Black Sheep (2006)

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For the life of me, I can't remember where I first saw the trailer for this. But I can remember going out to find and purchase the film solely based on said trailer. It was off the wall horror comedy about, basically, "weresheep" in New Zealand. This struck me as a pretty brilliant concept as well, considering what I learned in school about the sheep of New Zealand outnumbering the human population (according to Google, about 5 sheep for every 1 human). So the idea is actually scary enough, albeit altogether silly. Sure enough, I ended up liking it, showing a few friends, and I currently consider it a guilty pleasure.

We meet Henry Oldfield (Nick Fenton) who lives in the calm and lovely country area of New Zealand along with his father (Matthew Chamberlain) and older brother, Angus (Eli Kent). Angus sees his father favoring his little brother and he plays the cruelest of "pranks" on him. Henry finds his pet sheep to have been slaughtered, and immediately after that, he gets word that his father has just been killed in an accident. Ultimately, as one would imagine, this leads to Henry developing a horrible and somewhat irrational fear of sheep. Fifteen years later, we find a grown up Henry (Nathan Meister) returning home to sell his share of the family farm to Angus (Peter Feeney).

We, the audience soon learn that Angus has a side project, where he is creating genetically mutated sheep, making them go full-carnivore for... reasons. What's more is that their bites can transform their victims into, well, weresheep. The film gets going when a mutant lamb is accidentally released by two environmentalists named Grant (Oliver Driver) and Experience (Danielle Mason). It's not long before the mutant lamb finds the herd, gives its first bite, and things get chaotic. Can Henry, his friend, Tucker (Tammy Davis) and the others stop the madness before New Zealand gets taken over by carnivorous mutant sheep?

There does seem to be some variety in horror/comedy as much as there's a variety in individual horror. For example, this and 'Slither' both make for funny looks at gross-out/body horror, but there are plenty out there that cover things like serial killers, hauntings, etc. This is another one for those who don't mind some good body horror, but I might also suggest that one should be just a little desensitized when it comes to some of the humor this has. I'll also say that this isn't really laugh out loud hilarious, but it does offer a lot of fun, awkward giggles. As I said, I call it a guilty pleasure. But it's a guilty pleasure I can still say is good for what it is. This isn't like watching a "so bad it's good" movie, it's just kind of messed up.

So, in the end, I might not recommend this to just anyone. But I will say that if you can appreciate New Zealand's dry comedy blended with some comedy that doesn't really have many limits to it, this might be worth checking out. On the other hand, this is something I could definitely see someone finding to be far too off-the-wall for their taste. In any case, you get a lot of "weird" with this one. But I'll be honest about something - that bit of the climax when things are just about to conclude will probably make anyone with even a slightly low-brow about their comedy a good, genuine laugh. If nothing else, the build up is worth it.

3/5

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