Review by Monkey Fist
SCUM Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Having been a fan of the zombie genre for more than three decades, this one had my name written all over it! The plot for this flick is straight-forward: Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) has a phobia of sheep for most of his life, all thanks to a nasty prank played on him in childhood by his crippled, bitter brother, Angus (Peter Feeney). Fifteen years later, Henry returns to the family farm to tend to unfinished business – that is, facing his fears and selling off his half of the family sheep farm to his brother. In the meantime, Angus has concentrated on increasing the fortunes of the family business by turning it over to a disgraced scientist (Tandi Wright), who has turned the farm into one big laboratory. Enter environmental activists Experience (Danielle Mason) and her boyfriend, Grant (Oliver Driver), who are out to expose Angus’ twisted experiments. But when they run off with one of the mutated lambs, all the nearby flocks are soon infected with a virus that turns the calm, woolly furries into carnivorous beasts!
Black Sheep is the sort of film that will appeal to fans of Peter Jackson’s early horror/comedies – Braindead and Bad Taste. Like these low budget films, Black Sheep’s Director Jonathan King’s film is well-made on the whole and does not take itself too seriously. I especially liked how the viral outbreak becomes double-edged: psychotic zombie sheeps with an insatiable thirst for human flesh AND their bites can turn any surviving humans into were-sheep (SERIOUSLY). With the animatronics and special effects done by Weta Workshop, you can expect some top-notch gore, though I thought that despite it being a zombie flick, it lacked a tad bit in the blood-splatter department. Chewing raw flesh may be stomach-curling, especially when the details of such dastardly deeds are not spared. Transformation scenes were also a joy to watch, and if you think you’ve seen the best of these scenes from various werewolf movies, wait till you check this out! Black Sheep makes no apology for its violence, sexual innuendoes and toilet humour. In fact, it celebrates them! If you’re in the mood for some surreal and violent horror/comedy this weekend, then the choice is clear!
