Over the weekend, I got a chance to check out Black Sheep, a horror comedy from New Zealand. The trailer definitely roused my interest when I saw it a while back. It's a horror movie about killer sheep. Needless to say, I had to find out whether or not they could pull off the idea that rests so delicately on the fine line of genius and stupidity. Fortunately, they were able to.

Black Sheep is set on a New Zealand sheep farm where two brothers grew up together. After their father dies under mysterious circumstances, one of the brothers leaves the farm and has to undergo therapy. Said brother later returns to the farm in his adulthood to find his brother still there now genetically engineering sheep. Unfortunately, his experiments have created a breed of killer sheep that devour the living and turn anyone they bite into, for lack of a better word, "were-sheep."

As hilarious as it sounds, the concept of killer sheep is ripe for failure in the wrong hands, even as a horror comedy. Fortunately, writer-director Jonathan King takes exactly the right approach. The tone of Black Sheep is a horror movie but the right kind of horror movie. Something in the vein of the first Evil Dead and Peter Jackson's earlier work; horror movies that don't themselves too seriously but don't force the comedy. Black Sheep is a horror movie that knows it's about killer sheep and doesn't shoot for laughs at every turning point. It knows it doesn't have to try too hard to be funny, which works very well. There're a couple fart gags and hippie jokes (environmentalists are the brunt of many jokes) but the main source of humor is the sheeps. With that said, the movie's set for comedy from the getgo.

Nevertheless, Black Sheeps' got a strong horror vibe going for it. The sheep are completely berzerk and their were-sheep relatives are pretty fugly to say the least. The kills are as good and bloody as any present day zombie flick and there is no shortage of gross-out moments. Definitely enough gore to match the humor.

Overall, Black Sheep is a horror comedy that feels like a cheesy horror movie from the 80s. Fans of the latter mentioned movies should eat this up, in addition to fans of Re-Animator, Basket Case, and old zombie movies. Fans of Shaun of the Dead and similar films should enjoy as well but take note that Black Sheep is NOT in the same vein. In any case, check it out!

I just saw this a few days ago. The one thing I have to say is this. New Zealand would be a great place to shoot a horror film. The scenery is beautiful and I envy ANY director who has a chance to shoot there.

Black Sheep reminds me of the old Peter Jackson films. Specifically Brainddead and Bad Taste. A good amount of gore and a good amount of humour.

I wouldn't call it a splatter flick, but it was absurd enough to make me smile, and a solid enough story to not fall victim to the natural disability of it's own premise.

Jonathan King has an talent for odd horror. I like that. I think while this wasn't the a masterpeice and isn't quite on par with Peter Jacksons low budget opus "Bad Taste", it's still a decent entry in the b-movie theatre.

**1/2 out of ****

I agree with most of your observations, James, and overall this was pretty good.

I kinda thought that in the end, though, there just wasn't enough sheep action.  Although the film had plenty of fun sequences, it was lacking the no-holds-barred full-on horror scenes of the 80s classics that you mentioned.  There was certainly enough violence and gore but it was never as inventive or prolonged as some of the earlier movies which clearly spawned it.  I think the film actually looked smaller than its budget, if that makes any sense.