36. Black Sheep (2006), dir. Jonathan King

[strange_complex]

This is a New Zealand horror comedy which lady_lugosi1313 gave planet_andy on DVD for his birthday, and which I watched with them just before Christmas.

On one level, it's about mutant zombie sheep. On another, it's about the conflict between GM (and similarly interventionist approaches to farming) and good old-fashioned tradition. But mainly, it's about mutant zombie sheep.

The production values on the sheep themselves were actually very high, so that it was difficult to tell the difference between the real sheep they had filmed running around menacingly and the zombie sheep puppets they had created, except by their behaviour on screen. They'd done an impressively good job of rendering people being turned into mutant zombie sheep or getting torn apart by them, too.

Along the way, we got lots of nice evil scientists and capitalists, some very earnest environmental activists, plenty of kick-ass action and at least one sheep-shagging joke. I am confident that this is the only horror film I have seen so far, and probably the only one I will ever see, in which the monsters are eventually defeated by setting fire to a sheep's fart.

Not much else to say about this, really, except that it was excellent silly fun. BUT this is actually my final film write-up for 2017, and that is truly liberating. I will start on 2018 forthwith...

Comments

[coyotegoth]

I adore that movie; reminds me of early Peter Jackson.

[strange_complex]

OMG of course - Bad Taste and Braindead! Cult classics of my student days. Yes, it's absolutely in that spirit.

[thawrecka]

That sounds like a really interesting movie! I'll have to put it on my DVD queue. I'm not too familiar with New Zealand film, honestly, because most of the NZ films I've tried have been too depressing to watch.

[strange_complex]

Yep, definitely recommended, and not at all depressing. I highly recommend watching the behind-the-scenes documentary on the DVD as well if you can, which shows all about how they made the sheep puppets.