Black Sheep interview: Jonathan King

Director and writer of horror comedy Black Sheep, Jonathan King speaks to Logan Booker.

atomic What was your inspiration for Black Sheep?
Jonathan King Evil Dead, Braindead, Dawn of the Dead ... you know, all the great ‘dead’ movies. Also American Werewolf in London, Jaws, The Bird and Jurassic Park. Basically, I wanted to make a movie from this fun, simple idea, filtered through all those movies I grew up on.

atomic Creatively, what were your goals for Black Sheep? Do you feel you achieved them all?
Jonathan King I do feel like I’ve achieved everything I wanted for Black Sheep – and more. I wanted to make a fun movie that made people laugh, jump and gag, and I wanted it to be seen by real audiences.

I guess I saw it creeping out across the world over a longer period of time than it’s taken. I’m over the moon that it’s getting a theatrical release in so many countries this year, though I hope and expect it’ll live on, [in the form of] DVD for many years to come.



atomic How much freedom do you give your actors? Do you feel there’s a place for spontaneity and improvisation in modern film, and if so, do you encourage it?
Jonathan King I absolutely feel there’s a place for spontaneity and improvisation in modern film – you just have to know what to keep and what to throw out. I always had a very clear idea of what a scene or line or moment in Black Sheep was about and I pointed the actors towards it. But if they had a better idea or leapt to a cool new place on the back of where I was pushing them, then fantastic. I’m happy to take credit for anybody’s good ideas!

atomic How hard is it to balance horror with humour? How did you approach the problem both creatively and from an entertainment perspective?
Jonathan King I really followed my instincts for what I thought was funny or scary and how they could play together. Many moments in the film balanced those things just as easily and happily as I hoped they would: A sheep ripping someone’s lips off manages to be both at the same time – I think.
Having said that, there were other moments we discovered on set and, even more so in the edit room, that sometimes those things can’t sit on top of each other or even too close together. My guide in those times was trying to really tune in to what I thought the audience wanted or expected to get out of that moment. Then I would play into that – or against it – to create a laugh or a scare.

atomic How much did the script, and the direction of the movie itself, change during production?
Jonathan King It evolved a lot as we developed the script, but it changed very little in production really. There were a couple of scenes up the front of the film that we shot but deleted because we wanted to get the story moving quicker. There was one night scene near the end that I deleted (and moved the best bits into another scene) during production because of the logistics of shooting at night. Again, that tightened up the film, so it was a good thing. Lots of moments, though, just got better and better when the actors played with them or we exploited the opportunities we had with the creature effects.