John’s Horror Corner: Black Sheep (2006), a goretastic New Zealand horror-comedy about killer sheep.

MY CALL: A horror comedy about mutant flesh-eating sheep? Sign me up! Fun, gory and delightfully funny with great practical gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see. MORE MOVIES LIKE Black Sheep: For more kitschy New Zealand horror comedies try Dead-Alive (1992), Bad Taste (1987), Housebound (2014), Deathgasm (2015) and What We Do in the Shadows (2015). And for yet more gory yet quirky creature features, go for Isolation (2005), Splinter (2008), Blood Glacier (2013), Zombeavers (2014) or Boar (2017).

After some agricultural experiments in genetic engineering go horribly wrong, a flock of sheep mutate into erratic flesh-eating monsters. For the most part, that’s all you should need to know in order to decide if this gory horror-comedy is for you. The humor is every bit as overt as Shaun of the Dead (2004), and a step in the direction of slapstick. However, it wanders nowhere near the extremity of Dead-Alive (1992).

For more HORROR COMEDIES: For more horror comedies try Critters (1986) and sequels, Brain Damage (1988), Blood Diner (1987), Frankenhooker (1990), Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991), Leprechaun (1993) and sequels, Head of the Family (1996), American Psycho (2000), Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hazing (2004), Dead Snow (2009), Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009), Chaw (2009), Piranha 3D (2010), Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010), Final Destination 5 (2011), Chillerama (2011), Piranha 3DD (2012), Grabbers (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Bad Milo (2013), Warm Bodies (2013), The Editor (2014), Burying the Ex (2014), Housebound (2014), Zombeavers (2014), The Voices (2014), Dead Snow 2 (2014), The Voices (2014), Smothered (2014), What We Do in the Shadows (2014), Cooties (2015), Deathgasm (2015), Bloodsucking Bastards (2015), Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015), He Never Died (2015), Ava’s Possessions (2015), The Final Girls (2015),  Krampus (2015), Love in the Time of Monsters (2015), The Greasy Strangler (2016), Better Watch Out (2016), Mayhem (2017), Happy Death Day (2017), The Babysitter (2017) and Satanic Panic (2019).

The catalyst for our story comes when a militant vegetarian sabotages a scientist’s work by stealing a lamb fetus in what appears to be a cannister of Ninja Turtle ooze. A laughably slimy rubber monster of a mutant lamb fetus escapes from this incubator, bites the vegetarian animal rights activist, and wanders to a grazing flock of sheep with its umbilical cord in tow. Once infected by this genetically modified mutant fetus, the rest of the flock become ferocious flesh-eating sheep. And when these infected sheep attack, it’s pretty fun to watch!

Meanwhile, the activist’s infected bite manifests much like slowly turning into a zombie. Only the outcome is the slow transformation into a massive weresheep! Like in District 9 (2009), this transformation boasts various transitional phases between human and weresheep form. Those bitten slowly develop hooved feet, horizontal pupiled-eyes, and hulking sheepitaur bodies. I enjoyed the monstrous creature effects, which were all practical.

The gore is very “tearing stretchy latex flesh” in style, and there’s much wound work and blood and guts to be enjoyed. Especially when the protagonists fall into the offal pit! Also watch out for the blood-spraying plane propeller death scene, the stretchy penis bite, and loads of lacerated wound work and dismemberment.

His first feature film, writer and director Jonathan King brought us a cult classic horror comedy that I just love! How has this man not gone on to make 80 more similarly awesome, gory, hilarious films? Delightfully funny with great gore and special effects, this is one every gorehound needs to see.