Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

Original Title:

Non si deve porfanare il sonno dei morti

Aka: The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue,

Breakfast at the Manchester Morgue,

Do Not Speak Ill of the Dead,

Don't Open the Window and many more.

Directed by: Jorge Grau, 1974

Italy / Spain, 95min

Distributed by: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Story:

An antique dealer plans on spending a quiet weekend in the countryside but finds his plans shattered when a young woman accidentally crashes into his motorbike at a gas station. Edna offers George a ride to his destination, but on the way plans are changed once again and he ends up driving her to her planned visit to her sister who lives in the countryside. The road there unfortunately takes them the wrong way and as they stop to question at a farmyard a stranger wanders up from the river and towards the car. A stranger who has been dead for a month!

Me:

Jorge Grau's excellent “Undead” (I'll be saying undead from here on, as nobody in the movie ever says the word zombie. But we all know that they are zombies don't we!) movie Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, with all of its many a.k.a. titles is a great piece of genre cinema, and one of my personal favourites of the genre. Following in the wake of the groundbreaking Night of the Living Dead, it's possibly one of the best entries into the genre brought to recognition by George A. Romero in 1969. Luckily it's one of those Italian-Spanish coproduction’s that relies more on story than gut munching effects of the later wave of the zombie genre. Not that those movies are bad, quite the opposite, the apocalyptic world of the flesh eater is a tantalising one to say the least.

Producer Edmondo Amati, (producer of such greats like Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin 1971, One on Top of the Other 1969, Alberto De Martino's The Antichrist 1974 and Antonio Margheriti's Cannibal Apocalypse 1980) decided that he must to get in on the zombie niche after Romero's movie became a hit, and in Spain he found his perfect candidate, the young Jorge Grau. Grau had a decent background in movies, not the horror genre per say, but a majority of his works had elements of the fantastic in them and had received an overall fine reception. Amati approached him with the question “Do you like Night of the Living Dead?” A movie that Grau indeed was a fan of, but as he was trying his hardest to get his Ceremonia sangrienta 1973 (aka The Legend of Blood Castle) off the ground since 1964 when he first heard of the Countess Bathory legend during a film festival in Czechoslovakia, the two could not collaborate on the project Amati was trying to pitch. Some years later after the completion of Ceremonia sangrienta, Amati approached Grau once again with the Sandro Continenza penned script, asking if he still liked Night of the Living Dead. Giving Grau a free hand to change the script and take the time he needed to make it more realistic, the two started their relationship, which would end up being Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.

Made in an age before the realistic gore exploded onto screens with movies like George A. Romero’s sequel Dawn of the Dead 1978, Andrea Bianchi’s Nights of Terror 1981, Marino Girolami's eclectic Cannibal/Zombie hybrid Zombie Holocaust 1980 and Lucio Fulci’s epic mother of all Euro Zombie flicks Zombi2 1979, Grau chooses, much like Romero to rely heavily on the realism and everyday drama of the people caught up in this strange new world rather than focusing on the specific gut munching and reigning chaos of a zombie infested landscape.

Let sleeping Corpses Lie is a pretty straight forward story, George [the fantastic Ray Lovelock] sets out for a weekend in the countryside, getting away fro the stress of inner-city life, which is made quite obvious during the start of the movie, the citizens walk aimlessly, stare blankly as they await busses, in the heavy trafficked core of modern civilization. People are seen wearing facemasks to avoid breathing in the fumes (which interestingly enough makes one think of the swine flu pandemic and fear that we are living with right now. It makes the movie contemporary even today) the further George gets out of town on his motorbike, cross cut with images of fuming industrial towers, urban decay, dead birds, the imagery lightens up and instead of the close-ups of decay, we start seeing wide shots of open country, fresh air and swaying fields. George is closing in on his safe haven, but when stopping at a petrol station to fill up his bike Edna accidentally crashes him into. Edna [star of Massimo Dallamano’s What Have You Done to Solange? 1972 and Luigi Cozzi’s top notch Giallo The Killer Must Kill Again 1975, and who also won the best actress award for her part in the movie at the 1974 Sitges film festival] offers to drive him to his destination. But they end up going the wrong way, into the middle of nowhere. George gets out at a nearby farm to ask for directions and two important storylines are introduced. The ecological cause of the forthcoming outbreak is established, which has George make a political statement. Don’t mess around with Mother Nature. No sooner has he said his than Edna has her first encounter with the undead, as Guthrie [the recently deceased Fernando Hilbeck], a local tramp tries to attacks her. Edna manages to evade him and runs up to the farm too, but George and the farmer can’t believe what Edna tells them, and laugh off the shocking experience she just had, as Guthrie couldn’t possibly have attacked her. He died almost a month ago.

A subplot with Edna’s sister Katie [Jeanine Mestre] is set in motion. Katie, a recovering drug addict has been forced out into the countryside by her husband Martin, [José Lifante] and Edna is on the way there to convince her to sign into a rehab programme and get of the drugs once and for all. But she just can’t seem to stay of the smack and as she secretly prepares to shoot up in the barn, she finds herself in the dark stood face to face with Guthrie! This encounter leads up to the death of Martin and it’s at this point of the movie that the real antagonist makes his entry, The Inspector portrayed with bravura by Arthur Kennedy. The Inspector quickly makes up his mind that these city folks, these damned hippies with their longhair and drugs, are the real culprits and that they have killed Martin, not the fantasy figure that Katie claims did. Now this in one cop who always gets his man. We can understand that from the way he moves, talks and acts. He isn’t afraid to go out on a limb to bust a case, and his loyal men are always standing by, ready to act on his every demand. Just watch as he lays pressure on Katie, trying to make her confess, not giving a damn that she just watched her husband be killed.

The movie moves forward as George and Edna try to figure out the whereabouts of Guthrie as both sisters now claim he is the real killer After an infant unexplainably in a fit of rage bites George at the nearby hospital he takes Dr Duffield [Vincente Vega] back to the farm where scientists explain the strange experiments they are conducting in the fields outside the village. Using ultrasonic radiation they are fighting off insects and bugs, who instead of eating crops go insane and kill each other instead when they hear the noises the strange machine makes. Really it’s a modified combine harvester, but it looks believable, and it gives a possible reason for the dead rising from their tombs.

George and Edna’s quest leads them to a crypt under the village church, and low and behold, they find him, the undead Guthrie. This is followed by a wonderfully long sequence where they battle their way out of the underground tomb chased by several more undead that Guthrie awakens by wiping blood on their foreheads. Once again their success in the horror narrative is their damnation in the drama narrative as the Inspector arriving at the cemetery finds his officer sent out to trail the suspects gutted and three burned corpses. Yeah, the undead now dead again.

Finally they all gather for a fantastic ending with several shocking events back at the local hospital and the movie comes to its climax with a bang to say the least. In some ways the ending is kind of silly, but at the same time it’s the ending we always wanted for Ben [Duane Jones] in the movie that inspired this one to start with, Night of the Living Dead. Even though the special effects by Gianetto De Rossi are quite restrained, I’m sure that in 1974 they where quite shocking, even the masterpiece from the other side of the Atlantic, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 1974 isn’t’ as visually spectacular as this movie is. And the movie is a wonderful time capsule of De Rossi’s realistic effect wizardry only a few years before he really took it to the limit in those splendid Italian genre pieces.

Symbolism and negative counterparts play a part in Grau’s movie. During the very start of the movie we see a fertility stature the symbol of life, a few moments later the camera focuses on a haunting painting which look like a strange blend of the iconic atomic bomb mushroom and a harrowed face of a dead person. Also in a wider perspective it’s somewhat ironic to start a movie that ends on such a down note with a symbol of life. The struggle for human survival is conquered not by the monsters, but by humans themselves. The Cops, who are supposed to be the good guys, turn out to be the bad guys. It’s all wonderfully sinister isn’t it, and one can only imagine the degree of social criticism Grau brought into the movie here, as the idea that the police force represents Franco and his dictatorship over the people of Spain isn’t too far from bay.

Much like The Exorcist 1973, Jaws 1975, and the recent Swedish hit Let the Right One In 2008, it’s the realism of the drama that makes the movie work. The movie is set in a real world and is actually a drama with horror themes and elements. Also i's the very ordinary characters who help drive the movie. George is a simple antique dealer who only wants’ to get to his rural house in the countryside to get away from the hectic tempo of the inner city. Edna is an everyday woman on her way to visit her sister who also lives in the countryside. There are no superpowers at play here, no secret army training, no suitcases full of weapons, just two common people in the middle of a terrifying setting. It’s the simple choices that they make that make them believable characters. Running for their lives, much like you and I would do.

The explanation for the undead coming back to life is also quite reasonable, and in many ways a critical standing point. The human element is to blame, not a freak of nature, but our own need to control our environment. An ecological theme that we are to blame for our own downfall much like in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and Jean Rollin’s Grapes of Death 1978. And it works, because we can relate to it, much like we still relate to discussions concerning the environment still today. It’s easier to swallow than radiation from outer space isn’t it?

One of the more sophisticated tools used by Grau in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, is that George is a sceptic, it’s not until we pass half of the movie that George actually believes that the dead have come back to life, and from then on starts fighting with his life at stake. This is a cunning device as we grow into identification with George as he grows into the believer, his scepticism is the same as ours, there can’t be monsters, but as he changes and develops as a character we go along on the ride with him and he bring us into the story. As he comes to terms of the reality of monsters, so do we.

All of these splendid storytelling tools are used to crate a magnificent movie that still almost forty years later makes it a really disturbing, believable, engaging and highly entertaining movie. A masterpiece of the horror genre to say the least. A definitive must see movie for any fan of early European Zombie Horror.

Finally a word on Giuliano Sorgini’s excellent soundtrack. (Sample above!) It’s honestly one of the most impressive scores conceived for an Italian genre movie because where it starts out as a rock funky jazz thing so typical of the Italian movie scene at the time, it quickly degenerates into a terrifying mixture of primitive growling and guttural sounds which are really disturbing and go perfectly with the images of the undead feasting on the bleeding flesh of mankind. Great stuff, perhaps not as proggish as Goblin or as melodic as the Fabio Frizzi and Alexander Blonkensteiner tunes of the later wave of gut-munchers, but definitely a disturbing soundtrack for a fascinating movie.

Image:

1.85:1 widescreen

Audio:

2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo

Extras:

This version is the limited edition tin boxed set so it has the following extras; A few TV spots, a couple of Radio Spots (which I’d love to have had on CD with the Score! That would have been an extra!) A galley of posters and stills, a novelty Toe Tag replica, a small replica of the German poster! (Surely they could have found a Spanish one, that image is beautiful!) And the best, an interview with Jorge Grau and a 24page booklet, which reproduces text by Nigel J. Burrell from the long out of print Midnight Media book on Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.

And if you really, really want to know… I have no. 1547 of the 5000 limited run.

The Secret Killer

The Secret Killer

Original Title: Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro

Aka: Eyeball

Aka Wide Eyed

in the Dark

Directed by : Umberto Lenzi

Italy /Spain 1975

Giallo, 89min

Distributed by: Marketing Film

Story:

A group of American tourists in Spain find themselves having a terrible holiday when a homicidal manic with a passion for chopping out the eyes of the victims strikes among them. Tension and paranoia set in as they try to figure out who is stalking and killing them, and everyone is fast on the hand to point out a assailant.

Me:

Umberto Lenzi, a fantastic director to say the least. I usually say that he’s mostly know for his cannibal movies [Man from Deep River 1972, Eaten Alive 1980, the infamous Make Them Die Slowly 1981] and the rather cheesy, but ever so atmospherical Nightmare City from 1980. But in my opinion I have to put my money on his decent amount of Gialli and Poliziotteschi which are so much more superior to his gut-muncher movies, and if I was ever forced to write a top ten Gialli list, Umberto Lenzi’s splendid Seven Blood-Stained Orchids from 1972 would definitely be one of the selected few. But today I cast my left eye and thoughts on The Secret Killer (or Red Cats in a Glass Maze as the original title really translates as) which Lenzi directed in 1975.

Obviously there is a reasonable amount of doubt as one sits down to a Gialli. Will it be one of the great ones, or will it be a mixed up jumble like so many other have been. The Secret Killer is quite often refered to as a mediocre Giallo which lack

s plot, a critique often aimed at the Giallo genre. A critique that definitely is unjust, as the plot definitely is there; Who is the killer, and what is the killer’s modus operandi and added to that there are all the cryptic subplots that shave the viewer searching high and low for the right answer. And unlike so many other detective or criminal movies you can almost never predict the outcome of the Giallo as it plays with a completely different set of rules opposed to convention, which is why they still fascinate audiences once again on digital media.

The Secret Killer sees a band of American tourists in Spain being driven round and shown the sights in your general touristy manner. At one stop Reverend Bronson [George Rigaud, who’s face will be familiar to genre fans from Luciano Ercoli’s Death Walks on High Heels 1971, Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Womans Skin 1971, One on Top of the Other 1969, Sergio Martino’s All the Colors of the Dark 1972 and Lenzi’s Knife of Ice 1972] is the first to reach the scene after a young woman is brutally stabbed by an offscreen killer who for a change wears red gloves instead of the genre trait black gloves. The cops, Inspector Tudela [Andrés Mejnuto], who only has a week before retirement, and his young assistant Lara go to the autopsy, where Lara drops the classic line “Excuse me Doctor, are you saying that the killer is a sadist?” to which the Doctor replies “I wouldn’t really doubt it!” That’s the sort of tickling dialogue Lenzi and co-writer Félix Tusell come up with in this fine example of the Gialli. Félix Tusell was originally a producer and went on to continue producing movies after writing the screenplay for The Secret Killer, and that’s kind of a shame, as The Secret Killer has a lot going for it as I will point out shortly.

During the autopsy and later towards the end, when they know who their main suspect is, you will also see a policeman played by Fulvio Mingozzi, who frequently had bit parts as detectives, policemen or agents in almost all the great genre pieces. Do check out his resume, it’s an impressive list to say the least!

Anyhow after questioning the Reverend, setting up the first of many red herrings, the cops leave and the group of tourists continue their holiday. During this set up we are introduced to Paulette Stone [Martine Brochard, who had previously been in a few Nunsploitation flicks and Sergio Martino’s Poliziotteschi Violent Professionals 1973.] the secretary and former mistress of Marc Burton [John Richardson, who starred in Mario Bava’s Black Sunday in 1960 and later Martino’s Torso 1973]. Burton, who mysteriously arrives at the scene of the crime to comfort Paulette and try to swoon her back into his arms. But Paulette won’t be seduced so easily, at least not until Marc is divorced from his wife!

This sequence introduces the major mulligan of the plot; in the very opening after the credits we see a woman in an airport rebooking her flight to New York for a flight to Barcelona instead. We will pretty soon realise that this woman is Alma [Marta May], Marc’s wife, and our knowledge that she took a flight to Barcelona definitely sets her up as our prime suspect, especially as the next victim of the gloved killer is one of the tourists. The killer is moving in on the group!

Keeping the confusion high and pointing fingers in the wrong direction is frequently used throughout the first half of the movie, we learn of further connections between the group in Barcelona and Marc’s wife Alma. Gale Alvarado [Silvia Solar] tells friends in the group that she used to go to school with Marc’s wife, and that she doesn’t think Alma would like to learn about his romances with his secretary on the side. Marc gets a note from Reverend Bronson that his wife called and has taken up residence at the Hotel Presidente on the other side of town. As you see there are major forces working towards pointing out Alma as the gloved killer, but do we really want to believe that our leading lady is the killer? Red herrings are renown to shove the audience in the wrong way!

The second killing, the murder of Peggy is a wonderful sequence that takes place inside an amusement park ghost train ride. Filled with creepy masks and sudden shock effects the killer strikes and once again chops out the left eye of the victim. Once again the cops round up the group of tourists and start going though their suspects. This gathering of the group could have been a pace killer if it had not had been used in an interesting way which works in favour of the narrative. Every time the group are assembled after a killing, they start pointing fingers at each other, hence leading us on and planting new red herrings. After the murder of Peggy, there are several threads at play, and Marc goes to the Hotel his wife is supposed to be located at, obviously she isn’t there, but Marc finds a bloodied dagger in the suite which generates the first of a series of flashbacks related to Marc and Alma. He has returning flashbacks to a situation where he found Alma fainted in their garden with the same knife he found in the hotel in her right hand and an eyeball in her left… he can’t put his finger on it, but something is wrong with the image, and his is a subplot that will later have great importance.

It’s quite fair to say that from this point on Marc becomes the primary protagonist of the story, and even tough we don’t completely free him from suspicion, he will be the character who leads us through this mysterious Giallo. As viewers familiar with the genre will know, you can never be determined until the last scene has played out, these movies constantly pull the rug from under our feet and in some cases even the most obvious becomes the opposite in the flash of a knife.

The finest example of the finger pointing occurs after a young woman outside the group is murdered as she feeds her pigs on a farm they are visiting. There are several leads pointing to various members of the group and a great montage showing the whereabouts of our favourite suspects enhances this. The murderer stalks and kills the farm girl and the soon inspector, cursing that he has to solve this case before retiring and handing his position over to his young assistant, comes to the scene yet again. But then the splendid twist is that as the police question those we favour as prime suspects, they flip it around and point towards Paulette, our secondary protagonist. Once again, we have been following the tale through the narrative of Paulette and Marc, and it couldn’t be Paulette donning the red gloves as that would be illogical wouldn’t it. Or would it?

Burton learns that Alma is to catch a flight back out of Barcelona and races to the airport to confront her, but in a last minute decision Alma cancels her flight ticket and once again she slips through Marc’s fingers leaving him non the wiser. Although he does encounter Lisa Sanders [Mirta Miller] a photographer who is part of their little group and uses ever possible moment and location to photograph her girlfriend Nabila [Ines Pellegrini, who starred in a few Pasolini movies, including the infamous Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom]. Marc asks her to keep her professional eye open for Alma, and to photograph her if she sees her in Barcelona. He then goes back to Paulette and tells her about his suspicion that Alma is in town, killing all these people in an attempt to frame him!

Needless to say Lisa becomes the next victim in a beautiful sequence that easily is among the most finest of the genre. Antonio Millán’s cinematography peaks here as composition and pacing climaxes in a stunning sequence utilising deep focus and vivid colour schemes. I could go as far as referring to his as the must see scene of the movie. Nabila walks into the apartment and see’s Lisa’s body, screams waking the rest of the group, once again invoking a wonderful series of mis-en-scene where we are presented with possible suspects. At this point we have a fair idea of our own suspects, but we need to go yet another round before it is all exposed. The group take a trip to Stiges (yes Sitges of the legendary horror and fantasy festival) but as a change the group is separated in yet another cunning subplot to lead us astray. Nablia is in hospital following the attack, and Reverend Bronson stays in Barcelona to visit her, Marc has to check some last details of Alma’s whereabouts, and this is obviously when the killer strikes again! This time it’s a failure, and Nabila escapes once again, but the cops are in the killers trail, and soon their prime suspect will be captured.

Eventually Marc is too close to the killer for his own good and the police, persuaded that he just tried to murder the last victim and not chance the killer as he states himself, take him into custody. Once again I point out the common misunderstanding that Gialli have no plot or comprehensive storyline and only use cheap tricks. But here you go, evidence proving the opposite, in the autopsy scene, the doctor pointed out that the wounds where made by a right handed person which is later in the end of the movie proves a possible suspect to be innocent!

All good things come to an end and even so The Secret Killer. The murderer is exposed and the motif for slicing out eyeballs of the victims too and bizarrely enough there’s even a happy ending for one of the lead protagonists to wrap things up nice and tidy. Ironically there are several small clues and questions that get revealed during the final scenes. Answers to suggestions and questions which I would think may be seen more coherently by an audience perhaps not to familiar with the genre. I say ironic because with knowledge of the genre and the “anyone can be the killer” twists that frequent the Gialli, it’s a rarity that the most obvious killer is there right under your nose.

The Secret Killer has a fabulous score by the late Bruno Nicolai, who composed some of the finest scores ever set to Gialli movies, This one much in the same suave style of his previous scores for Guiliano Carnimeo’s The Case of The Bloody Iris 1972, and Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is A Closed Room and Only I Have the Key also from1972. But on the down side, this fantastic score is misused and brutally wasted on this film, or perhaps overused is a better word as it keeps coming in every now and again without any regards to what mood the scene is playing for what so ever. Sometimes it’s just plain annoying and distracts from the narrative. But on it’s own it’s a great soundtrack.

Image:

2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen

Audio:

Dolby Digital Mono English, Dolby Digital 5.1 German, Dolby Digital Mono German, no subtitles available.

Extras:

The theatrical trailer, filmographies for Umberto Lenzi, John Richardson, Martine Brochard and Ines Pellegrini, a slide show of stills and promotional materials. Finally a bunch of trailers for other Marketing Film’s releases, but nothing of real genre interest unless you like your Hong-Kong actioners dubbed to German.

Poultrygeist - Night of the Chicken Dead

Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead
Directed by Lloyd Kaufman
USA, 2006
Comedy /Horror, 103min
Distributed by: Troma Entertainment Inc.

Story:
Life is rolling on for young Arbie as he completes his summer of love by finally laying Wendy and being fingered by Native American Zombies in the cemetery. But in just a semesters time his life is turned upside down when he runs into his girlfriend Wendy, who is back from college to protest the newly erected American Chicken Bunker franchise in Tromaville. Arbie realizes that Wendy has turned lesbian during her time at college and devastated, he takes a job at the same fast food joint that Wendy (and most of Tromaville) are protesting against. But little does he stop to think about the fact that the fast food joint has been built upon the sacred Native American burial ground! Low and behold as Teenage lust, Indian burial grounds, Zombies and Fast food blend into the gore fest orgasm called POULTRYGEIST –NIGHT OF THE CHICKEN DEAD

Me:
Being a fan and friend of Lloyd Kaufman and Troma for a very long time, it’s only obvious that I at one point in time have to slip in the latest offering, Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead into the DVD and see if it holds up to the previous installments of Kaufman’s celluloid legacy. Keep in mind that Poultrygeist – Night of the Chicken Dead is a movie that I have feared for quite some time…

Well to be honest, Poultrygeist isn’t The Toxic Avenger, it isn’t Terror Firmer, it isn’t WAR, it isn’t Citizen Toxie, and it sure isn’t kosher in any way at all, but then again that’s part of the reason that you turn to Troma; for fast, violent, laughable, gory schlock entertainment, and I mean that in the most positive and respectfull way ever. Nobody can make blood-soaked carnage as hilarious as Lloyd Kaufman.

No matter how wild and crazy these movies get, you can never ignore Lloyd Kaufman’s engagement and statements, as each movie takes the time to criticize, mock and raise awareness for the topic of discourse, even if it's done sublimely and suggestive. Don’t start ranting on about how sexist these movies are and what a shitty view they take on women, because if you do, you are out of your league. I can’t think of a company that makes movies that celebrate sexuality, male, female or in-between as respectfully and interestingly as Troma. The Toxic Avenger was in many ways a poke at the health craze of the eighties, Class of Nuke Em High a raised fist against the dumping of toxic waste (themes also used in Toxic Avenger of course), Troma's WAR was a poke in the eye the arms dealers and US involvement in overseas conflicts, the second and third instalments of the Toxic Avenger series: Toxic Avenger Part II and Toxic Avenger Part III : The Last Temptation of Toxie both shot back to back in 1989 are obviously comments on global corporations and the era of the sharp dressed, backstabbing cold hearted businessmen. And then there’s Terror Firmer which made Lloyd the poster boy for his whole getting off your ass and making your own damned movie mantra as he shows that even a blind man can get his stuff in the can.

And this is why I say that you can't ignore Kaufman’s movies, as he goes after his topics and nails them by the balls to the wall. As the name indicates, Poultrygesist is a comment on the fast-food industry and the franchise globalization of the world. You can’t miss it, unless you are an idiot, and this is one of the finer points of Troma movies, they do have a message, even if it lost on the masses.

Needless to say the movie is effective, I avoid chicken products like the plague, (especially those fast-food grinders and anything that isn’t sliced and diced by my own hand) and this movie definitely makes one even more hesitant to chicken. There’s so much chicken carcasses, ground chicken, chicken slime, chicken sliver and chicken guts that you may never want to eat chicken again. So yeah, this movies message is loud and clear, and definitely comes across without any misinterpretations at all.

Also the fact that Troma have pioneered so many fields and areas that they have been completely ignored for that it is a crying shame.

Years before putting a new spin on the classics, like the recent Jane Austen vs. Zombies / Cthulhu fad of the past year, Troma and Kaufman where already light years ahead of their time., with films like Tromeo and Juliet 1996, at one point in time I recall Citizen Toxie was referred to as The Tale of Two Toxies. That’s TROMA and William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens! You don’t get that reference in your average schlock horror, but Troma knows their classic story telling and that’s why their movies, especially the ones written and directed by Kaufman himself, all rise above the average corny horror that is force fed onto fans of the genre. The last horror/comedy I tried to watch got shut down and slipped back into the case before I even got half way through, and that was the critically acclaimed Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. But never has a Troma movie been halted by my hand, and probably they won’t either, because as I said, there is a heart and soul to these movies no matter how you twist and shake it.

Secondly, technology! Back in the late nineties when other studios where still writing “animated menu” as an extra feature on their DVDs, Troma where dishing up exclusive audio commentaries, extended cuts, an amazing amount of extras so that you never, NEVER felt screwed buying a Troma DVD. And just look at the DVD titles they release today! The majority of their own movies all come with a complete extra disc of exclusive feature length documentaries giving a full insight into the movie making process and how it’s all done. So for a few bucks you are in fact getting your film school education while you laugh your ass off! Now you can’t complain about that now can you!

In many ways Poultrygeist is a great Troma movie, high on Troma values. Ass jokes, nudity, lesbians, fantastic effects, dorky protagonists and all round cheesiness (what’s not to like about that?) The fundamental narrative is here, the classic Troma storyline: The dorky underdog who comes out on top and saves the day. Yeah, everyone loves an underdog and that is probably why it’s always been Troma's main plot device, but Poultrygeist didn’t quite leave the impression I wanted it too. Sure it is a hillarious movie, all the regular Troma “guest actors” are there, the jokes and gag’s are up to usual Troma standards, and there’s even the craftsmanship of the story, yeah I said story, and even though YOU may not expect to find one in a Troma movie, it’s in there and if you have missed them, then that’s just proof of your ignorance, the underdog and the fight against unfair callous corporation! Remember I pointed this out earlier, there’s social criticism in these movies!

If you want another example of the genius of Mr. Kaufman here you are; all the major characters are named after US fast-food chains! Arbys, Wendys, Paco Bell and so on, and also if you fail to see who Robin Watkins General Lee Roy is supposed to be they you must be blind. See it’s all very sublime and highly effective! Perhaps it was the song and dance numbers that didn't work for me, as I can’t stand S&D numbers (apart from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Grease that is…) and I definitely don’t want singing in my lesbian romp scenes, it just confuses me. But the soundtrack will have you singing the theme over and over again for the next few days after seeing the movie, so it's not all bad is it.

The story obviously focuses on Arbie [Jason Yachanin], yet another Troma underdog fighting for the good stuff and right values in life. It’s a pretty uncomplicated tale of how he tries his darnedest to regain the one true happiness he ever had, Wendy [Kate Graham, possibly the most “Girl Next Door” ever in a Troma movie], and how life constantly has other plans for him forcing him to take actions outside of his underdog, geek character trait.

The subplot of Arbie meeting his “Older self” [played to masterful perfection by director Kaufman himself] is great, and echoes the; if you really want something, “get off your fat ass and make it happen” mentality associated with Troma. A guide line for the entire “Make your own Damned Movie” philosophy that Kaufman and Troma stand for. Do it! If Troma have been able to make movies for 35+ years, then so can you!

And finally the one to bring in the final laughs, the one scene you always will find in Kaufman’s movies, the car flip – explosion scenes that cost them a million dollars back in 1990 when they shot Sgt Kabukiman NY.P.D. Ever since then that scene has been masterfully woven into all of Kaufman's movies and has become almost like Alfred Hitchcock’s cameo, you know that at one point during the movie, it will be there. In Poultrygeist it fills a very nihilistic and ironic function tossing the movie into dark ground and making it the The Unbearable Lightness of Being of horror comedies, as happiness is once again punished with ironic sudden death. Cherish what you have as it may be gone tomorrow.

You can huff and you can puff, but you can not blow down the house of Troma, an impressive institution that has been making independent movies since 1974 that’s over 35 years of real independent film making, 35 years of supporting independent filmmakers, and 35 years of showcasing that anyone who really wants can make a movie. And herein lays one of the inspiring magic of them, their passion for what they do and their ambition to make others get up and be active. Get away from the dronish dream state of fantasy, get off your asses and make your own damned movie. Then give Troma a call, and who knows they may even distribute it for you and give you that break you never thought you would get!

[And buy their movies right now, as even true independance has a price!]

Image:
Anamorphic Widescreen

Sound:
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Extras:
Well as I stated above, Troma DVD’s are packed with extras, this one no exception; There’s the full length commentary track by Lloyd Kaufman and co-writer Gabe Friedman (no stranger to Troma himself), there’s the trailers for all your favourite Troma movies, music videos outtakes and loads of greet stuff, then there’s the stunning disc two with the feature length Poultry In Motion - Truth Is Stranger Than Chicken documentary on the making of Poultrygeist (see here’s the film school Troma style again) and also a shit loads of great stuff to, deleted scenes, further exploration of how to make a movie. Like I said, loads of stuff to keep you happy and satisfied, so go get it now!

J of Cinezilla with the always charming Uncle Lloydie in 2006.