Black Sheep

You'll never look at lamb chops the same way again...

Who would have thought that anything good could come out of combining the marvellous concept of a zombie apocalypse with New Zealand’s national treasure, the sheep? Writer/director Jonathan King and his Black Sheep take hold of this very entertaining premise and, while a flick of decent quality is the result, it also serves to highlight King’s inexperience with camera, pen and choice of performers.

Black Sheep’s opening scenes – a flashback – introduce the viewer to the film’s protagonists, brothers Henry and Angus Oldfield (Nathan Meister and Peter Feeney respectively). We’re greeted by a calming sea of sheep, with Henry helping his dad round up the flock. It then cuts to a house with a sheep, which we later learn is Henry’s pet, tied to a pole outside. Angus approaches, axe in hand, and the outcome of the encounter is pretty easy to deduce.

Soon after, Henry returns to the house and begins calling for his animal companion, eventually searching a nearby, dark barn. Angus, who has thoroughly mutilated the sheep, surprises Henry from the shadows, sporting its bloodied hide as a cloak. Henry loses it, obviously, but the scene is roughly interrupted by the news that father Oldfield has died.

The next scene, taken from the present, has Henry stuck in a taxi, completely surrounded by the fluffy creatures. The man is terrified of their presence, and we can only attribute the run-in with his brother as the source of his paranoia.

From here we learn that Henry, now a city lad, has come back to the farm to sell his share to the older Angus, who is soon to debut a new species of sheep, aptly named the Oldfield. At this point, the story starts plummeting into the bizarre – Angus has been playing with genetics and two environmentalists are onto him. Their subsequent mischief sparks a chain reaction that quickly has the whole sheep population of the farm hungering for human flesh.



The most glaring problem with Black Sheep is its inability to be either just humorous or just serious. King attempts to blend both together and although it works in many places, it fails almost as often.

Whereas Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series is unquestionably camp, Black Sheep is everywhere tone-wise. For example, one scene has the Oldfield brothers discussing – in all seriousness – the future of their father’s farmland, while in another a zombie sheep grabs hold of a character’s penis and pulls it out to a ridiculous length. It is extremes such as these that make the film confusing to watch. It’s also for this reason that more than a few of the gags fall flat on their face.

It doesn’t help that Meister and Danielle Mason – who plays one of the environmentalists – are not the most convincing of actors. One can hardly blame them entirely however, given the flaccidness of the gags themselves, and to their credit, they improve as the film goes on.

Our recommendation is to take nothing in the film seriously, despite what the actors and ambience may otherwise suggest. With some solid decision-making on the tone of the film, Black Sheep could have been a classic.