Black Sheep

This movie tickled my funny bone. Its got that great Kiwi humor, this the huge amounts of swearing, Maori jokes, and Kiwiana icons. Look out for the part with the Watties sauce, and the crazy Asian guy running across the screen.

The actors are pretty good, and Weta workshop must have been in their element with the splatter style film. You get a fright, then laugh because you realise its a psycho sheep. Sheep? C'mon. Some people may never be able to return to the farm again, but me? I have a whole new respect for the woolly guys. Put this move at the top of your must see list!

After reading an extremely negative review of this, which COMPLETELY missed the point, I thought I'd write a far more 'accurate' review. In my opinion, this is one of the best of this type of horror movie i've seen. It's right up there with Peter Jackson's early work and Evil Dead. All the negative things the other reviewer was saying, the poor dialogue, and acting, the unrealistic effects, were deliberate, after all, the effects were done by highly skilled and trained effects people at WETA Workshops - who of course did Lord of The Rings. It is a horror comedy packed with clichés and subtle allusions, and full of New Zealand humour, which i concede probably doesn't translate well internationally. NZ is primarily a farming nation, we're a huge exporter of lamb, Farming is a huge part of our culture, and this blends that with our history of offbeat, slightly dark, and idiosyncratic cinema. It is a clever, quintessentially kiwi, homage to such previously mentioned horror comedies (or comedic horrors). That's what i like about it, it is a lot cleverer than it looks. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the film. If you like Peter Jackson's early stuff, you'll like this. Just don't expect it to be s***-your-pants scary.

When will mankind ever learn? Deranged, over-ambitious scientists have tried to genetically alter pretty much every species of the animal kingdom so far, and it always results in gigantically mutated critters and outrageous massacres. All the better for us bloodthirsty horror freaks, of course, as there's nothing as fun as a good nature-revolting-against-men creature feature! And we never had sheep before! On one hand this is no real surprise, because sheep are probably the least menacing type of animals on the planet and it's a lot easier to scare people with mutated rats or over-sized crocodiles. But on the other hand, sheep played a very important role in one of the most major breakthroughs in the history of science when "Dolly" was the first living being ever to be cloned successfully. The Dolly-experiment gone wrong would have resulted in a crazy sheep-themed horror film already, but we had to wait till now, with Jonathan King's "Black Sheep". All the necessary ingredients to put together a traditional and delightfully clichéd creature-feature are well presented: an isolated location, over-the-top crazy scientists, a genetic experiment that is too imbecile for words, the reluctant anti-hero and – of course – dimwitted animal activists to let things go totally out of control. The New Zealandian film-industry is definitely growing lately (mainly thanks to Peter Jackson) and naturally this is the ideal country to produce a film about sheep, as there are gazillions of them! The two brothers Angus & Henry grew up of the family's farm but drifted apart ever since their beloved father died in a terrible accident. Henry is terrified of sheep ever since and never set foot on the farm again, but now he finally returns to sell Agnus his part of the property. Henry arrives just in time to discover that his brother has been messing with Mother Nature's creation and that he's about to artificially create a new and revolutionary species of sheep. But when an over-enthusiast activist runs off with on of the mutated lambs, all the nearby flocks are soon infected with a virus that turns the calm & woolly animals into a aggressive and carnivore monsters. "Black Sheep" stands for extremely entertaining and undemanding splatter, with loads of black humor that is actually funny and make-up effects that are thankfully accomplished the old-fashioned way! When director Jonathan King introduced this film at the Belgian Horror Festival, he said he didn't want too much CGI to ruin his film and I definitely concur with him. Especially the scene where a bunch of uncontrolled zombie-sheep attacks a gathering of international businessmen is an absolutely terrific homage to vintage cheesy horror, with disembowelment and ripped open throats. "Black Sheep" is a good film, but of course it still could have been a lot better. Some chapters in the script could have used better plotting and dialogs, and particularly the ending was a bit of a letdown. They could have done so much more with the ending, if you ask me! Nevertheless, despite some obvious flaws, "Black Sheep" is a must-see film for every horror fan who doesn't take him/herself too seriously.

Black sheep is a New Zealand film about a farmer who's been conducting genetic experiments on sheep in a weird breeding programme, when two activists accidentally release some of the radioactive material all hell breaks loose. With effects provided by Peter Jackson's Weta studios this is a daft horror much like his early work 'Braindead' and 'Bad Taste'. There is blood galore, mutant flesh eating sheep, human-ram hybrids and silly jokes and it definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. Packed full of clichés and homage's to other films, look out for the 'American Werewolf in London' take off, it is at times quite funny but ultimately the story is nothing new and only just manages to hold your interest between sheep attacks. If you want a no-brainer and a bit of a laugh and a groan then you will probably like this movie but stay away if you want highbrow because Shakespeare this isn't. They are coming to get ewe so get out the mint sauce.

This woolly New Zealand splatter comedy hasn't got quite the same wit and originality as Jackson's Braindead, but in itself, it's a fun ride, no matter whether you love sheep or detest them.

The director finds the right balance between spoofing the genre and taking it seriously, which results in scenes being both mordantly funny and comically repulsive at the same time.

The plot's mere window-dressing to present one hilarious sheep incident after another. And some jokes work wonders in a childish sort of way.

A silly fun movie through and trough.

6 out of 10 were-sheep