Black Sheep

And so after nearly two months I have finally gotten hold of a Region 1 copy of "the zombie sheep movie" on DVD.

"Is it meant to be scary?"

Obviously at first glance a movie in which sheep attack would appear to be ridiculous. My thoughts when I first watched the unfinished Toronto Film Festival version was that it was as if the film makers had come up with the idea after watching Peter Jackson's Bad Taste, and in particular that bit with the sheep:



Now the sheep get their revenge!

Of course not quite. The sheep become carnivorous thanks to a bit of genetic engineering, keeping things topical what with Dolly and all that, and set about eating anyone in sight. As I said, it's a ridiculous idea using sheep as your monster unless you think of the context in which they are used. The film was made and set in New Zealand, a place that has 40m sheep compared to about 4m people. If they did attack the human populace would be doomed, kind of like if Midges became lethal killers in Scotia. And in all honesty the other "nature strikes back" movies are just as ridiculous really. Hitchcock made the concept of Seagulls attacking terrifying but if you were presented with the idea for The Birds without knowing what it is you'd probably laugh it off unless you really think about how bad our winged friends attacking could be. And insects attacking isn't really that bad, you can crush them underfoot, yet because of how they look people accept films featuring them as your monster.

Not that director Jonathan King is for a second really taking any of this seriously. He's a director who gets the horror genre, and in particular those splatter comic horrors of the 80's. If he manages to orchestrate a scare then good, but he's probably just as happy if he grosses you out or makes you laugh. He also understands that a sheep being made to look menacing, either by a music cue or a sudden jump cut, is intrinsically hilarious. The fact that by the end of the movie you buy the fact that these things are a real threat to the heroes is testament to King's ability as a director of this sort of thing. Horror buffs will have a field day spotting all the little references to the classics (The Shining, The Birds, Night of the Living Dead, even Shaun of the Dead) twisted nicely thanks to the use of sheep and that quirky Jackson-esque sense of humour that emanates from places like New Zealand, Ireland and Scotland. Essentially it plays like all those great "splatter" horrors (Evil Dead, Re-animator, Slither) in the sense that it does work as a horror movie albeit one with its tongue shoved so far into its cheek that its torn right through. But it also has the charm of the early Jacksons with a more overt sense of humour running through it, like fart gags and the wonderful moment where a sheep drives over a cliff.

Some of the gags feel a little laboured though, such as hippy chick Experience's "far out man" stuff. The acting is also a little ropey at times, as are the effects. Mind you the latter does seem to be in direct reference to the movies that influence this one so in their own hand puppety way they can be quite fun, and the Weta guys appear to be glad to be going back to their roots.

Let's be honest, it's a film about zombie sheep. If the idea doesn't make you laugh then you will hate this. If, on the other hand, your first thought was "I need to see this" then you're obviously the sort of person who will love the gore, bad effects, worse acting and wah-wah-wah jokes. It's what a movie featuring zombie sheep should be all about.