Black Sheep (2006 New Zealand film)

Last updated

Black Sheep
Blacksheep-poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Jonathan King
Written byJonathan King
Produced by Philippa Campbell
Starring
CinematographyRichard Bluck
Edited byChris Plummer
Music byVictoria Kelly
Production
companies
Distributed by Icon Film Distribution [1]
Release dates
  • 10 September 2006 (2006-09-10)(TIFF)
  • 29 March 2007 (2007-03-29)(New Zealand)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryNew Zealand
Box officeUS$5 million [1]

Black Sheep is a 2006 New Zealand comedy horror film written and directed by Jonathan King. It was produced by Philippa Campbell and stars Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Glenis Levestam, Tandi Wright, and Oliver Driver as a group of people who must defend themselves when a genetic engineering experiment turns harmless sheep into bloodthirsty zombies.

Contents

Black Sheep premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2006 and was theatrically released in New Zealand on March 29, 2007. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $5 million at the box office. It also received a Narcisse Award nomination for Best Feature Film. A sequel is in development.

Plot

Young Henry Oldfield lives on a sheep farm in New Zealand with his older brother Angus and his father Oliver. Angus envies Henry his natural gift at farming and Oliver's pride. One day, Angus plays a cruel prank on Henry. Moments after Henry discovers his pet sheep's bloody corpse, Mrs. Mac, the farm's housekeeper, informs them of Oliver's death. The combined shock of these two incidents leads Henry to develop a crippling phobia of sheep.

Fifteen years later, Henry returns to New Zealand to sell his share of the farm to Angus, ignorant of his experiments. Environmental activists Experience and Grant infiltrates Angus' lab and accidentally release a deformed mutant lamb, which bites Grant. The lamb then escapes into the fields and crawls toward other sheep.

Henry and his childhood friend Tucker visit the farm and notice that the flock refuses to run away. They team up with Experience and investigate a farmhouse, where they find the farmer's mutilated body. Henry sees a sheep in the hallway and, due to his phobia, quietly shuts the door to lock it. The sheep crashes through the door and Tucker shoots it. On the other end of the farmhouse, Angus sees Grant, who bites him and runs off. Henry, Tucker, and Experience attempt to warn Angus about the sheep, but another sheep hiding in the car bites Tucker.

After the car is destroyed, they seek refuge in the laboratory, where Henry learns of Angus' genetic experiments with his assistant Dr. Astrid Rush. Their sheep has turned from docile vegetarians into ferocious carnivores, whose bite can infect and transform a human. When Dr. Rush see that Tucker's foot has now become a sheep's foot, she keeps him there for study. Henry and Experience escape when Angus cannot bring himself to shoot his own brother. Flocks of sheep come running down the hill toward an offal pit surrounded by a gate. When Henry and Experience accidentally slip into a pit, Angus abandons them. Tucker transforms into a half-human, half-sheep hybrid and Dr. Rush administers him an injection of amniotic fluid from one of the mutant lambs, which undoes the transformation. When Dr. Rush goes outside to give the news to Angus, she is killed by a sheep.

Angus gives a presentation to businessmen about his new genetically engineered sheep, but the businessmen are soon slaughtered by the flock. Henry and Experience escape through the tunnels and try to warn Angus, but they learn he has a love for sheep and leave in disgust. Henry realizes he has been infected as the flock no longer attack him or Angus; not willing to risk hurting Experience if he fully transforms, Henry kisses her goodbye and parts away. Henry returns to the laboratory and fights Angus, who has now transformed into a gargantuan mutant half-human, half-sheep creature. However, governed by a sheep's instincts, Angus is kept in check by Henry and the farm's sheep dog.

While Angus is cornered by the dog, the revolving propeller of the family's plane cuts into him and wounds him badly. Experience and Tucker arrive with Mrs. Mac to disinfect both Angus and Henry with more amniotic fluid, administered via a medicine nozzle designed for sheep. Angus goes back to the flock for them to bite him again but the flock, driven by his wound's blood, maul him to death instead. Eventually, the flock is contained and killed in a massive explosion of ignited sheep flatulence. The cure is give to the surviving half-human, half-sheep hybrids, including Grant, who are all turned back into humans. Suddenly, the sheep dog begins bleating like a sheep.

Cast

Production

The film's special effects were handled by Weta Workshop, including participation from Richard Taylor. It was financed in part by an investment from the Korean company Daesung Group. It was also the first time a Korean company had directly invested in a New Zealand film, though Weta Workshop had previously collaborated with Korean effects houses on the South Korean film The Host . [2]

Release

Black Sheep premiered at the 31st Toronto Film Festival on September 10, 2006 as part of their Midnight Madness series [3] [4] and was theatrically released in New Zealand on March 29, 2007. Black Sheep was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 9, 2007 by Icon Home Entertainment.

In Spain, Manga Films released it on August 15, 2007, in a double-session Grindhouse lookalike after Severance . Warner Home Video (via Manga Films and its successor Vértice360) released the film on DVD on November 20, 2007, and in Blu-ray in March 2014. In North America, IFC Films picked up theatrical distribution rights, and Genius Products and The Weinstein Company released on DVD via their Dimension Extreme label.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 72% of 96 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 6.4/10. The site's consensus reads: "With an outrageous premise played completely straight, Black Sheep is a violent, grotesque, and very funny movie that takes B-movie lunacy to a delirious extreme." [5] On Metacritic, it received a rating of 62/100 based on 17 reviews. [6] In a positive review, the Houston Chronicle 's Bruce Westbrook stated that the film combines its many influences with fresh ideas. [7] Nigel Floyd of Time Out London rated the film 4/5 stars and called it a "treat for horror comedy fans". [8] Philip French, writing for The Guardian, called it a "lively affair" and "full of what might be called shear terror". [9] Andrew Pulver, also of The Guardian, was less impressed; he rated the film 2/5 and wrote that Shaun of the Dead had set the bar high for comedy horrors. [10] Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2, academic Peter Dendle described it as an "excellent offering" that has zombie sheep "every bit as violent and contagious as the infected in 28 Days Later and other contemporary zombie fare". [11]

Awards

Sequel

On November 5, 2024, it was announced that a sequel is in the works, with Jonathan King returning as director. [13]

Related Research Articles

<i>My Boyfriends Back</i> (film) 1993 United States film

My Boyfriend's Back is a 1993 American zombie horror comedy film directed by Bob Balaban which tells the story of Johnny Dingle, a teenage boy who returns from the dead as a zombie to meet Missy McCloud, the girl he's in love with, for a date. The film received negative reviews.

I, Zombie: The Chronicles of Pain is a film which was released by Fangoria Films in 1998; it was written, directed, produced and scored by Andrew Parkinson. It tells the story of a young man who gets infected by being bitten by a zombie and gradually starts turning into one himself.

<i>Day of the Dead 2: Contagium</i> 2005 American film

Day of the Dead 2: Contagium is a 2005 horror film written by Ana Clavell and directed by Clavell and James Dudelson, starring Justin Ipock, Laurie Maria Baranyay and John F. Henry III. It was unofficially marketed as a prequel and sequel to 1985's Day of the Dead. The film was released direct-to-video in the United States on October 18, 2005.

<i>Shaun the Sheep</i> British childrens television series

Shaun the Sheep is a British stop-motion animated silent children's television series which is developed by Aardman Animations. A spin-off in the Wallace & Gromit franchise, the series focuses on the adventures of Shaun, the eponymous sheep previously starring in A Close Shave, as the leader of his flock on an English farm. The series premiered on 5 March 2007 on CBBC in the UK, also airing on BBC Two. Since 2020, the series is streamed globally on Netflix. In March 2024, it was announced that the seventh series is in development and will premiere in 2025. With 170 episodes over 6 series, Shaun the Sheep is one of the longest-running animated series in British television.

<i>Let Sleeping Corpses Lie</i> (film) 1974 horror film directed by Jorge Grau

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a 1974 zombie horror film directed by Jorge Grau, and starring Cristina Galbó, Ray Lovelock and Arthur Kennedy. It focuses on two protagonists who are harassed by a local police investigator in the English countryside and are implicated in murders committed by zombies who have been brought to life by a farming tool designed to kill insects via ultra-sonic radiation.

<i>I Eat Your Skin</i> 1971 American film

I Eat Your Skin is a 1971 American horror film written, produced and directed by Del Tenney. It stars William Joyce, Heather Hewitt and Walter Coy. The film was shot entirely in Florida in 1964 under the title Caribbean Adventure to disguise from potential investors the fact that it was a zombie film.

<i>The Zombie Diaries</i> 2006 British film

The Zombie Diaries is a 2006 British independent found footage horror film written, produced and directed by Kevin Gates and first-time feature-filmmaker Michael Bartlett. It stars Russell Jones, Sophia Ellis, and James Fisher.

<i>Mutant</i> (film) 1984 American film

Mutant is a 1984 American horror film. It was initially released to theaters as Night Shadows, but it premiered on video with the Mutant title, which it has retained for all subsequent releases.

<i>Colin</i> (film) 2008 British film

Colin is a 2008 British zombie film written and directed by Marc Price. After a successful run in a number of film festivals, it went on to be shown at Cannes in 2009. Applauded for its success despite its low budget, the total cost of production was reportedly £45. The director, actor and comedian Marc Price, shot Colin on a standard definition Panasonic mini-dv camcorder that he had owned for 10 years and edited the film on his home PC using Adobe Premiere 6 software which had come bundled with a video capture card he'd purchased a few years earlier. Facebook and Myspace were used to gather actors to play the zombies.

<i>Die You Zombie Bastards!</i> 2007 film

Die You Zombie Bastards! is a 2005 American superhero comedy horror film directed by Caleb Emerson, written by Emerson and Haig Demarjian, and starring Tim Gerstmar, Geoff Mosher, and Pippi Zornoza. It is about a serial killer (Gerstmar) who must save his cannibal wife Violet (Zornoza) from zombies animated by Baron Nefarious (Mosher).

Wasting Away is a 2007 zombie comedy film directed by Matthew Kohnen and starring Matthew Davis, Julianna Robinson, and Michael Grant Terry. The events of the plot take place from the zombies' point of view. The film uses color footage to show the action from the zombies' point of view in which they see themselves as normal humans and occasionally switches to black-and-white footage to show the zombies from the point of view of normal humans.

<i>Shaun the Sheep Movie</i> 2015 film

Shaun the Sheep Movie is a 2015 animated adventure comedy film written and directed by Richard Starzak and Mark Burton. It is based on the British television series Shaun the Sheep, in turn a spin-off of the Wallace & Gromit film A Close Shave (1995). Starring the voices of Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, and Omid Djalili, the film follows Shaun and his flock navigating the big city to save their amnesiac farmer, while an overzealous animal control worker pursues the group. It was produced by Aardman Animations, and financed by StudioCanal in association with Anton Capital Entertainment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheep farming in New Zealand</span>

Sheep farming is a significant industry in New Zealand. According to 2007 figures reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, there are 39 million sheep in the country. The country has the highest density of sheep per unit area in the world. For 130 years, sheep farming was the country's most important agricultural industry, but it was overtaken by dairy farming in 1987. Sheep numbers peaked in New Zealand in 1982 to 70 million and then dropped to about 27.6 million. There are 16,000 sheep and beef farms in the country which has made the country the world's largest exporter of lambs, with 24 million finished lambs recorded every year.

<i>American Zombie</i> 2007 American film

American Zombie is a 2007 American mockumentary horror film directed by Grace Lee, written by Rebecca Sonnenshine and Lee, and starring Lee and John Solomon as documentary filmmakers who investigate a fictional subculture of real-life zombies living in Los Angeles.

Oh! My Zombie Mermaid is a 2004 Japanese action comedy film directed by Naoki Kudo, written by Naoki Kudo and Izō Hashimoto, and starring Shinya Hashimoto, Sonim, Shirō Sano, and Nicholas Pettas. Hashimoto plays a professional wrestler whose wife involuntarily turns into a mermaid.

<i>Descendents</i> (2008 film) 2008 Chilean film

Descendents is a 2008 Chilean experimental horror film directed by Jorge Olguín, written by Carolina García and Olguín, and starring Camille Lynch. Lynch plays a young child who attempts to cross a land divided by brutal fights between the military and roving zombies.

<i>Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies</i> 2013 American film

Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies is a 2013 sports action horror film that was directed by Cody Knotts. An early version of the film was shown at an international horror festival in Whitby, England in October 2013, and the movie was released to DVD on March 28, 2014 along with a limited theatrical release. The movie was funded partly through a successful Kickstarter campaign and through private funds from three investors and stars including several former WWE and current TNA wrestlers that portray themselves fighting against a horde of zombies.

Virus Undead is a 2008 German horror film directed by Wolf Wolff and Ohmuthi, written by Wolf Jahnke, and starring Philipp Danne, Birthe Wolter, Anna Breuer, Nikolas Jürgens, and Marvin Gronen. The screenplay concerns a group of medical students and locals in a small town who suffer an outbreak of a mutated H5N1-like virus that causes people to turn into zombies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thunder Levin</span> American screenwriter and director (born 20th century

Thunder Levin is an American screenwriter and director, known for writing the first four Sharknado television films. Levin's work was largely responsible for the resurgence of sharksploitation films.

References

  1. 1 2 "Black Sheep". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "Black Sheep". nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
  3. ↑ "Black Sheep goes to Toronto | the Big Idea | te Aria Nui". Archived from the original on 25 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
  4. ↑ "2006 Toronto International Film Festival – Story – Entertainment". 3 News. MediaWorks. 16 September 2006. Archived from the original on 20 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "Black Sheep (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 December 2022.
  6. ↑ "Black Sheep". Metacritic. Retrieved 21 December 2007.
  7. ↑ Westbrook, Bruce (7 August 2007). "Black Sheep". Houston Chronicle . Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  8. ↑ Floyd, Nigel (8 October 2007). "Black Sheep". Time Out London . Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  9. ↑ French, Philip (14 October 2007). "Black Sheep". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  10. ↑ Pulver, Andrew (11 October 2007). "Black Sheep". The Guardian . Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  11. ↑ Dendle, Peter (2012). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2: 2000–2010. McFarland & Company. pp. 35–36. ISBN   978-0-7864-6163-9.
  12. ↑ "Black Sheep". Wikibifff. Retrieved 11 September 2022.
  13. ↑ Navarro, Meagan (5 November 2024). "'Black Sheep' Sequel in the Works with Original Star and Director". Bloody Disgusting!. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.