This post was written 11,297m above the Pacific, about halfway between Auckland & San Francisco. One advantage of a long haul flight is you get to catch up on those movies you wanted to see, but never got around too. Suddenly with thirteen hours and nothing else to do it's time to hit the entertainment system. This post is not really CAD related but this film deserves an international audience. Besides, Weta Digital supplied the special effects so it's possible CAD, maybe even Autodesk, applications were used...
It could only be a Kiwi movie. The green rolling hills, clear blue skies and a flock of pretty white sheep disembowelling terrified agricultural investors. You may gather Black Sheep (2006/7) isn't quite "Mary had a little lamb". A quiet rural setting and some woolly genetic engineering creates the only horror movie in history with sheep in the leading roll.*
The action is pretty graphic, but in a surreal cartoon-like way, especially as mutant sheep snack on the living and it's also funny. I mean come on, killer sheep?
There are some great comic lines and brilliant special effects during the human/sheep transformations.
The story centres on the battle between two brothers - Henry and Angus - who have inherited the family farm. One wants to create the best sheep in history, by making it, the other just to run a normal farm. The leads, Matthew Chamberlain & Peter Feeney, were new to me but gave great performances with a Jonathan King script dripping in bloody irony.
Supporting characters include a couple of eco-activists trying to expose the evil being done. Oliver Driver, as Grant, goes from tree hugging vegetarian greenie to a mutant half man, half sheep snacking on living entrails in a role that he obviously enjoyed. Danielle Mason plays "Experience", a vegan protester with a conscience who "is not his [Grants] girlfriend" .
Henry: What's that?
Experience: Geranium: aromatherapy for uplift and hormonal balance.
Henry: Do your hormones really need balancing?
Experience: Considering I've been attacked by genetically-engineered monsters, jumped off a moving vehicle, been chased across a paddock, dragged into a torture chamber, pulled into a mountain of rotting flesh--yes, my hormones need balancing.
Tammy Davis is the Kiwi bloke Fram Manager who pulls the whole story together with a cheeky grin. Glenis Levestam is Mrs Mac, a straight shooting Aunt un-phased by a few naughty sheep.
Although Black Sheep is a horror movie, it's a comedy horror movie with sheep. Perhaps the only, certainly the best.
Black Sheep The Movie - www.blacksheep-themovie.com
* That is a guess, I suppose you could argue "Bad Taste" had sheep but only in exploding supporting roles.
