Review of POULTRYGEIST (Night of the Chicken Dead)

POULTRYGEIST (Night of the Chicken Dead)

2003,

ARBIE and WENDY, two high school teens, are pledging undying love while making out in a graveyard. He has trouble loosening her bra, so she, with a pleasant smile, unhooks it herself, revealing a lovely pair of boobs. A crazed man with a hatchet in one hand and his erect penis in another staggers towards them, and they run away. Then a tentacle comes out from a grave, plunges itself into the man’s ass and out through his mouth.

This pretty much sets the tone of the movie.

A semester later, Wendy returns from college as a member of CLAM – College Lesbians Against Megacorporations. Wendy, her girlfriend MICKIE (whose boobs, as we later see, are not nearly as nice), and other Clam members are protesting a new AMERICAN CHICKEN BUNKER (ACB) restaurant because, a) it’s on an old Native American burial site, and b) it’s mean to chickens. Wendy’s betrayal upsets Arbie so much, he wants revenge and marches into the protested restaurant to get a job.

All the employees have restaurant themed names. The manager is Denny, and the workers are Carl Junior, Paco Bell, and Humus, who wears a bright red burka which she rips off at the end of the movie.

Strange things (to say the least) happen. Paco Bell is pushed into the meat grinder by an uncooked chicken and is turned into a talking ‘sloppy Jose’ sandwich. Carl Jr. tries to fuck a dead chicken, but it bites his dick which then looks like a broomstick with a circumcised head.  Through all of this, bodily fluids of a profusion of colors (but not white) are sprayed all over walls, floors, toilets, and people. The head of the ACB corporation, GENERAL LEE ROY, a dead ringer for Colonel Sanders and a former KKK member, tells everyone not to worry, but when people start turning into chicken zombies, matters really go downhill.

This is a stupid, gross, immature film. I’m surprised it got reasonably good reviews. It’s clearly aimed at thirteen-year-old heterosexual boys. But let’s face it, guys; a thirteen-year-old who laughs at fart jokes and cries out ‘BOOBIES’ at the sight of bare breasts lies not far beneath the surface in all of us. This movie made me laugh, and that helps my workout. I give it ++++.  It will frequently get your pulse up to a run.

Review of IN THE FLESH - season two

IN THE FLESH - second season

Discrimination, prejudice, rabble rousers, Nazi, persecution, zombies, living dead, undead, fantasy, released 2014

In the year 2009, an unprecedented event occurred: thousands of dead people reanimated, clawed their way out of their graves, and wandered the countryside in a rabid state, killing untold numbers of normal humans. In response, society formed groups like the HVF (HUMAN VOLUNTEER FORCE) to kill these 'rotters'. However, scientists developed a medication, neurotryptaline, that could restore these "PARTIALLY DECEASED SYNDROME (PDS) sufferers to their previous personalities and to sanity. Their skin was pasty and their eyes bizarre, but with makeup and contact lenses, they could assume a normal appearance and, after a few months rehabilitation, could return to society.

The problem was a society that did not accept them. The returnees found segregation, graffiti, and pervasive hatred reminiscent of segregation in the USA or persecution in Nazi Germany.
The basic premise is ridiculous, but the story is fantasy, not science fiction so the writers can legitimately ask for willing suspension of disbelief.  The strength of this series is not in the PDS phenomenon itself, but in the characters and their relationships. Were there such a thing as a partially dead syndrome, this is how people, both normal and zombies, would react. The episodes are thus powerful and gripping.

Characters continued from the first season include KIEREN WALKER, the protagonist, a shy, youth who committed suicide and his friend, AMY DYER, an irrepressible young woman who died of leukemia. JEM WALKER, Kieren's sister, had been an active member of the HVF and has great difficulty adjusting to the fact that her brother is one of the people she wanted to kill. This season introduces two new characters: SIMON MONROE is a PDS sufferer active in the UNDEAD LIBERATION ARMY (ULA) which fights the discrimination, at times with counterproductive tactics and MAXINE MARTIN. Maxine is admirably played by Wunmi Mosakua, is an attractive (though overweight), pleasant seeming woman with the soul of a Nazi in her chilling and callous disregard for the PDS sufferers who, when they are treated, are people just like she is.

The second series has less irony and more intensity than the first season. The interactions between these people, both alive and dead, are fascinating, and the parallels between their problems and the real problems in society make the story even more captivating. The first few episodes of the series are the best, and I rate them as +++++.  They will get your pulse up to a sprint.

ORPHAN BLACK is also in its second season, and Tatiana Maslany does her usual excellent job of portraying the various clones, but there are too many new characters and plot threads. The series is collapsing under its own weight. Season one was better. I give season two +++. It will get your pulse up to a jog.

Review of IN THE FLESH

IN THE FLESH

The great uprising was a few years ago. Countless dead bodies animated themselves, climbed out of their graves, and staggered through the community, killing people and eating their brains.  Zombies, right?  'Zombie' is such an outdated name. Call them 'rotters'. Better yet, since there is a serum which restores a rotter's sanity and reason, call them 'Partially Deceased Syndrome (PDS) sufferers'. The serum has to be injected into the neck every day and it hurts, but it's worth it, isn't it? PDS sufferers still have pasty white skin and funny looking eyes, but a little makeup and appropriate contact lenses can make them look normal.  Now all they have to do is move out of the hospital back into society. Right?

Not so easy. For one, many people retain vivid memories of when PDS sufferers were in their rabid, i.e. brain-eating, state and want revenge. There is even a HVF--Human Volunteer Force--a paramilitary group that had actively killed rabid rotters during the uprising, and are all too ready to kill the treated PDS sufferers as well. Plus, the minister of the town gives sermons saying the rotters are demons masquerading as people, the bars have segregated areas for PDS sufferers, and the local council decrees that the letters PDS be painted on all houses where rotters live.

The series begins with a thin youth, KIEREN, is preparing to leave the hospital. We see him being driven home, an anxious look on his face, and being greeted by his equally anxious parents. They are happy to have their son--whom they had buried two years ago--back, but he isn't the same, and their relationships can't be the same. He sits down to dinner and moves his knife and fork, but he can't eat. The parents have to administer the painful neck injection every day, and if visitors come to the house, they must hide Kieren. Moreover, his sister, JEM, is a devoted HFV member who hates all rotters, including her brother.

RICK, another zombie, returns after being killed in Afghanistan. The explosive that killed him also ripped apart his face so that he needs conspicuous staples to keep it together. He is Kieren's best friend and possibly his lover as well, though that is never made explicit. His father, BILL, is leader of the HVF and hates all zombies, though he still loves his son.

The third PDS sufferer in the series is AMY, a vivacious young woman willing to take on the world in spite of her semi-dead state.

There are some plot flaws. The writers make no attempt to rationalize the impossibilities of PDS physiology. Rick can drink beer without ill effects, but Kieren says he can't take any fluids.  These inconsistencies don't detract from the story.

For those who are wondering, Amy can have sex, though whether the male zombies can is not shown.

Metaphors abound. The most obvious is with severely mentally ill patients--people who are 'probably' safe in the community if they take their medications. The discrimination and hatred is more reminiscent of bigotry against gay or black people in the USA, or against Jews in Nazi Germany. Ironies are frequent, for example, Bill's tirade against rotters while standing right next to his rotter son. At one point, a distraught mother calls a PDS hotline only to get a recorded message telling her to check the website.

The basic premise of this story is not at all credible, but the relationships are. The three episodes of the first series show a wide and realistic range of human emotions and interactions; these are gripping.  As plain entertainment, it's well worth seeing. A second season is planned, and I'll be looking for it. As a workout video, I give it ++++ - it will get your pulse up to a run.