Monday, February 11, 2008

Black Sheep (2006)



When a movie starts out with a premise as ludicrous as "man-eating sheep," you can only hope it'll be able to live up to it. Black Sheep totally does.

After a traumatic childhood experience involving his brother Angus and a favorite sheep, Henry Oldfield now has an intense fear of the fluffy little animals. It's so baaaaad that he decides to sell his half of the family sheep farm to Angus, but what sucks is that he's got to go back to the place to collect his check and get the closure his therapist says he needs.

What also sucks is that he shows up about the same time as a couple of ecoterrorists named Grant and Experience who are there to sabotage/expose the genetic experimentation that Angus is conducting on his animals. One thing leads to another and one of the failed experiments gets loose and starts biting man and sheep alike. Infected sheep become blood-thirsty manhunters. Infected humans become weresheep. Everyone else has to run for their lives. It's all very, very cool. I mean, any movie that can make you uneasy at the sight of a sheep standing on a frickin' hill is okay with me.

It's a very bloody, grotesque movie, but even though the effects were done by Weta, there's such an over-the-top, B-movie quality to them that you can't help but chuckle. Like when one victim tries to fend off a sheep with his own severed leg.

The movie's funny in other ways too. There are hippies to make fun of, Henry's awkwardness around Experience, Angus' excessive buttholery, and of course the general stupidity of the concept. And the jokes and gore are all in service to a nice, fast-moving plot that never bores. If you dug House and especially Tremors, you've gotta see Black Sheep.

Four out of five Golden Shears awards.

1 comment:

Christopher Mills said...

Thanks for the review, Michael.

I've been wanting to see this since I caught the trailer on some other Weinstein DVD.

Maybe this weekend I'll rent it.

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