DVD Review - Black Sheep

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This past holiday season I participated in an online Secret Santa for movie lovers. The always entertaining folks at Now Playing podcast arranged everything through their forums. You sign up, tell them what kind of movies you might want to get and your name is handed over to another random member. I was lucky enough to be the Santa for someone that likes Stallone and stuff blowing up, so I sent her Deathrace 2000. Mainly because I upgraded to a BluRay recently, but if this isn't designed for unloading movies to other people, I don't know what is!

Anyway, to get more on track...I submitted that I love scifi/horror and usually the cheesier the better. My Santa sent me two movies! This one and another called Automaton Transfusion, a zombie flick I haven't watched yet.

Being a little film from New Zealand, it's no surprise I hadn't heard of Black Sheep in the few years since it was originally released. Thankfully, it falls in the "spaltstick" genre. I don't know how else you could do a movie about killer sheep and not have it be a comedy too! It's sort of like a zombie movie. Except it's on a rural New Zealand farm instead of in a city, there's genetically altered, carnivorous sheep instead of zombies and if you get bit by a sheep, and not totally eaten, you come back as a weresheep beast.

The movie is a lot of fun and isn't at all shy about letting the blood fly. This is my first encounter with the Dimension Extreme branding and I'm wondering if it's to indicate the level of gooey-ness. For something that feels like a small indie horror film, the effects are outstanding (more on that later). While there are obvious scenes where my brain knows they're not using live animals, my eyes can't tell. Another thing that makes this movie great is they don't rely on CGI. Call me old fashioned but there is a much better feel when using practical effects.

There is a 30 minute behind the scenes documentary which focuses on the gore and creature effects work. It's surprisingly done by WETA Workshop, which explains why everything looks so good. Dave Ensley, who won a NZ film award for Achievement in Make-Up Design here, also worked on Revenge of the Sith (Oscar nod) and The Wolfman (Oscar win w/ Rick Baker).

There is a bonus scene about a minute long that was shot exclusively for the DVD release which is out of movie continuity but still good for a chuckle. The disc also includes a trailer, some deleted scenes (nothing note-worthy) and a commentary, which I didn't listen to. I don't often listen to them unless it's an extra special  movie.

The movie gets a 8/10 and if you've never seen carnivorous sheep on the rampage, you really should! For around the cost of a movie ticket, you can pick up the DVD. If you're still not sold, check out the trailer.