reason, <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> is now my favorite semi-musical horror comedy about chicken possessed zombies running amok in a fast food restaurant built on top of an ancient Indian burial ground.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poultrygeist <\/span><\/i>was directed and co-written by Lloyd Kaufman, a low budget schlock movie icon and one of the men who co-founded Troma Entertainment. Troma has an over 40 year legacy of creating and distributing some of the worst movies in existence, but more often than not, the movies made by Troma tend to be of the \u201cso bad it\u2019s good\u201d variety. Well, maybe not \u201cgood\u201d in the strictest sense of the word, but they\u2019re usually fun to watch. <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> fits neatly into that category and is classic Troma through and through.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> tells the story of Arbie, a high school graduate who returns home after one semester of college to find that his high school sweetheart, Wendy, is now a lesbian. Wendy and her girlfriend are taking part in a protest of a new fast food restaurant that has been built on top of the Tromahawk Indian burial ground. Arbie is understandably upset, so in a goofy bit of logic he decides to get a job at the restaurant in part to spite his former girlfriend, but also to earn enough money so she\u2019ll want him back so he can then turn her down. He gets the job, but his first day doesn\u2019t go very well when an Indian curse begins to wreak havoc at the restaurant and turn people into Indian and chicken possessed zombies (among other things).<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Wendy
Wendy telling people of the atrocities perpetrated by Arbie’s employer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So from the description of the story, it\u2019s obvious that <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> is a comedy first and foremost, and to say that the comedy is juvenile would be a gross understatement. There are massive amounts of gay jokes, penis jokes, fart jokes, poop jokes, sex jokes, race jokes, and so on. Pretty much everything a pre-teen boy might find hilarious is in there. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s necessarily a bad thing, I\u2019m just saying the comedy isn\u2019t very highbrow. In fact, it\u2019s probably as lowbrow as you can get. I mean, there\u2019s a series of sandwich puns at one point. Sandwich puns. A series of them. So of course, not every joke is going to work for everyone, but <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> takes the spray-and-pray approach to comedy. Bombard the audience with a massive volume of jokes and some of them are sure to hit the mark. A few landed for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

A word of warning to people with sensitive dispositions though: <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> seems to go out of its way to be offensive to pretty much everyone. Regardless of race, class, sexuality, religion, or whoever you happen to be, there are probably at least a few lines that you could potentially find offensive. But it\u2019s pretty apparent that Lloyd Kaufman doesn\u2019t care who he offends, so you probably shouldn\u2019t care enough to be offended either. It\u2019s all done in good fun, if in somewhat poor taste. Besides, comedy that shies away from something because it could be offensive usually isn\u2019t very funny in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A
A white supremacist, a black man, and a Muslim walk into a restaurant… Stop me if you’ve heard this one.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another warning to sensitive people: <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> is pretty disgusting. There are gallons upon gallons of various bodily fluids sprayed, poured, and splattered over nearly every square inch of the sets and the actors. It\u2019s so absurdly over the top that it\u2019s comedic, but people not used to or averse to extreme blood, gore, and excrement might want to tread with caution. And it\u2019s not just the liberal use of fluids in the movie that makes it gross, it\u2019s also the situations that the characters find themselves in. There are multiple times where something enters an orifice on a person only to exit out of a different one, multiple exploded and dismembered body parts, and even a scene of necrophiliac bestiality.<\/span><\/p>\n

The special effects are cheap, silly, and clearly fake, but that really only adds to their charm (I can\u2019t believe I used the word \u201ccharm\u201d in describing this movie). I do appreciate that the effects are practical rather than digital. I don\u2019t know if that was a deliberate decision by Kaufman or because he simply couldn\u2019t afford digital effects, but I usually prefer practical to computer-generated whenever possible, and I think it works well here.<\/p>\n

\"I
I don’t really have any words for this.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The effects in <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> might be charmingly cheap, but there are other parts of the low production value of the movie that aren\u2019t as endearing. For instance, there are multiple shots throughout the movie that are out of focus. Being in focus is a pretty basic part of making a movie, so it\u2019s kind of baffling that this mistake happens repeatedly. Also, the continuity from shot to shot is almost non-existent at times. Things disappear or change frequently between cuts. I suppose these are minor quibbles, and if you\u2019re watching a Troma movie they are to be expected and don\u2019t really matter anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

What matters when you\u2019re watching a Troma movie are plenty of tasteless jokes, over the top gore, and nudity. There are loads of all three of these Troma staples in <\/span>Poultrygeist <\/span><\/i>(as well as a familiar car crash that long-time Troma fans will recognize), so fans of the company should seek this movie out if they haven\u2019t done so already.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I have a kind of hit or miss relationship with Troma. There are some movies they produced that I like, but others I don\u2019t. I know I enjoyed <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i>, but it\u2019s kind of hard to put my finger on why. Maybe it was the musical numbers that won me over. The first half of the <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i> is pretty much a musical with multiple songs and dance numbers, though that\u2019s kind of abandoned after a certain point. Or maybe it was just the mindlessness of everything. I was able to turn my brain off for the duration of the movie and just accept the ridiculousness of what I was seeing. I guess that\u2019s what Troma is really all about. I know it\u2019s bad, you know it\u2019s bad, Troma knows it\u2019s bad, but it\u2019s done with a fiercely independent and enthusiastic spirit that doesn\u2019t really care that it\u2019s bad. That\u2019s what makes it good.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Just
Just don’t think about it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

RATING<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

6\u00a0–\u00a0Pretty Good<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
\n<\/code><\/p>\n

This movie is for people who can laugh at mindless, cheap, juvenile entertainment. Sure, there might be some quasi-political statements about corporate greed, health issues, and race relations at the root of some of the jokes in <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i>, but they\u2019re hidden under so much toilet humor and gore that you can\u2019t really see them, and they don\u2019t matter anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n

All fans of classic Troma produced movies should enjoy <\/span>Poultrygeist<\/span><\/i>. People who don\u2019t like Troma and those who are easily offended or disgusted should probably stay far away.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

RECOMMENDATION FOR FURTHER WATCHING<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n

Slither<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(2006)
\n\"\"It’s not nearly as nonsensical or over the top as\u00a0Poultrygeist<\/em>, but\u00a0Slither<\/em> has some pretty good gross-out scenes and is one of my favorite horror comedies. It stars Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker, and was written and directed by James Gunn. Gunn might be famous now for\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>, but he started his career in Troma. Slither\u00a0<\/em>pays tribute\u00a0to his roots in many ways, not the least of which being a cameo by Lloyd Kaufman as a sad drunk in the movie.<\/p>\n

Slither\u00a0<\/em>is about an alien takeover in a small town where slug-like creatures turn the citizens into hive-minded zombies. It’s silly, and it’s fantastic. Similarities between\u00a0Slither\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Night of the Creeps<\/em> are obvious, but Gunn cites David Cronenberg’s\u00a0Shivers<\/em> and\u00a0The Brood<\/em> and the film’s biggest influences.<\/p>\n

Watch the\u00a0Slither<\/em> trailer.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DETAILS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Title: Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead<\/em>
\nYear:\u00a02006
\nDirector:\u00a0Lloyd Kaufman
\nWriter:\u00a0Gabriel Friedman, Daniel Bova, Lloyd Kaufman
\nFeatured Cast:\u00a0Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham
\nRun Time: 103\u00a0minutes<\/p>\n

Availability:\u00a0Available on DVD and Blu-Ray
\n(I’d suggest going for the 2 or 3-disc DVD version. They contain a feature length documentary on the making of\u00a0Poultrygeist\u00a0<\/em>titled\u00a0Poultry in Motion: Truth is Stranger than Chicken<\/em>. It’s well worth it, and you can find all versions of the movie fairly cheap.)<\/p>\n

Watch the Poultrygeist\u00a0<\/em>trailer.<\/a><\/p>\n

REFERENCES<\/span>
\nhttp:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0462485\/<\/a> (IMDB page)<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poultrygeist is bad. Really bad. But is it so bad that it’s good?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442,5],"tags":[281,142,278,277,167,279,280,275,282,274,283,276],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-review","category-review","tag-281","tag-comedy","tag-daniel-bova","tag-gabriel-friedman","tag-gore","tag-jason-yachanin","tag-kate-graham","tag-lloyd-kaufman","tag-musical","tag-poultrygeist","tag-slither","tag-troma"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lasttheater.cnjradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}