8th September, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Black Sheep (2007) DVD Review
Black Sheep (2007) DVD Credits:
Black Sheep (2007) Directed by:
Jonathan King
Black Sheep (2007) Written by:
Jonathan King
Black Sheep (2007) Cast:
Matthew Chamberlain, Tammy Davis
Black Sheep (2007) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Black Sheep (2007) DVD Release Date:
8th October 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Black Sheep (2007) Synopsis:

There are 40 million sheep in New Zealand and only 4 million inhabitants. After a genetic experiment goes wrong, New Zealand's sheep start turning nasty, and it's the humans who begin bleating.

Black Sheep (2007) DVD Review:

New Zealand may be a location best recognized as the location chosen by director Peter Jackson to film The Lord of the Ring trilogy, but nearly all of his films have been made in his country. In fact, the reason that The Lord of the Ring was so appealing was the CGI workshop he already had from making The Frighteners combined with Jackson’s passion for the material. Previous to the Christian themed adaptation Jackson proved himself an avid fan of extremely gory horror films laced with humor, and so it is no surprise to see the same approach taken with the latest New Zealand horror creation, which was even allowed use of Jackson’s WETA workshop for the gory effects. Black Sheep follows in the footsteps of Undead, Dead Alive and Shaun of the Dead, ironically all coming from outside of the United States which has lost it way in the horror genre lately. With only bad remakes, terrible sequels and the exception of the Grindhouse experience, American horror is nothing in comparison to UK (The Descent, Severance, Shaun of the Dead), Korean (The Host, A Tale of Two Sisters), Australian and even New Zealand horror.

Although Henry (Nathan Meister) grew up in rural New Zealand and had a family of sheep herders, he developed a fear of sheep after his father’s death and his brother Angus’s tormenting. His therapist encourages him to return and face his old family household, including his brother who has now grown and turned their family business into something more successful with the help of genetically altered animals. As always happens when nature is fiddled with in horror movies, it fights back, and in this case it is in New Zealand where forty million sheep roam. Like Hitchcock’s The Birds before it, Black Sheep makes frightening a common and ordinary animal, also able to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. What makes the situation so absurdly hilarious is that Henry is more than just afraid of sheep, but he actually has an irrational fear that they will uprise and start killing humans, which is exactly what they begin doing after a genetically altered fetal sheep escapes and spreads a virus among the docile creature. Not only are Henry’s fears enacted with attacking sheep, but they also have the added bonus of being something of zombie sheep. Only numerous blows to the brain seem to kill the attacking sheep and their bite seems to spread the same zombie-like flesh decomposing along with a desire for flesh. There are additional side-effects unique to any other zombie film.

The menu for the DVD is perfectly executed, inter-cutting peaceful footage of sheep with the horrific zombie footage. The menu is pitch-perfect with the mood and humor of the film, graphic gore laced by cheap melodrama. Most of the special features follow the same intentions, including a blooper reel and an additional scene shot specifically for the DVD. There are also some deleted scenes that are decent and can be watched with optional commentary. There is also a commentary track over the film by writer/director Jonathan King and actor Nathan Meister. Just as nearly every DVD seems to come equipped with, there is also the theatrical trailer and a making-of featurette.

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Black Sheep (2007) DVD review written by: Ryan Izay

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development