Horror Film Review: Black Sheep
Jonathan King Offers Gore, Suspense, and Sheep on DVD
Jonathan King's newest film, Black Sheep, comes from a long line of horror movies geared for laughter. The film provides a fresh look at sheep.
Jonathan King’s new film Black Sheep is the newest mix of satire, comedy and gore. It’s Animal Farm meets Dead/Alive, but with less causalities. The film, despite being billed as classic midnight movie madness, lacks depth, character, purpose and story. That said, the key to its success has been the film not taking itself seriously. Just read the back of the box, the description is pretty spot on.
The movie is about an ex-farm boy turned businessman Henry (Nathan Meister) returning home to his boyhood sheep farm. Henry has been haunted since the death of his father and has a phobia of sheep. Of course he needs a love interest, so enter animal rights activist Experience, played aptly by Danielle Mason. She is on the farm in order to stop the unnecessary testing being done by Henrys brother, Angus (Peter Feeney). The two spend their time running from the bloody clutches of sheep, scientists, and sheep men (yes, if you get bitten by a sheep, you turn into a sheep). Of course, being a midnight horror movie, there needs to be a simple catalyst for the story line.
The Catalyst
Enter social satire. As mentioned before, the farm is really the setting for bizarre animal testing and scientific experiments. Not much time is spent on the subject, however, as the movie quickly gets into its main focus: sheep killing humans. But King does touch gently on the subject of animal testing and the unknown global impact it will have on our world.
The kill scenes are satisfying and there are even some pretty tense moments. But the story itself moves like a kid learning to ride a bicycle. Meister’s fear of sheep is established early through a gruesome scene involving the death of his pet sheep, and his brother wearing the remains. While this acts as the reason for his fears and flighty behavior, Meister doesn’t really go anywhere with it. He seems more like a boy afraid to ask a girl on a date than a grown man with a phobia surrounded by his greatest fear. This affect, however, hangs a positive overtone because it adds dimension to the magical realism of the story. Sheep killing people is so unbelievable that the viewer can strike an accord with the characters because they aren’t overly shocked by were-sheep.
How to Watch Black Sheep
Keep in mind what you are watching when you pop in this movie. It is not meant to be a great horror movie, a prolific film, or even scary. It follows along with other current greats like Severance, Fido, Shaun of the Dead, and Slither. The point of the movie is to entertain with sloppy gore and unrealistic violence. For that reason, Black Sheep is watchable. But when comparing it against other films, it simply falls short.
