Black Sheep [2006]

September 8, 2009

Occasionally, a movie plot appears that’s so creative and outrageous that it simply blows you away. Black Sheep is a New Zealander horror comedy about killer sheep. Yes, you read it right, killer sheep. And please do not confuse this movie with some obnoxious SyFy production with cheap special effects and a horrible script. No, this is an intelligent, captivating, and hilarious movie with great practical effects. Black Sheep looks and feels like a Hollywood movie with a big budget. And it shows what can you accomplish if you work really hard.

This is a movie that continues Peter Jackson’s tradition of zany horror comedies Braindead and Bad Taste. We saw something similar in the states with Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead trilogy. New Zealand is world-famous for its healthy population of sheep, with over 39 million sheep living peacefully in the country. This means there are an estimated 10 sheep for every New Zealander. I can only imagine how much funnier the concept of killer sheep is to them compared to the rest of us.

And it’s one hell of a concept. You just need to imagine what a killer sheep would look like and a smile will simply appear on your face. It’s reminiscent of another charming movie with animals, Fierce Creatures starring John Cleese. Of course, if you want to dig deeper, you always can with movies like Zombeavers, Poultrygeist, and ThanksKilling. Finally, we shouldn’t forget to mention The Night of The Lepus, a movie about giant killer rabbits.

What all of these movies sadly lack is a great script and decent production values. So, all the scary animals get the big bucks unlike poor and meek ones. However, I do want to say that Razorback, a movie about a wild boar terrorizing an Australian family is somewhere in between.

Henry Oldfield returns to his father’s farm years after the incident in which his brother scared him to death with a dead sheep. Ever since that incident, he has had a sheep-o-phobia, and when he returns to try to cure his worst nightmare will come to life.

With a running time of just over eighty minutes, Black Sheep is a sweet and short affair. Shot on location, in New Zealand, the same place Lord of the Rings was shot, it offers stunning shots of pristine nature. And sheep, lots and lots of sheep. When it comes to the gore this movie offers it in spades. We’ve got not only nasty-looking sheep but also various bites, attacks, and other gruesome events. And blood, lots and lots of blood.

The pacing is fast and the quick cuts will fucking kill you. So many scenes go from zero to a hundred not leaving any room for anything but laughter. Also, the whole situation just keeps escalating and escalating more. Finally, it erupts during one hell of a climax. Black Sheep is a perfect movie for a date night or to watch with friends. However, I watched this movie alone and freaking loved it.