Film Review

09 January 2009 03:13 BST

Black Sheep

Written and directed by Jonathan King, out October 12th, in cinemas, starring Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Oliver Driver, running time 87 minutes.

In a nutshell

Mutant sheep, zombies and shear terror.

What's it all about

Henry and Angus Oldfield are farmer's sons living in New Zealand. Since childhood, Henry has battled a severe sheep phobia and feels uncomfortable around the animals. Therefore it seems like a good idea for him to buy out his brother Angus, giving him free reign to the farm. However, Henry is unaware that Angus has a sinister genetic engineering plan up his sleeve, which could play havoc with nature and cause something very baaaaad to happen.

Meanwhile a pair of well-meaning but inept environmental activists, Experience and Grant, find out about the experimentation and attempt to draw attention to the dubious practice. But when they accidentally release a mutant lamb from Angus' laboratory, thousands of the farm's sheep are turned into blood-thirsty, murdering predators, from whom the main protagonists Henry and Experience, with the help of farmhand Tucker, must escape.

Who's in it

The cast lacks any major stars and the actors are all relatively new to the big screen. Indeed, Black Sheep marks the film debut of the two main actors, Danielle Mason (Experience) and Nathan Meister (Henry). Nevertheless their comic timing and overall performances are executed flawlessly. Both actors are immensely likable and their anonymity only serves to compliment the film’s absurdity.

The true star of the film is probably Tammy Davis as Tucker, who is best known for his role in Whale Rider. His self-assurance with the animals as the farmhand brilliantly compliments Henry's pathetic snivelling and his simple, country-boy wholesomeness and blunt manner are suitably cliched.

As an example

"What about the sheep?" – Tucker
"F*ck the sheep" – Angus
"No time for that bro, go go go!" - Tucker

"I thought you of all people would appreciate efforts to deconstruct the colonialist paternalistic agrarian hierarchy that disenfranchises the Tangata Whenua and erodes the natural resources of Aotearoa." – Experience.

Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars

Highly unlikely.

What the others say

"Certainly delivers all you could wish for... flocking brilliant." – Empire

"A delirious mix of hilarity and horror." – Bizarre.

So is it any good?

Black Sheep preys on the stereotypical perception of New Zealand as a peaceful, beautiful country overrun by sheep, and inventively explodes those stereotypes into something horrific, hilarious and farcical. As a result, the film contains just about every crude gag imaginable. In amongst the jokes about sheep shagging and farting are hilarious images of sheep driving cars off cliffs, sheep brutally attacking groins and sheep exploding into flames.

Having been made by the Weta Workshop, the five-time Academy Award-winning company behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the special effects are excellent. The animatronic sheep, were-sheep suits and puppetry are all skilfully created and wonderfully comical.

The only criticism of the film would be that, at 87 minutes, the suspense is not built up as much as it could be. Although the film is clearly played for cheap thrills, there is no reason why these thrills should not be milked for all they are worth rather than being over and done with in the blink of an eye. Having said that, the menacing images of sheep staring eerily at their prey as they contemplate their next kill are extremely humorous and Black Sheep contains enough gore, action and downright silliness to make this film a lot of fun.

If you only see one zombie sheep movie this year, make it this one.

7/10

Natasha Hegde

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