Black Sheep review

If you are looking for a gruesome horror comedy creature feature about the dangers of genetic manipulation on farm animals (specifically sheep), then this one’s for you!

Henry (Nathan Meister), scarred by a vicious childhood dead sheep prank and the mysterious on-the-job death of his farmer father, returns home 15 years later to sort out some family business with his brother Angus (Peter Feeney). To his surprise, the sheep-fearing Henry realizes that his brother Angus, who now runs the family farm, is tampering with the genetic makeup of the sheep (using human DNA) to create the perfect mutton. This will, of course, lead to carnage as all the sheep will get infected by an engineered sheep demon and become ravenous monsters. Throw in some man/sheep love, man/sheep monster hybrids and a cautionary message against fucking with mother nature, and you will never view a peaceful visit to your family farm in the same light again.

Though technically well done and fun to watch, I found BLACK SHEEP to be far from memorable. There are some inspired moments (i.e. Angue making his first sheep noise when he is slowly changing into one) and a few choice lines of dialogue, but writer/director Jonathan King never elevates the material beyond what I was expecting to see. The elements of a great film were there but the pacing was subpar and the individual scenes lacking in energy.

BLACK SHEEP entertained but the main problem I had with it was that the comedic end of things was not actually that funny. So, I was left with a horror movie that was not really meant to be scary in any way, shape or form. I had the feeling that this could have been a more interesting film had it not been a comedy. I did really appreciate the mostly physical creature effects done by the Weta Workshop. It was a pleasure watching animatronics instead of the usual computer generated creatures that have come to litter these types of films. Although, when CG sheep shots were used in BLACK SHEEP, they were actually quite effective, only used briefly in sequences of huge sheep numbers.

All and all, I did have fun watching this movie and the sheep (real and fake) were awesome! I will definitely never let my guard down ever again when herding the cute critters, that’s for sure!

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