Horror Pick: Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead (2006)
I know what you’re all thinking – “Matt, with titles like Cheerleader Massacre, Nazis At The Center Of The Earth, and Zombie Ass: Toilet Of The Dead, picking horror movies on Netflix Watch Instantly is easy!” While I’d admire your courage and insanity for such a remark, I do have to caution Netflix users about picking more audacious titles – because there’s some seriously unwatchable garbage floating about, waiting to trick you with funky titles and crazy poster art.
Honestly, I was going to start our weekly recommendation article out with something classy, since I did just watch Rosemary’s Baby this morning, but in all fairness, I watch some seriously messed up horror films – so let’s just dive directly into the madness, shall we?
This week’s recommendation comes to you from my friends over at Troma films, as Netflix proudly streams my favorite musical about zombified fried chicken – Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead. When a famous fast food chain builds on an Indian burial ground, an ancient curse dooms all who chow down on their delicious meals, and it’s all up to some hippie vegans and a nerdy hero to save the town from giant chicken monsters who want some sweet, savory revenge.
Oh yeah, we’re getting the ball rolling with some of the goriest, most provocatively batshit practical effects work I’ve ever seen (true Troma quality), utilizing every square inch of kitchen space when churning out kill sequence after kill sequence. Friers, slicers, grills – an arsenal of death is under the command of famous exploitation filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman, and I don’t think he’s ever had more fun dismembering victims left and right. Visually, Poultrygeist represents low-budget filmmaking cooked to perfection, never backing down from splattering audiences with a mixture of blood an special sauces, confidently delivering memory after delicious memory.
Don’t worry, you read correctly before – this is most certainly a musical. Injecting demented bits of Broadway into this crispy caper, Kaufman strings together some equally hilarious song-and-dance sequences, typically waxing poetic about getting laid and turds, but there’s something inviting about Lloyd’s rhythmic swaying while singing about the loveless life of a fast food worker – cringeworthy to the point of being lovable. C’mon, how can you not love a movie that features people in chicken costumes biting faces off while a “tender” (GET IT, LIKE CHICKEN TENDER!!!) love story is played out through song?
Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead is first and foremost a brilliant dissection of big conglomerates shoving processed waste down our gullets – eh, whatever. Who am I kidding. Only tune into this movie if the idea of chicken zombies slaughtering innocents through increasingly savage was tickles your fancy, but if it does, I promise you’ll be in for one CLUCKING good time. While I don’t really like to use the term B-Movie, other people do – and in that sense, Lloyd Kaufman once again makes the movies HE wants to, and achieves B-Movie royalty in the process.