Genetically altered sheep who develop a ravenous hunger for human flesh after an experimental fetus is accidentally unleashed on a sprawling ranch by a hapless environmentalist.
After having followed the progress of BLACK SHEEP and having heard about it for a long time, I was quite sure that I was in for a splatterrific fun time. But after having seen it I gotta admit that it was somewhat of a let-down. Sure, it delivers some splatter and gore but not nearly as much, and as massive, as one had expected, and when it comes to the humour, it just didn't quite cut it in my book. Don't get me wrong here, Jonathan King's BLACK SHEEP has its moments for sure and it's an easy film to sit back and enjoy, but in the end, it didn't live up to all the hype surrounding it.
The very plot of the movie is kinda exciting with genetically altered sheep that become murderous and starts feasting on New Zealand folk. But apart from the plot, I was kinda expecting something along the line of Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE, when talking gory fun, and even though BLACK SHEEP offered some of that, it still felt like the film held back a bit too much. We get to follow Henry Oldfield who returns to his family sheep farm, and who has been afraid of sheep for most of his life. Once there he meets his brother Angus who's only interested in making money in every way possible way instead of tending to the farm the way their father would have wanted. Angus has hooked up with some mad geneticist and has turned the farm, and the sheep, into something Mother Nature did not intend. Henry, who only came home to sell his share of the farm, suddenly finds himself, along with hippie activists Experience, in a whole heap of trouble in a land where the sheep are hungry for human flesh.
 
The cinematography is pretty darn amazing and New Zealand looks beautiful, (and slightly boring), and WETA Workshop has delivered a whole heap of cool effects for the film. Problem with it all though is that it is very straight-forward and once you've gotten some good "sheep action" you find yourself kinda bored with like another hour or so to go. It steers in a way where there are really no surprises, and even though it has moments of splatter and fun, it never really steps up to anything more massive but keeps dragging along until the final finale.
The character that is Henry Oldfield is a bit too whiny and gets boring really quick. His brother Angus, who's the villain here, does not come off half as evil as he could've been, and Henry's side kick, hippie activists Experience, doesn't really project the energy one would've wanted to live things up a bit. I'm kinda on the fence here to whether or not I like this flick but I guess it all ends with that I'm somewhere in between since it has pretty much just as many positive things as negative. Most of the characters are a bit lame and do not have the "go" in them that would lift things up in order to provide more excitement and faster tempo. But if you go in without expectations, I'm quite sure BLACK SHEEP will satisfy one way or another.
Don't expect another BRAINDEAD/DEAD ALIVE, or BAD TASTE for that matter, because BLACK SHEEP will not live up to that type of standard. And do not expect another SHAUN OF THE DEAD when it comes to comedy because the humour is not nearly as good this time around. In other words, don't expect too much and you might end up really liking it. Problem with having watched massive amounts of horror flicks all the way through life is that you always want more and sometimes, even if a film is good enough, it still feels like it could've been better.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Jonathan King
WRITING CREDITS: Jonathan King
GENRE: Horror, Comedy
CAST: Matthew Chamberlain, Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason
COUNTRY: New Zealand
RUNTIME: 87 min
RATING: 5/10
Black Sheep Website/IMDB Click here
Black Sheep Trailer Click here
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