I don’t know what it is about those Kiwis, but they seem to make a pretty good monster movie. I’m sure there were good horror films from New Zealand prior to Peter Jackson’s early work, and please let me know what I’ve been missing, but it seemed to kick off with his insanely over-the-top splatter flicks and through the present day, when we’re treated to something like Black Sheep. Filled with some pretty good effects work, thanks to the WETA crew that also did the Lord of the Rings films and the stunning District 9, as well as a wicked and often-silly sense of humor, Black Sheep shows that even the most ridiculous premise may be mined to great effect.
When prodigal son Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) returns home to his family sheep farm, he is greeted by older brother Angus (Peter Feeney), who offers to buy our his part of the farm. Terrorized by a phobia of sheep following a childhood trauma, Henry wants nothing more than to complete his business and be on his way back to the city. His efforts are subverted when an eco-warrior lets loose a fetus produced by genetic experimentation with the sheep, turning the activist into a zombie of sorts, and loosing an infection on the remaining sheep that makes them carnivores.Henry is joined by farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis) and hippie activist Experience (Danielle Mason), as they attempt to navigate their way across sheep-filled hills to reach safety. Along the way, they are beset by corporate thugs, rabid sheep and some sort of human-sheep hybrid borne from Experience’s boyfriend. Oh, and there’s plenty of room for puns, plays on words and a barrelful of quips.
The whole mess culminates in a massacre while Angus tries to sell his newly-created “Oldfield” sheep to foreign investors, most of whom inevitably become sheep chow or sheep-human hybrids out for blood. It’s all very silly, but the film does not pretend to take itself seriously and, as such, is a whole lot of fun from start to finish. Aided by the aforementioned effects, and boasting a pretty amazing human-to-monster-sheep transformation, Black Sheep manages to remain entertaining and jovial even in its darkest moments.
There is a message about genetic manipulation of food at play here, too, a subject that is terrifyingly relevant in our Monsanto-manipulated world, but the movie is never preachy about it, content to let the subject matter itself and a few lines from Experience point our moral compasses in the right direction. For most of its runtime, Black Sheep is just an old-fashioned monster movie served with a healthy side of laughs, and it’s a good one.
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