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Many have bemoaned the fact that now Peter Jackson has moved into the mainstream big-budget arena he has all but forgotten his gorehound past (Bad Taste, Braindead, etc.). Well, they need not fear, Jonathan King is here, a fellow Kiwi director ready to take the mantle of splatter master. He has some help from Jackson's partners in crime, Weta Workshop, the special effects studio that the Lord of the Rings director owns. They get to enjoy themselves, creating some horrific and supremely convincing monsters, which combine with King's witty script and surprisingly slick direction to make a very entertaining film. It all hinges on a hilarious concept that has somehow never been thought of before: killer sheep. Naturally, sheep-saturated New Zealand is the perfect place to set such a farcical premise.
Nathan Meister plays Henry Oldfield, a city-dweller who grew up on a farm but, due to boyhood trauma caused by his brother, suffers from an irrational fear of sheep that turns out to be extremely rational. He has returned to his family's farm, now run by the same brother who inflicted this phobia upon him, to try to cure it. Meanwhile, however, two animal rights protesters break into the farm, steal some toxic material (don't they always?) and cause the outbreak of a substance that turns all sheep that come into contact with it into man-eaters and humans into monster mutant sheep. One of the protesters, a girl who has the aptly New Age name Experience (Danielle Mason), manages to escape and teams up with Henry to save the farm and stop the outbreak spreading further, spouting gems like "Oh my god. The feng shui in here is terrible!" along the way.
Basically, Black Sheep contains everything you would expect from that set-up, and probably quite a lot you wouldn't. Director King certainly revels in the hilariously over-the-top gore, with Weta doing a sterling job too - the few man-into-mutant-sheep transformations deliberately recall An American Werewolf in London and they are just as convincing as that milestone in make-up effects (if not more so). It's worthwhile to note as well that these are entirely practical effects, not CGI assisted, making them all the more impressive and, indeed, funny. Unfortunately, King doesn't display quite as much flair for slapstick as early Peter Jackson did; while there are plenty of chuckles throughout - many due to the very idea that the monsters are sheep! - belly laughs are infrequent. However, the film's surface obsession with gore distracts from the fact that this is clearly a very well thought-out film. The characters are well-defined, likeable in the case of the good guys and suitably despicable in the case of the evil brother whose genetic experiments are the root of all the problems, and the acting isn't half bad either. Importantly, King makes sure it keeps moving along at a great pace and prevents it from outstaying its welcome at 87 minutes. His first film is hardly a classic but it'll make a great party movie, and suggests there's a lot more to come from this young New Zealander.
The summary
Black Sheep is shallower than a rapidly evaporating puddle, but also a lot of gory fun.
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