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Bookmark this pageBlack Sheep (2006)
Director: Jonathan King
Movie review
From Time Out London
A treat for horror-comedy fans, Kiwi filmmaker Jonathan King’s ‘mutant killer sheep’ movie is as lively as a spring lamb, as bloody as a bucketful of offal, and as tongue-in-cheek comic as its original poster tagline promised: ‘There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand… and they’re pissed off!’ With affectionate nods to Peter Jackson’s early splatter comedies, ‘Bad Taste’ and ‘Braindead’, it cuts right to the funny bone. Blending gags and gore can be tricky, but King maintains a perfect balance between sheep-shagging silliness and character-based comedy.
Sheep-phobic Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) returns to the family farm to claim a buy-out payment from his older brother, Angus (Peter Feeney), a dyed-in-the-wool sheep-fancier who takes a hands-on approach to the engineering of a new super-breed. But before Henry can flee, a pair of animal rights activists, Experience (Danielle Mason) and Grant (Oliver Driver), unleash mayhem. Their accidental release of a mutated sheep foetus transforms the entire herd from cuddly to cannibalistic. With the help of farmhand Tucker (Tammie Davis) and repentant eco-warrior Experience, Henry fights a rearguard action. But he hasn’t reckoned with the mutant strain jumping the species barrier, changing bitten humans into flesh-craving weresheep.
Knowing without being geeky, bloody without being nasty, ‘Black Sheep’ is one of the few films one would dare mention in the same sentence as the touchstone of all horror comedy, ‘An American Werewolf in London’. The performances may be uneven, but the flawed characters are believable, the sheep surprisingly scary and the animal antics often laugh-out-loud funny.
Author: Nigel Floyd
Time Out London Issue 1938: October 10-16 2007
User reviews of this film
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- Yorkshire Rose said...
- Posted on Oct 16 2007 11:45 It seems to me that the reviews are toooo serious. This film is supposed to be a Horror Comedy. I saw it this weekend and your reviews only make me realise you have no sense. Try getting a sense of humour. Shaun of the dead meets Wallis and Grommit and the Were-rabbit...
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- Son of Yossarian said...
- Posted on Oct 15 2007 20:35 King is a better director than writer, well staged but lacks laffs but plenty of grue for the gorehounds. Watch Braindead again instead.
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- ELIOT said...
- Posted on Oct 15 2007 11:57 This Film is a complete mockery of the farming nation and should be banned so that farmers like me can live to farm another day. Please dont view this film its sheep porn.
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- Joel said...
- Posted on Oct 13 2007 20:24 This film is unbelievably stupid and really not very funny. A complete waste of my money and my time.
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- sheep boy said...
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Posted on Oct 13 2007 18:39
The last review is stoopid! How can you review a film you haven't seen???
Who would make a child called Rebekah??? - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Jonathan King
Producer: Philippa Campbell
Cast: Nathan Meister, Tammy Davis, Danielle Mason, Oliver Driver, Glenis Levestam full cast
Duration: 87 mins
UK Release: Oct 12 2007
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