Sheep, sweet, warm animals that children have sang about for generations and have lulled us to sleep when no dreams were in sight. But what if a flock of sheep went baaaad? Well this is the premise for the new hilarious comedy horror Black Sheep. It was directed and written by Jonathan King, and stars Nathan Meister as Henry, Danielle Mason as Experience, Tammy Davis as Tucker, Peter Feeny as Angus, Oliver Driver and Glenis Levestam as Mrs. Mac.
Here’s the story:
On a vast New Zealand sheep farm, a reckless genetic engineering experiment goes horribly wrong, turning sheep into blood thirsty killers.
Yes this is ridiculous, but does the story work? Hell yeah! This movie is frigging hilarious and a total gorefest. By his own admittance King was greatly influenced by The Evil Dead and this flick has the same irreverent thrills and chills as that horror classic only instead of zombies there are sheep (and the cinematography and acting are a thousand times better). In fact the film is so cinematically beautiful, with the gorgeous New Zealand hillside and stunning sun splashed shots that when sheep aren’t mauling, tearing and dragging human entrails along the country side this movie could be mistaken for a lovely period piece.
Black Sheep puts most of the focus on two characters, one is the wide eyed sheep-phobic city boy farmer’s son and the other is the charka seeing hippy gal Experience. They are both on Henry’s family farm with the hopes of freedom; Henry is coming back to the farm one last time to sell his half to his creepy brother and Experience is entering the farm with dreams of freeing the genetically tested on animals. Bizarre mayhem ensues.
The acting in this movie is strong, there are no weak links, everyone is cast well and should these quirky Kiwi actors want to work in more films they will have no problem finding jobs. The stand out performance in my eyes is that of the handsome Tucker, Davis plays the devil may care farm manager beautifully and shows his love of the land and life with great ease.
So what’s wrong with this movie?
Well it’s funny, the story is good and the acting is strong, the gore is there as are the beautiful shots, however…it’s not really all that scary. I am a screamer in theaters, even though I review movies, I act in them and will take them apart in my mind I can still very easily suspend my belief and scream my guts out if the movie is scary. I didn’t do that even one in Black Sheep. I jumped once or twice but for the most part the scary stuff I saw coming. Did this affect my viewing pleasure? A little, would the movie be better if it was scarier? Yes.
Do I still think this flick is worth watching?
Definitely. The directing is great in this movie, what they lack in fright they make up for in tone, characters and gore ahh the gore. This movie is very entertaining and endearing in a strange sort of way. So on a sale of one to ten I give this a solid 8. For a no go or routh, it’s a go.
Black Sheep come out in limited release this Friday June 22.
