Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

"That chicken has declared jihad on us all!" I avoided this film for a long time, but I thought I'd give it a chance. It's an ultra brutal WTF flick from Troma that is beyond normal viewer taste – here I can really understand both a five-star and a Boo! Rating. But even though it's stupid crap at its core, the people who came up with this film are definitely not stupid. The premise is very original, the dialogue is surprisingly great, and the all sorts of politically incorrect innuendos and references to older horror films is delivered with such care that you can definitely feel the talent and love for the genre. 65% is a really nice above average for this kind of film. The first 40 minutes reminded me of the redneck American comedies of 20 years ago, and I actually had a decent laugh. Once the zombie-chicken carnage begins, it's a decent gore atrocity, with things happening that I haven't seen elsewhere (and all sorts of fluids squirting: blood, slime, shit, vomit! ). The film is not afraid of nudity, you don’t see so many boobs in horror movies nowadays. The film is more or less a satire and takes on fast food chains, lesbians, fat people, vegetarians, big corporations, movie clichés, Mexican Muslims (the Arab woman in the jihad really made me laugh!). To my surprise, even the sick musical numbers had interesting lyrics, you just can't make that stuff up. It's so perfectly twisted, incorrect and brutal that it won my heart. PS: The most enjoyable references are Day of the Dead, Aliens, The Thing, and Braindead. 80% (10.04.2024)

I expected pretty much anything from my first Troma film and I really looked forward to it. Unfortunately, I’m very disappointed. All that incredibly gratuitous nastiness was a truly unpleasant surprise, and what’s worse is that the film is not even funny (which makes it all the more cringe), something I didn’t expect considering the general consensus on Troma. The only interesting thing in Poultrygeist is (perhaps) the bloodiness, the perversion and the amount of over-the-top gore (which all go hand in hand), but that’s far from enough for me and I think I will avoid other productions by this studio. How can this get five-star ratings? I can’t understand it, do people really like this? (18.04.2008)

Blood, slime, vomit, intestines, feces, disgust, goats and zombie chickens possessed by Indian ghosts. Yeah, it's shit. But it's also full of original elements and fun gags. In addition, it is a great parody, and not only of the fast-food industry. It is spoiled only by the poor singing sections, which the creators could have left out. Otherwise, typical TROMA. (19.09.2011)