Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

Black Sheep: Mutant Sheep at their Best

Black Sheep: Mutant Sheep at their Best

By Joel Garcia

Now if you walked into Jonathan King’s Black Sheep thinking that you’d find a rolling-on-the-floor slapstick comedy, you would be a little wrong. If you walk into Black Sheep thinking to find a classic horror movie, you would also be slightly mistaken. What you get when you walk into the theater, is one of the most unique fusions of a classic sci-fi horror film blended with modern humor and wit, reminiscent of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. 

Except this movie actually has the benefit of a much bigger budget, and the stunning visual effects of Richard Taylor’s Academy Award-winning team at Weta Workshop.  There is plenty of ear stretchery, penile rubbertry, and all-around funhouse horror gore in the film, if that’s your cup of tea.  The theater was in hysterics when the original “infected” baby Lamb Chop mad its appearance. 

More entertaining, though for me, a non-gore aficionado, were the varied characters of the film.  What is interesting about this outlandish film is that the acting is actually quite remarkable.  The actor’s play roles as if they were in a tense drama; meanwhile sheep fornication, ovine-body-mutations, and hippie randomness are occurring all around them.  Sure they acknowledge that there are mutant sheep on a rampage, but they themselves don’t fall into sillyness. 

I loved the pair of new-age activists, named aptly Grunt and Experience.  Experience (Danielle Mason), with her zen-feeling, aura-reading, hormonal candle-carrying nature, was by far the most creative character for me.  She guides the lead, Henry (Nathan Meister) through his journey to overcome his own sheep-fear, multiplied by a few thousand, to truly become a hero.  Angus, Henry’s greedy and jealous older brother, is chilling in his performance and offers quite possibly the best post-coital smoking scene in the film I’ve ever experienced.  The two brothers steal the show with their deep eyes and wonderfully convincing performances. 

The movie is absolutely ridiculous, but at least it doesn’t pretend not to be.  It has no shame and runs the gambit from fart and sheep-sex jokes to hilariously ludicrous sheep-creatures.  King, both the writer and director, purposely employs these ovine stereotypes to deconstruct the world’s preconception about New Zealand.  He wants being a Kiwi to be something more than sheep and beautiful landscapes, of which there are plenty in the movie.  If you are just looking for a chance to sit down in a theater and not have to take anything all that seriously, then I recommend this flick to you.  If you love ridiculous sci-fi horror movies, you’ve found an absolute gem in Black Sheep.

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