The ultimate guide to the best horror films ever made!
Black Sheep - was not so baaaad!
From IMDB: "An experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep
into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a sprawling New Zealand farm."
This was the most amusing animal based horror-comedy that I've seen since "Revenge of Billy the Kid" (1991).
It was silly when it needed to be silly and gory where it needed to be
gory. It wasn't laugh out loud funny at any point nor was it even the
slightest bit scary but it was filmed beautifully and acted perfectly.
Even the orchestral background music worked. It's a very classy product
which pretends to be just another B movie.
I don't usually even like horror-comedies but, since the humour in this
was so gentle, it wasn't ruined by the over-the-top comedy excesses of
something like the awful "Shaun of the Dead".
Everyone will
undoubtedly compare "Black Sheep" to Simon Pegg's efforts though it is
really better to see this as in the same vein as old school Peter
Jackson. I suppose that is no big surprise since not only is it a New
Zealand film but the effects were created by Peter Jackson's Weta
workshop.
Anyway, the story was just as ridiculous as you would imagine any film
about zombie sheep to be. There were even a few mutating were-sheep
thrown in as well due to the nature of the DNA altering serum which caused all the trouble to begin with. I'm sure there was supposed to be
some comment there about genetic research and New Zealand sheep farming
but this was hardly hardcore political satire. Every possible sheep
joke was used anyway even the baaaad ones.
The action sequences were all really well done. The gore was nice and
visceral with lots of blood and guts everywhere. The sound of
stampeding sheep in the distance created a nice bit of atmosphere from
time to time although there wasn't really any tension or suspense to
speak of.
I couldn't really find any other fault with it except
that sometimes the sheep looked a bit too fake so I'm giving it 8 out
of 10. It did exactly what it set out to do and I found it all very
entertaining.
