Black Sheep knows that there is little-to-no point in creating rehashes of films such as Alien or The Thing here and now in the early years of the 21st Century; instead, it does something very creative and very appealing with the premise of bloodthirsty beasties roaming around a locale picking off its inhabitants, that is to say, takes it down a route of very funny and very effective comedy about killer sheep on a New Zealand located farm. One's mind darts back to an Irish film from 2003 entitled Isolation, ultimately a vanity project displaying the filmmakers' talents in creating atmosphere and inducing the odd scare; the purest in style over substance but something that no doubt benefited those whom worked on it, from the cinematographer right down to the tea-boys, in that it bulked out of each of their CV's. But that's all of what the film was: a CV-filler; a piece about a disfigured and very angry farmyard based cow-come-calf on the rampage, picking off the hapless inhabitants; all played for grimaces, all played seriously and all feeling very sub-The Thing; post-Alien. There can be little doubt Black Sheep helmer Jonathan King additionally grew up on such films; here, King grants the premise a refreshing upstart in several departments: from the often wondrous comedic element, dry in its overall tone, right the way down to the fact every one's tongue is of a Kiwi origin. In every sense of the term, it is the film Isolation should've been; and if it is compared to 2004's Shaun of the Dead, then it is because said film did precisely this with the zombie sub-genre. Such a comparison is merited.
The film begins with an act of violence involving a human being and a sheep, the first and most certainly not the last as two young boys occupy their father's sheep farm. The youngest of these two, the Oldfield sons, is Henry (Fenton); a boy whom with his brother grows up but unlike him moves away although is returning to the farm here-and-now for the first time in many years to sell off a stake in what its worth. His issue with returning is that he has a deeply rooted phobia of sheep given certain events that happened to him on the farm when he was younger. Once there, he meets once again with his brother Angus (Feeney) whom it later transpires is involved in particular genetic experiments involving sheep; something that attracts the attention of two activists named Grant (Driver) and Experience (Mason) whom speak of previous animal rights missions they've undertaken which have gone horribly wrong as they themselves attempt to infiltrate the property.
On another strand, Angus is looking to expand his experiments that have brought about the attention of many businessmen from all over the world, particularly the Japanese which usually means the technological advancements really are rather grandeur. He practises in front of rows of empty chairs where the forthcoming visitors are to sit, and while the composition of many-an empty chair carries with it a sense of foreboding, it is here we put two and two together regarding the premise before realising with a devilish laugh that sheep-fodder is up and on it's way.
Angus' dabbling in "agricultural sciences" will eventually come to see all manner of nastiness break out, writer/director King pushing the boat out and experimenting with all sorts of black comedy and hellish laughs; symptomatically inserting all manner of humour, creativity, energy and pulse into a premise long since worn into the ground by films that are merely homage posing as something much more than a technical exercise. Here, the activists unwittingly release a lamb embryo loose amidst the grounds; King allowing the audience to teasingly hear the results of what happens when one of these fully grown things gets close to a human without actually showing us what happens.
It isn't long before Angus and his team of cold, mechanical and somewhat uncanny looking team of barn-dwelling scientists each end up endangering the lives of everybody on the grounds; Experience and our lead Henry coming to form the core pairing as he attempts to deal with his morbid fear; she attempts to deal with the situation of volatile animals trying to harm her and both of them having to deal with each other as best-of-initial-enemies. King's film is good fun and impressively sticks to its guns in equal measure; delivering on generic demands but keeping everything reigned in. It isn't mean spirited in the mould of the stupefying, poorly made and grotesquely misjudged 2006 horror-comedy Severance, a film which flitted uncomfortably from content to content to cheap laughs to full on torture in an uncontrolled and immature manner, and nor does Black Sheep ever take the essence of its plot too seriously; in a world of unofficial sequels to remakes of films such as The Hills Have Eyes and ill-advised reinvigoration's of others such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Sheep is a welcome horror film tonic with its quick wit and eye for brooding situations.
The film begins with an act of violence involving a human being and a sheep, the first and most certainly not the last as two young boys occupy their father's sheep farm. The youngest of these two, the Oldfield sons, is Henry (Fenton); a boy whom with his brother grows up but unlike him moves away although is returning to the farm here-and-now for the first time in many years to sell off a stake in what its worth. His issue with returning is that he has a deeply rooted phobia of sheep given certain events that happened to him on the farm when he was younger. Once there, he meets once again with his brother Angus (Feeney) whom it later transpires is involved in particular genetic experiments involving sheep; something that attracts the attention of two activists named Grant (Driver) and Experience (Mason) whom speak of previous animal rights missions they've undertaken which have gone horribly wrong as they themselves attempt to infiltrate the property.
On another strand, Angus is looking to expand his experiments that have brought about the attention of many businessmen from all over the world, particularly the Japanese which usually means the technological advancements really are rather grandeur. He practises in front of rows of empty chairs where the forthcoming visitors are to sit, and while the composition of many-an empty chair carries with it a sense of foreboding, it is here we put two and two together regarding the premise before realising with a devilish laugh that sheep-fodder is up and on it's way.
Angus' dabbling in "agricultural sciences" will eventually come to see all manner of nastiness break out, writer/director King pushing the boat out and experimenting with all sorts of black comedy and hellish laughs; symptomatically inserting all manner of humour, creativity, energy and pulse into a premise long since worn into the ground by films that are merely homage posing as something much more than a technical exercise. Here, the activists unwittingly release a lamb embryo loose amidst the grounds; King allowing the audience to teasingly hear the results of what happens when one of these fully grown things gets close to a human without actually showing us what happens.
It isn't long before Angus and his team of cold, mechanical and somewhat uncanny looking team of barn-dwelling scientists each end up endangering the lives of everybody on the grounds; Experience and our lead Henry coming to form the core pairing as he attempts to deal with his morbid fear; she attempts to deal with the situation of volatile animals trying to harm her and both of them having to deal with each other as best-of-initial-enemies. King's film is good fun and impressively sticks to its guns in equal measure; delivering on generic demands but keeping everything reigned in. It isn't mean spirited in the mould of the stupefying, poorly made and grotesquely misjudged 2006 horror-comedy Severance, a film which flitted uncomfortably from content to content to cheap laughs to full on torture in an uncontrolled and immature manner, and nor does Black Sheep ever take the essence of its plot too seriously; in a world of unofficial sequels to remakes of films such as The Hills Have Eyes and ill-advised reinvigoration's of others such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Sheep is a welcome horror film tonic with its quick wit and eye for brooding situations.