Undead Meat

Grilling Poultrygeist director Lloyd Kaufman on 35 years of Troma.

by Shaun Brady

AIM FOR THE BIRD BRAIN: "The media brainwashes the public, which goes like zombies to fast food places," says Kaufman (non-zombie chicken). (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

"Troma is the herpes of the entertainment industry," brags Lloyd Kaufman with typically scatological fervor. "We won't go away."

To celebrate its 35th year of being a rash on cinema's backside, Troma is releasing Kaufman's latest exercise in ridiculous extremes and gutter-dwelling satire (not to mention musical numbers), Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. The inspiration came, Kaufman says, when he found himself in a very Troma-like situation, "down in the basement fighting off giant, raccoon-sized rats and cleaning up rat shit." Seems a Mickey D's had moved in next door to Troma HQ, and with the Big Macs came big rodents.

"We were immediately infested with rats," Kaufman recalls. "Gabe Friedman, our editor, was down there with me, and he had worked in fast food — so obviously, working with Troma was a big step down. He suggested that since I like to make movies with political or sociological elements, that perhaps an anti-fast food movie might be an interesting theme for my next film."

The idea fit very well with Kaufman's own beliefs, which are frankly unfavorable in regard to the fast food industry. "It's truly evil," he insists. "There's nothing good about it whatsoever. The horrible torture that the animals go through, the exploitation of the labor force, the desecration of the environment, the ugly, tacky-looking architecture. The zombie metaphor is appropriate because the mass media brainwashes the public, which goes like zombies to fast food places. The little fat kids pick up an Iron Man action figure and then buy a ticket and see the product placement in Iron Man and then go back to Burger King and get fat and sick."

Troma may be no more mainstream now than it was when it began (its closest flirtation came with its anchor franchise, The Toxic Avenger), but its influence is felt throughout popular culture. Not only did Troma give Trey Parker and Matt Stone their start by releasing Cannibal: The Musical, but Kaufman's potent brew of libertarian political potshots and shock-value one-upsmanship gelled into its most commercial form via South Park.

"Movies like Squeeze Play! and Waitress! ushered in the age of Porky's and raunchy comedies," Kaufman points out, recalling some of the company's earliest releases. "Then with Toxic Avenger, we created the slapstick gore movie. Not to be confused with the private-jet-riding, Nobel-prize-stealing former vice president and his big fat wants-to-censor-music wife. Not that Gore."

Gore and politics are obviously inextricable in Kaufman's mind, especially where there's a pun to be made, a body to be eviscerated, or a bodily function to be exaggerated. Perhaps there was something in the water at Yale, where Kaufman's classmates included someone whose view of politics also runs to outrageously sick humor — George W. Bush.

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But Kaufman is now a politician himself, having been elected chairman of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, a trade group for the independent film and television industry. He ran on a platform of fighting industry consolidation and protecting net neutrality, seeking to ensure that other indies can enjoy the same longevity that Troma has in the age of new media.

That survival is due in large part to Troma's rabid fan base, and to the fact that the name has become an identifiable brand. Disney, Kaufman says, is the only other studio that offers such a recognizable brand. While that may seem to be the only facet they share, Toxie is following Mickey's footsteps into musical theater — Toxic Avenger: The Musical premières in New Jersey in September, produced by the team behind Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

But that brand promises a specific cinematic experience, which Kaufman switches into pitchman mode to describe: "When people go to see a Troma movie, they know they'll be challenged. They'll be entertained and yet the'll have something to chew on. They won't be getting all this $100 million baby food — Speed Racer and 27 Dresses and Made of Honor. You can live on baby food, but it's boring, and there's plenty of people out there who would like to have jalapeño peppers. Troma is the jalapeño pepper on the Philadelphia cheesesteak."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead opens Friday at the Roxy. See our review.