Written by Old Bluffer 8th Mar 2008

Angus Oldfield is the eldest son of a New Zealand sheep farmer and something of a Bad Egg.  This is shown to us via a scene where, as a young lad, he kills his younger brother's favourite pet sheep with an axe, and then dresses up in the bloodied corpse to traaumatise the poor lad.  This actually works far better than he could have expected, as just after he stops screaming, a message arrives to tell them both their father has died.

Fast-forward to the future, when Angus has taken over the running of the farm, and his poor brother, Henry, has left the country and has acute "ovinophobia" (sic). Bascially this means he is absolutely terrified of sheep - which is obviously going to be a problem for him in this film.

Like all the truly great Creature Features, Black Sheep revels in its clichés.  So, the adult Angus has employed a controversial boffin to genetically modify his flock, so he can sell the new breed on the International Sheep Fanciers circuit.  Like all good GM experimentation, this has the effect of turning the sheep into frenzied killers. There are seemingly no other benefits to be had, but this doesn't seem to bother Angus (he also doesn't seem to be worried about the added difficulty of feeding carnivorous sheep!).

Environmentally friendly, aromatherapy loving, chi-healing, vegetarian eco-warriors soon get wind of the nefarious goings on at the Oldfield farm, and steal a radioactive bio-sample from the boffins. They are chased, and the sample is smashed in the woods, revealing a nasty animatronic sheep embryo, which bites her hippy rescuer and then escapes to bite a normal sheep.

The scene is thus set for the Sheep Mutant Zomification virus to spread to thousands of sheep.  Givent the special effects are done by WETA workshop, this means we get to enjoy hordes of sheep swarming over a Lord of the Rings landscape, savaging people, which is just as much fun as it sounds.

Angus is relatively unfazed by all of these developments, but does take a minor bite from the aforementioned infected hippy, who was pretty much turned into a sheep at the time (anyone surprised that being bitten by the sheep turns you into a comedy Man-Sheep-Hybrid is probably not the target market for this film).

Soon then, Angus [to be continued, I'm off to see Vantage Point now!...]