Home  »  Reviews   »   Graco Nautilus with Safety Surround Review: Tried and True Graco Nautilus with Safety Surround Review: Tried and True On November 18, 2013 The 2007 film Black Sheep has a simple yet ingenious concept: genetic experimentation to create a new breed of sheep on a remote New Zealand sheep-farm results in blood-splattered mayhem as it all goes Horribly Wrong TM. For people who like a bit of silliness to their gore, and who find sheep adorable, such a premise is enough to draw one in without hesitation, and basically, if you like your gore plentiful and hilarious, then this movie will see you right. Warning, spoilers following, as much as they matter with creatures features! Skip to the last paragraph for a rating.The film begins showing how young Henry Oldfield earned his overpowering fear of sheep, and then returns with him to the farm he grew up on, which is now being run by his rather sociopathic brother, Angus. As he happens to be visiting, Angus is preparing for the big unveiling of his new breed of sheep;

at the same time, as luck would have it, a pair of bungling environmental protestors set about trying to gather evidence from his laboratory. This results in genetic material (a zombie sheep-foetus) that was supposed to be disposed of instead spreading Angus Oldfield's evil Sheepification virus (not it's name, but that's what it does, it turns things into blood-thirsty sheep) loose on the nearby people and herds of sheep. This leaves Henry Oldfield, the local farmhand Tucker, and new-age animal-rights activist Experience to try and escape before they all get sheepified, or just plain eaten. The anticipation is well built up as far as you realise the makers of this film are just having a lot of fun and within fifteen minutes you have the promise of evil sheep, relentless gore, and the likelihood of a bunch of Japanese businessmen being comedically menaced. And boy, does this film deliver on its promises. I'll break down the film into headings, cause that makes it easier to tackle (otherwise I'll just burble meaningless praise): The GoreBlack Sheep is a film full of guts, blood, gore, cannibalism, murder, death, violence, and it is all displayed very well.

Weta Workshop, a New Zealand special effects firm which was responsible for the Lord of the Rings film, is in charge, and they do good gore, and prosthetics. Tendons and intestines are wonderfully shiny and stringy, blood pumps in a glorious realistic shade and viscosity, and some beautiful injuries are sustained, including a masterful bitten off face, and excellent partial-sheepification-tranformations. Deaths are many and plentiful, and it is a delight to see some gorgeous fluffy white sheep (real ones) merrily munching away on the flesh of a man's leg stump. The Special EffectsOne thing that stood out as excellent in this film for me was the understated use of computer graphics effects. The sheep foetus could be either (though at one point it is clearly a glove-puppet, and so beautifully used), and other than that the only obvious uses of CG are to show the herds of rampaging sheep coming over the hills in a beeline for hapless humans, and the scenes of said herd trampling over said humans, but as the sheep used are real

, it is only the humans who are CG'd in the trampling, and unless you were looking for it, it's quite hard to notice, which is nice. Used Furniture Cambridge NyI have a big soft-spot for Evil-Dead-esque use of puppets in movies, and Black Sheep does it wonderfully. How Much Does Event Draping CostThe "evil sheep" when they're bursting through fences and walls to try and get to their prey are fantastic, and add to the fun and delight of the film, because they have just the right balance of scare and hilarity that really makes you feel good about watching a horror film.Wall Mounted Toilet PricesThe basics of the Sheepification virus are that wherever you are bitten by an infected sheep, that area will begin changing you into a blood-thirsty were-sheep.

This is used to wonderful effect on Tucker, who is bitten in the foot and grows an adorable little furry hoof, and Grant, the other bungling animal-rights activist, who is bitten in the neck and so turns to blood-lust much quicker than most others, and ends up savaging a harmless creature in a wonderful scene he feels very guilty about later. Partially transformed sheep-hands are great, and the ye olde Werewolf-transformation sequences are understated and nicely done.The other side of the prosthetics are the Sheep-men suits. Much like Dog Soldiers, the use of suits on actors is the films favourite way to show a were-creature, in this case, a were-sheep. They are perhaps not as good as the other prosthetics used in the film (though are streaks better than the Dog Soldiers ones). Those of you who know World of Warcraft may, like me, have to restrain yourself from shouting "FOR THE HORDE!" as a giant man-sheep starts rampaging, but it's all part of the fun. The one complaint I do have about the sheep-men is that, obviously to minimise the lessening of the effect that would happen when they're seen in full daylight, the sheep-men only attack in dimly lit places, and the cameraman seems to think a quick trip to the Shaky-Town school of Blair-Witch-handicam use is the way to a)obscure the sheep-man, and b)create "tension".

Sadly Shaky-Shaky-cam is so damn shaky, you do just end up feeling a bit frustrated and nauseous. Thankfully it is only in one scene, though. The CharacterisationThe characters in the film are simple and portrayed well, from the happy-go-lucky Kiwi stereotype farm-boy, Tucker, to the sociopathic sheep-hating/loving (in all the wrong ways) Angus Oldfield. The main characters, Henry, Experience, and Tucker are all likeable and sympathetic, and the only time a character seems to act out of themselves for the sake of a joke is Experience's eating of seafood at the end, just so you can have a joke about eating sheep's balls (also known as Mountain Oysters). Tis a minor niggle, but I think they could have lived without that. Another good thing about the film is that there are no "we need to string out the drama, therefore being the hero I will act like a complete moron!" moments. The hero tries to have a moment of that, by thinking he can move through a field of blood-thirsty sheep using sheep-skin car-seat covers as camouflage, thankfully the film handles that situation very well and you're not asked to suspend your belief beyond reasonable bounds, which I am eternally grateful for.

There is one annoying moment on that point... So at one point, just one point, the hero fends off a sheep-man by throwing a bottle of, guess what, mint sauce into his face. This would be fine if it had just been a quick bottling and then on, but they pause a little too long on the sheep-man being all angry, and the mint sauce kind of hissing off his skin, like it's holy water. Yes, I see the joke. No, I don't think it was necessary and hence not funny. Overall I would give Black Sheep 8.5/10. The film-makers clearly had huge fun making it, and you can tick off the horror tropes pretty damn fast through the whole film. It's charming in its simplicity, and the humour is top notch (apart from the obligatory jokes about Mountain Oysters and mint sauce) - there's something so wonderful about seeing people tackled in the head by a sheep that just lifts your heart. The sheep are truly adorable and used well, and the characters are kept consistent to themselves in the main, and good fun. The thing I think that strikes me about this film is that it loves the tropes of horror, yet at the same time it seems trapped by them, hence the bad jokes - but thankfully the good use of them is so plentiful and well-done, that these minor niggles can be easily forgiven.