From the land that gave you Lord of the Rings, comes the Citizen Kane of killer sheep films...

[zombres]

BLACK SHEEP
(2006)

Starring: Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Tammy Davis, Peter Feeney, Glenis Levestam.
Directed by: Jonathan King.
Rated: R (for extreme sheep violence, bwahaha!).

When people think about New Zealand these days, they tend to think of two things: 1) the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and 2) sheep. This Kiwi film combines the second with the special effects company (Weta Workshop) that delivered the first. Not to mention the mentality and mixture of gore and slapstick that characterized Peter Jackson's films prior to his multi-Oscar winning LOTR films.

I figured that, having lived and studied in Kiwi-a-go-go-land for five months, I pretty much had to review a film from NZ. And given my interest in the low-brow, the cult classics, and the mad-science-gone-wrong genre, what better movie to spotlight than Black Sheep?

Poor Henry Oldfield (Meister) has had a phobia of sheep since he was a boy, thanks in large part to his older brother Angus(Feeney)'s relentless and disturbing pranks. It's too bad for Henry that his family happens to own one of New Zealand's largest sheep farms -- and that his brother has demanded his presence at the dramatic unveiling of his latest genetically altered breed of sheep. Now Henry must face not only his own phobia, but also his family's warped past and his brother's diabolical experimentation, which has resulted in a hyper-violent breed of sheep that either eat their victims or turn them into voracious weresheep.

Henry isn't alone in his fight against the weresheep; the environmental protestor Experience (Mason) soon finds herself separated from her extremist boyfriend and relying on Henry -- one of the hated "oppressors of nature" -- to stay alive. The two are helped in their fight by the cheerful and practical farmhand Tucker (Davis), and the farm's gun-toting cook (Levestam).



Henry and Experience must face the shear terror of their situation.

What an inspired, ridiculous concept! KILLER SHEEP! Everything else has had a schlocky B-movie devoted to it: sharks, leeches, giant cats, giant lizards, giant squid, giant ants, giant shrews, etc. etc. etc. Surely, it was only a matter of time until someone took a truly bland and unassuming animal and turned it into a rabid monstrosity. And next to cows, what other animal is as placid or as harmless as a sheep?

And of course such a concept/film had to come from New Zealand, known throughout the world for its mutton industry. As the poster for the film asserts, there are close to 40 million sheep in New Zealand -- that's about eight sheep per person -- and wouldn't it be terrible if they all decided they'd had enough of being bossed around by shepherds and dogs?



Lullabelle and her friends have decided to turn the tables (and make some changes to the menus).

The real question is: does Black Sheep manage to pull off this laughable concept? Well, while this isn't a film worthy of Academy consideration by any stretch of the imagaination, it isn't a horrible piece of dreck like so many other "killer animals running amok" movies. It certainly has its redeeming moments, and there's a lot to be said for the power of the New Zealand landscape and the talents at the Weta Workshop.

The acting is a bit hammy at times, but it's all in good fun. It's the sort of acting you'd expect in such a film, and at least it isn't bad enough to detract from the sheer insanity and hilarity of the situations. Meister pulls off the terrified/clueless/desperate hero well, Mason makes Experience both ridiculously single-minded and quick-thinking, Davis is a real delight as the goofy and courageous Tucker, Levestam is convincingly batshit and wonderful, and Feeney is incredibly creepy and a little too passionate about his hooved experiements.

Black Sheep is at its best when it throws everything at the screen, sometimes literally. You have to laugh out loud when people are tackled by bawling sheep, when mutant lambs gnaw at characters' ears, when mint sauce burns the weresheep like holy water. Sure, it may go a bit too far over the edge of good taste towards the end, but you sort of have to expect such depravity in a film about sheep. X^D



Mary would flip a shit if this little lamb followed her home.

The special effects are darn good, considering the film's budget, and Weta has had plenty of experience with buckets of gooey innards, animatronic monsters, and crazy prosthetics thanks to their years with Peter Jackson. This isn't exactly a scary film; if you jump at all it's due entirely to a fake-out in the soundtrack. But it is a gory one, with plenty of skinned sheep, gnawed bodies, and helicopter carnage.

Check out a copy of Black Sheep if you'd like to see a Kiwi film that isn't Lord of the Rings, or if you're a fan of Peter Jackson's early films like Brain Dead and Bad Taste. Check it out if you like ridiculous gore and morbid slapstick in the vein of the Evil Dead series. Check it out if you've got a lazy weekend with some buds and want something with the oddity factor -- because, really, how can you pass up such a high concept B-movie? Killer sheep? It's something that has to be seen to be baaaa-lieved.

On a scale of 1 to 10: Black Sheep bites its way to a solid 7.

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And sincere apologies for the horrible puns. I've had a bit to drink tonight, and movies like these always bring the worst out in me. X^D