Last weekend, I went to Dublin. Because we were tired the day we got there, the group I was with decided to stay in for the evening, and I watched the New Zealand comedy horror film Black Sheep.
This movie was bloody brilliant! The film follows Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) who, as a child, was victim of a horror practical joke involving the carcus of his beloved sheep. Fifteen years later, Henry is returning to his childhood farm to face his childhood fears in hopes of overcoming them. You see, because of the horrible practical joke played on him (by his brother, no less), he has developed ovinophobia - fear of sheep. Henry returns to the farm to meet his brother, Angus Oldfield (Peter Sweeney), who, unbeknownst to Henry, is overseeing genetic experiments on sheep. Meanwhile, two radical hippies are attempting to break into the building in which these experiments take place in order to sabotage the experiments. They manage to steal a container from the lab, but while running away, the guy drops it and it is revealed to be the embryo of a genetically mutated sheep! This baby sheep attacks the guy and turns him into a were-sheep. Experience, his female companion, escapes and eventually runs into Henry. The rest of the film follows as more and more sheep are bitten; the sheep attack humans in a bloody rampage and ravage the countryside. Can Henry stop them?
The movie is ridiculously funny; Mike and I were histerical the entire time. The script benefits from wonderfully ridiculous characters and hilarious one-liners. For instance, visiting a friend, Henry and Experience discover that the room has been overturned and there is blood all over the walls. Gasping in shock, Experience says, "The feng shui in this room is terrible!"
The biggest drawback of the film is the mass amount of gore. The camera does not turn away as the sheep attack civilians, nor even when the sheep rip off their arms, legs, or even intestines! There is also a strange obsession of showing shots of what the nanny/maid/servant/cook is boiling in her pot, which are usually various sheep organs.
If you can get past the gore, this film is definitely worth seeing.
