If you think eating fast food is scary, wait until you see this flick. In 2006 Troma released Poultrygeist, an outrageous horror/comedy/musical that has become a fan favorite. With a chicken restaurant being possessed by evil spirits, it is a standard Troma movie in that it is about as subtle as a GWAR concert.

The movie takes place almost entirely within the American Chicken Bunker, Tromaville’s latest fast food joint. The problem is that the place was built on top of an ancient Native American burial ground. As is the case with all buildings constructed on bulldozed graveyards, the place is going to quickly become local hub for all supernatural activity in the area. The restaurant is haunted by angry spirits that cause frozen chickens to scream when cooked, leave pulsating slime-covered eggs laying around, and causing life-threatening indigestion to anyone to samples the food.

As we meet the cast of characters, we find that most of them were named after different restaurants. We have Arby and his girlfriend Wendy who goes off to college and hooks up with a woman named Mickie. While Wendy and Mickie protest the opening of American Chicken Bunker, Arby decides to get a job there. Inside the ACB, we meet Denny, the manager and the cooks Paco Bell, Carl Jr., and Hummus. As the ACB opens, we meet one of the first customers, Jared. This is poking fun at the Subway guy, of course, but, since this movie was made before we all learned Jared Fogle’s dirty little secret, all we get are weight-loss jokes which is probably for the best. Here Jared is played by the late Joe Fleishaker, an actor in many Troma films whose sole scene in this movie is one of the grossest attacks of scatological humor I have ever witnessed.

You’re better off not eating while you watch this movie.

The jokes are, at times, offensive, the humor can be quite gross, and the violence is brutal. It is rumored that so much fake blood was used, they had to color some of it green to avoid an X rating.

Just as the ACB starts filling up with customers, they get a visit from the president of the company, General Lee Roy. From there people start getting killed and maimed and the General needs to hide it all from the news crews that are there to cover the grand opening. From there everything begins to escalate. More people eat the food, more people get sick until every single person that has eaten there transforms into chicken-headed zombies and go on the attack. 

This is where things get brutal. Chicken sandwiches grow teeth and bite people. Chicken Nuggets come to life and eat a man’s face off, and when you see the deli slicer, I promise I won’t be mad if you look away. Not to mention some of the kills the chicken-zombies pull off. (Pun very much intended.) The attack scene lasts only a few minutes, and it contains some graphic kills. The SFX are top notch and it’s easy to see this is where the majority of the budget was spent. Fun fact, Troma was able to secure an abandoned McDonalds to film in.

The main problem I have with this movie (not counting some of the more offensive jokes) is that it takes a little too long to get to the zombies. The musical numbers seem like nothing but filler. One of them I can’t help but skip through as it was overly cheesy and had a little too much blatant nudity. Sometimes too much of a good thing spoils the sentiment. 

Will Arby and Wendy survive long enough to defeat the zombies? If you can handle the blood, the offensive humor and what happens when you use a mop for a purpose it was never intended for, you will enjoy this glorious trash-fest.

This is another film that Troma has lovingly put up on YouTube for all to see free of charge. Once again, I ask that if you wish to watch more of their films, go to their Troma Movies channel and watch them there.

Now, make sure you fry that chicken extra crispy because this is Poultrygeist…