Friday 23 September 2011

Black Sheep

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Year:2006
Country of origin:New Zealand
Director:Jonathan King
Genre:Killer sheep
Starring:Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Matthew Chamberlain
Rating:5/5
IMDB link:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/
Tagline:Get ready for the Violence of the Lambs!
Favourite line:"Fuck the sheep!"

Do you remember back in the days before the internet and DVD's when, as a horror devotee, on a daily basis you would take hold of your battered VHS cassette on which was recorded a tenth generation copy of Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and stroke it really tenderly?
No?
You haven’t bloody lived.
You don't know you're born etc etc ad nauseum.
Well, watching this movie rekindled some of those nostalgic feelings in my cold, black heart, leaving me quivering, all warm and gooey inside.

The plot:
A young boy experiences a traumatic event when his father is killed on a farm, leaving him mentally scarred and with an irrational fear of sheep.
Yes, sheep.
You read it right.
Some years later, all grewed up now, he returns to the farm only to discover that his brother is now using the farm to produce a strain of genetically engineered sheep, with the hope of producing more meat for his money. Problem is, the experiments have an unfortunate side effect: turning the otherwise docile animals into bloodthirsty killing machines.
I'm not making this up.

And it's a bloody riot.
Clearly riffing on the zombie conventions here, instead of teeming hordes of the undead, we see marauding flocks of sheep chasing people down and ripping them to shreds.
It's gory as a butchers back room, too, with much gut chomping and neck tearing on display, all handled with such confidence that at no point do you stop and say 'Hold on, they're fucking sheep.'
Played admirably straight by the protagonists, this is horror comedy that delivers on every level:
Daft plot? Check.
Gore? Check.
Laugh out loud moments? Check, check, check.
New Zealand horror movies are few and far between, but those that do exist always seem to deliver.
Absolutely great.

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