Zombeak

2009
Dir. Sam Drog

A motley crew of bumbling Satanists kidnap a waitress to offer her up as a bride to the Devil and to become the mortal mother of the antichrist. However, her boyfriend and no-bullshit-taking Highway Patrol Officer brother have other ideas and set out to rescue her and give the Satanists an ass kicking of Biblical proportions. Unfortunately, their ill-planned intervention merely serves to botch the unholy ritual in progress and all the power of hell is inadvertently transferred into an unlikely host: a recently sacrificed chicken. Now, as the forces of good and evil battle it out between themselves, a demonic, flesh-eating barnyard animal is threatening to engulf their very souls and recruit them in its growing army of the living dead!

Dear reader, is it possible to imagine anything more fearsome and terrifying than an undead chicken, possessed by the devil and intent on killing innocent human victims? I thought not. As incredible as it may sound, a Satanic Killer Zombie Chicken is just one of the many horrors in store in writer-director Sam Drog’s debut horror-comedy, a delightfully grim and unabashedly trashy tale of abduction, devil worship, human sacrifice and, well, poultry. 

Murder most fowl…

Believe it or not, Zombeak was actually the first of several similarly themed movies to feature a rampaging, murderous chicken (!). Poultrygeist and Thankskilling also feature much carnage by chicken, but it is Zombeak that can lay claim to being the world's first satanic killer zombie chicken movie. So with a premise such as this, Zombeak promises much trashy mayhem and delivers everything you'd want it to. It's a pretty lively, rollicking and endearing flick. It doesn't take itself seriously and at a mere 70 minutes, doesn’t outstay its welcome. Much fun is garnered through the flamboyant characters and playful sideswipes at Goth culture. The colourful characters picked off by the zombie chicken (!) are immensely entertaining and the cast throw themselves into their roles with gusto.

A number of delightfully knowing moments feature characters walking in slow-motion accompanied by rousing rock music whilst sporting shot guns and looking moody. The combination of traditional effects and some low budget CGI (when Satan puts in an appearance pre-bird possession, he is a red light that mutters angrily to itself), enhance the charmingly cheap and good natured tone. The death scenes are hilariously over the top as the actors throw themselves around, flailing and ‘wrestling’ with the chicken puppet. Director Drog never pauses for thought and events blunder excitedly along to their gore-soaked climax that features the expected one-liner pay-off, cathartic bloodbath and obligatory set up for a sequel.

Zombeak is a cheap, gore-laden journey into the darkest realms of the imagination that proves evil does, indeed, taste just like chicken. Enjoy with wine. Lots of wine.

Zombeak (cert. 15) was released on DVD (£5.99) by MVM on 1st March 2010.