Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead is the latest limited release from Troma Entertainment, the rapscallions behind such lowbrow, high camp productions as The Toxic Avenger and Surf Nazis Must Die. If you’ve ever seen a Troma film there’s no need to read the remainder of this review, which is offered in the spirit of a pubic service announcement to unsuspecting cinemagoers.

Like most Troma productions, Poultrygeist is set in fictional Tromaville, US.A. Unlike past efforts, this latest—and possible last—schlockfest was filmed here in Buffalo, rather than in New Jersey. For the sake of the locals who labored on the production for free, I’m glad it’s getting at least a one week run here so they can pay to see it on a big screen.

The entire film takes place in and around a chicken eatery unwisely constructed atop an ancient Indian burial ground, which leads to all manner of disjointed mayhem. The characters are named after real fast food chains, which is as close as the filmmakers come to wit in this unrepentant celebration of bad taste.

Jason Yachanin and Kate Graham are appealing leads, and I wish the film had possessed more of their likable naïvite. Former porn star Ron Jeremy has a cameo, and if you blink you’ll miss scream queen Debbie Rochon, a fan favorite for her starring role in Tromeo and Juliet. I actually found Troma honcho Lloyd Kaufman likable as a long-suffering fast food joint employee, but his direction is adequate at best and producer-screenwriter Gabriel Friedman’s choppy editing doesn’t serve the film’s comic timing very well.

The best thing about Poultrygeist is its bouncy theme song, and I found the scattered musical numbers a welcome relief from the poop jokes, fart jokes, homophobic jokes, Muslim slurs, butt plugs, spewing fluids, butt cracks, and ugly cinematography. This might have been endurable with an 80 minute running time, but at 103 minutes watching it feels more like serving time at Abu Ghraib (another of Kaufman’s targets). This is easily the grossest thing I’ve seen yet from Troma, which the target audience will consider a recommendation.

—greg lamberson