Blond New Zealand sheep-farm inheritor Nathan Meister (as Henry Oldfield) has sheep-phobia, probably due to the incident in the opening sequence. He considers selling his share in the farm to the "Black Sheep" of the family, brunet brother Peter Feeney (as Angus), who is conducting secret experiments on the sheep. Best supporting actor Tammy Davis (as Tucker) wants to help Mr. Meister conquer his demons. Arriving on the scene are attractive Danielle Mason (as Experience) and freaky partner Oliver Driver (as Grant), a pair of animal rights activists. She shows off a nice figure with her backpack strap. He breaks a container of baby sheep, which can turn animals and sheep into werewolf-type monsters...***** Black Sheep (9/10/06) Jonathan King ~ Nathan Meister, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Danielle Mason

...as befits a tongue-in-cheek B-movie horror comedy about ovine monsters, "Black Sheep" turns out to be a bit different from what its trailer represents, but that's not a bad thing. The leads are strong (if otherwise unrecognizable to American audiences, and so what?), pretty much across the board, and production values are high, with very nice camera-work by (predominantly second-unit) DP Richard "Avatar" Bluck, fine fx work from Weta "LotR" Workshop, and solid helmsmanship from Kiwi writer/director, Jonathan King, who wisely surrounded himself with plenty of talented people with whom he's previously worked. There's a droll sense of humor that permeates "Black Sheep," and, for me at least, it worked nicely. It's not quite in the same league as films like "Shaun of the Dead" or "Dead Alive" or "Fido," but that doesn't detract from its charms. Its tale of woolly experimentation gone awry mines a great deal of familiar territory (I won't bore what few readers I'll get here with yet another recap), but the central conceit of docile ruminants transformed into carnivorous beasties along with their human prey leaves plenty of room for thematic jokes (eg. the effects of mint jelly on weresheep) within the beautiful environs of New Zealand. Recommended to fans of the comedic horror genre; those looking for serious chills will be disappointed.

When I discussed Eagle Vs Shark I tried my best not to pull pess out of the NZ accent - Oops I did it again! This time though the danger factor is ramped up, as Black Sheep concerns New Zealand citizens and their interactions with the noble sheep.I could be in trouble here.2 young boys grow up on a sheep farm, Henry and Angus. After a childhood sheep-related trauma (if only I had a dollar for all those I heard about) Henry moves away to the big city vowing never to return, Angus takes over running the farm once their parents pass away.Henry, now an adult, comes back to finalise the estate of his late Father and say goodbye to the farm once and for all. Of course this sets the tone for all that follows.It turns out that there is some shady scientific testing going on at the farm, and that the efforts to engineer the "perfect sheep" have resulted in some less than ideal variants being created and disposed of. Idiot-hippies (no other kind I can think of) come across such evidence and plan to use it for their protesting evidence. When the "evidence" turns out to be alive and escapes - but only after taking a nip out of one of the hippies - all sh*t breaks loose and things go baa-nanas!...Sorry.So what follows is a hell of a lot of violence against puppet sheep, and an equal amount of violence perpetrated by the suddenly savage ovine hordes against their former human tormentors. Henry, now joined by one of the hippie-idiots named Experience (told you) and the farm manager Taka seem stranded without transport and must hoof it...Sorry.There is some great gore and extremely inventive and effective makeup effects - the team behind a lot of the Lord of the Rings stuff were involved - it's all incredibly over the top and there are liberal lashings of bright blood all over the shop.All that and I didn't even mention the insinuation of human-ovine love. No wait I just did.Sorry. (But it's the truth!) Most of the jokes were lighthearted and dumb in an inoffensive way - the only joke that fell altogether flet, I mean flat for me was the use of Mint Sauce as a holy water substitute, aside from that fizzer Bleck Sheep was extremely amusing and well made. I can't go further without acknowledging the blatant rips from many other classic horror films such as Evil Dead, Tremors and An American Werewolf in London, but I'd rather watch a film that rips from the best instead of settling for mediocrity.Especially when it does so effectively and creates a minor classic like this.Final Rating - 7.5 / 10. Nothing too original, but funny and fun, and wayyy better than 100s of US or UK films made with a bigger budget but less inspiration annually.

How did I first hear about this horror comedy film from New Zealand? I can't remember exactly, but I do recall discovering its existence not long after its release. I had previously seen another film called "Black Sheep" (though not the first one with that title), which was the mediocre 1996 comedy starring Chris Farley and David Spade, but knew that this film had nothing to do with that one. I started watching this horror comedy about three years ago, I guess not long after it came out on DVD, but didn't get very far into it. I never watched the whole thing until sometime within the past few weeks, and think I found most of it pretty boring the first time, or very close to it. However, watching it a second time just a few weeks later, it did improve.Henry Oldfield is raised on a sheep farm in New Zealand, and one day in his childhood, his older brother, Angus kills Henry's pet sheep and decides to play a cruel prank on Henry with the sheep's carcass! The two brothers are then informed by the farm's housekeeper, Mrs. Mac that their father has just died in an accident. These two incidents traumatize Henry and give him a phobia of sheep. Fifteen years later, the younger Oldfield brother returns to the farm after therapy for his phobia, to sell his share of the farm to his older brother, who is still a piece of work. Angus happens to be conducting genetic engineering on sheep, turning them into vicious flesh-eaters! Environmental activists Grant and Experience come to get evidence to expose this secret experimentation, and Grant manages to steal a mutant embryo! The two activists are separated while running from the scientists, and Grant accidentally releases the embryo, which bites and mutates him! The mutant lamb then goes around and infects flocks of sheep, so being afraid of sheep now won't be such an irrational fear for Henry to have, nor will it be for others on the New Zealand sheep farms! Even during my second viewing, I found some parts that made me laugh a bit around the beginning, but not enough to really satisfy me or convince me I really got it. However, that changed before long. The first really funny part I found was probably the segment which introduces Grant and Experience, as Grant steals the embryo and the two of them must evade the scientists. I even found it funny when the creature is freed and attacks Grant, even though this is one of the gruesome scenes! There are many more funny parts after this, with a sheep driving a truck, some of Experience's environmental talk, Angus' encounter with the mutated Grant on the road, and a number of others, even if they're mostly not HUGE laughs. The characters face a lot of danger on the adventure, so the film also has its suspense. The effects by Weta Workshop for the mutated creatures look pretty hokey, but due to the company's reputation, and that fact that I've seen their work in several other movies, this must have been intentional, part of the movie's campy style. Lots of beautiful New Zealand scenery is featured here, and I didn't recognize any of the cast, but was still pleased with their performances.This movie was released not long after "Snakes on a Plane", and it seems both films are campy ones, with deliberately hokey special effects, and are not meant to be taken seriously. However, when I watched the first film of the two for the first time just a couple months ago, I was still not impressed, and couldn't imagine a second viewing changing that. Even my first viewing of "Black Sheep" was better than that one viewing of the venomous snake movie, and like I said, my second viewing of this film showed an improvement after the first. A major reason why I think this film is far superior to "Snakes on a Plane" is that unlike the more widely known campy flick of the two, I actually found this one funny. I can understand why many would hate this particular film entitled "Black Sheep". Many would probably misunderstand it, plus some scenes are VERY gruesome, so the film is NOT for those who can't stand that kind of graphic violence! It's also possible that I don't quite get this film as much as I might if I knew more about New Zealand culture. Still, overall, I think it's a pretty good contribution to the horror comedy genre, for those who don't mind insane movies!