Plot
On the night of a full moon, a Werechicken terrorizes a flock and drives them into their coop. The chickens' owners, Maude and Zeke, are inside watching a werewolf movie. Maude goes out to check on the birds and is attacked. She returns in a daze, transforms into a Werechicken, perches on Zeke's armchair, eats his popcorn, and turns on him while the original Werechicken watches from outside.
At the Firehouse, Peter is hauling trash out of Egon's lab because Egon has skipped his chores to finish a weather balloon. The work goes badly: Slimer dives into the garbage bags chasing leftovers, Ray loses his balance off the balloon and drops everything, and Slimer slimes Peter. Zeke phones in to report that a giant chicken ate his wife. Peter Venkman, Slimer, and Ray Stantz, along with Winston Zeddemore, take the call despite how far-fetched it sounds. Egon finishes his project moments later only to discover everyone has already left.
At the farm, the transformed Maude lays a large egg in the hay. Ray identifies the culprit as a Werechicken from a set of footprints, and Slimer spots the egg. Egon, hearing about it later, remarks it is the second largest egg he has seen. With no P.K.E. readings off it, Peter and Slimer take the egg back to headquarters while Ray and Winston keep searching. They eventually track the original Werechicken to a farmhouse, blast it with two Proton Streams, and trap the ghost inhabiting it; the bird reverts to an ordinary chicken, and Winston works out that Zeke's "Werechicken" is really his wife.
Back at the Firehouse, Egon stows the egg in the refrigerator, too busy to study it. Slimer, dreaming of food, wakes up and decides to make an omelet, putting the egg in the oven. It hatches instead, and the newborn Werechicken bites Egon on the butt, turning him into one too. Ray finds the entry on Werechickens in Tobin's Spirit Guide and the team brews Chickenbane Soup as an antidote.3 They are missing one ingredient and give it to Egon anyway, which stops the change at his neck, leaving him a Werechicken from the shoulders down.
The hatchling grows into a giant, reaching 50 feet as it marches down 34th Street toward the Empire State Building. Winston notes it is the month of August. Witnesses fleeing a supermarket give wildly different size estimates: a worker reports 10 to 15 feet; the butcher says 30 feet. The Ghostbusters head off the creature at the Empire State Building and extract its ghost using three Proton Streams, but the Ghost Trap is already full because Egon never emptied it, so the ghost returns to the body and scales the building. Ray realizes Egon's weather balloon can freeze it. Peter and Slimer pick Egon up on Ecto-2 during his demonstration, and following Egon's instructions Peter cranks the remote to the extreme left, generating a snowstorm that freezes the Werechicken solid. Later, Maude and Zeke visit the Firehouse and serve the team Chickenbane Soup. A howl from the lab turns out to be Slimer enjoying a new soul music tape.
The Werechicken
Werechickens are ghosts that possess chickens as host bodies. Once possession is achieved, the ghost conducts ectoplasmic metastasis throughout the host, transmogrifying it into a chicken monstrosity that compulsively stalks and attacks human victims. A bite infects the victim, transmogrifying them into a Werechicken in turn. Human-infected Werechickens only manifest during a full moon and seek the nearest high point to lay a Werechicken Egg. The egg gives off no P.K.E. readings while the spawn is inside. The spawn emerges already inhabiting an animal host and matures rapidly.
The original Werechicken that struck the farm had brown feathers, a dark brown mane, glowing red eyes, sharp fanged teeth, a prominent comb and wattle, and stood roughly three times the size of a standard rooster. Maude's infected form had white feathers with blue spots, a brown head, and still wore her kitchen apron; she stood six feet tall. Egon's infected form displayed yellow and dark brown plumage, a white comb, red eyes, dark orange claws, and a yellow beak with sharp teeth, and retained his prescription glasses. The spawn started small, shifted plumage from brown to white as it matured, and ultimately reached 50 feet. The standard Werechicken ghost can be confined with two Proton Streams; the giant spawn required three.
For human victims, the cure is Chickenbane Soup, which calls for one tablespoon of paprika, one clove of garlic, parsley, one cup of gelatin, and one tablespoon of chickenbane. The "-bane" suffix in traditional lore denotes any herb poisonous to or effective against a particular creature, the most famous being wolfsbane, used historically as a poison and medicine. Without the chickenbane on hand, the partial soup arrested Egon's transformation everywhere except his head.
Cast
The episode features the regular Season 4 voice cast: Dave Coulier as Peter Venkman, Frank Welker as Ray Stantz and Slimer, Maurice LaMarche as Egon Spengler, Buster Jones as Winston Zeddemore, and Kath Soucie as Janine Melnitz.
Production notes
An early draft dated May 12, 1988 differed from the finished episode in several details. Slimer's food dream originally had the food dancing to and singing the first two bars of Los Lobos' "La Bamba," in the style of the California Raisins.4 That draft also worked in a lunar eclipse alongside the full moon.5 In the same draft, the tape Slimer plays at the end was a new James Brown tape rather than the generic soul tape of the aired version.6
Trivia
"Chicken, He Clucked," another chicken-themed installment, is frequently confused with this one.
In the broadcast order, Poultrygeist follows "Flip Side" and precedes "Standing Room Only." In the DVD running order it follows "Flip Side" and precedes "The Joke's on Ray."
Egon remarks that the Werechicken egg is the second largest egg he has seen.
Winston states it is the month of August during the events of this episode.
The Tobin's Spirit Guide entry Ray consults is preceded by entries for Wereaardvarks and Werebears. The Werebears were soft and cuddly teddy bears that would turn into werewolf-like creatures when their heads and paws were turned inside out, particularly popular in the United Kingdom during the 1980s.
In the Swedish dub, the Werechicken is translated as "Monsterhöna" (Monsterhen).
The Werechicken made several non-canon cameo appearances in IDW Publishing comics: a Werechicken appears in the background of Ghostbusters Volume 1 Issue #2; a Tobin's Spirit Guide illustration of a Werechicken features in Volume 1 Issue #8; and a Werechicken appears on subscription covers for Volume 2 Issue #18.
References
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Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 30. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Capizzi, Duane and Roberts, Steven (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Four Disc Five, "Poultrygeist" Script title page. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Capizzi, Duane and Roberts, Steven (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Four Disc Five, "Poultrygeist" Script p. 24. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Capizzi, Duane and Roberts, Steven (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Four Disc Five, "Poultrygeist" Script p. 17. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Capizzi, Duane and Roberts, Steven (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Four Disc Five, "Poultrygeist" Script p. 22. CPT Holdings, Inc.
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Capizzi, Duane and Roberts, Steven (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Four Disc Five, "Poultrygeist" Script p. 40. CPT Holdings, Inc.
