Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

One of Troma Entertainment founder Lloyd Kaufman’s best works, “Poultrygeist” is an over-the-top parody of two horror classics (Tobe Hooper’s “Poltergeist” and the late, great George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”) mashed together with the tasteless, juvenile style typical of the eccentric, New York-based independent film production and distribution company.

Excess and irreverence reach extraordinary heights as toilet-bowl humor takes center stage and pulls no punches. But along with countless vulgar gags featuring gratuitous doses of bodily fluids, there’s still room for some sharper, more biting social humor as political correctness is thrown out the window leaving nothing and no one safe from becoming the butt of gross, disgusting jokes – hot-button targets include race, religion, gender, and sexual orientation (but the film offers equal-opportunity social critique, roasting both cynical, unscrupulous big business along with the hypocritical demonstrators protesting against it).

From a technical point of view, Kaufman’s direction is more solid and focused than usual, the special effects are entertaining, and even the performances are unexpectedly effective (the main co-stars – novices Jason Yachanin and Kate Graham – turn in good performances, even when executing flashy musical interludes).

Film suitable only for Troma fans and those scant few viewers who can stomach Lloyd Kaufman’s vision of the seventh art.