大象传媒

Rural Kiwis run screaming from genetically modified mutton in New Zealand horror Black Sheep. Sheep-phobic city boy Henry Oldfield (Nathan Meister) returns to visit the family farm, unaware that his brother's scientists have been tinkering with the livestock. One protester break-in later and the ewes are baaing for human blood, turning victims into freaky hybrids. It's a quirky, funny horror - rarely terrifying, but with more than its fare share of guts.

It's an instantly amusing set-up: mild-mannered sheep turn into bloodthirsty killers, aiming for the jugular of any passing human. And where better to set it than New Zealand? (Well, except possibly Wales.) The notoriously offbeat Kiwi sense of humour is at its blackest as likeable hero Henry heads for the hills with farmhand Tucker (Whale Rider's Tammy Davis) and lost hippy Experience (Danielle Mason). There are plenty of laughs at the expense of Experience's vegan, crystal-loving ways, especially when her sort-of boyfriend rocks up as a towering sheep-human hybrid with a sudden, and very ironic, taste for meat. Nathan's brother Angus (Peter Feeney) also amuses when his particular proclivities are revealed.

"A SILLY, OCCASIONALLY SCARY COMEDY HORROR"

That's said, characters are fairly skimpy and dialogue often cliched, and while much of this can be passed off as parody, it doesn't make the film any more emotionally involving. Black Sheep is a silly, occasionally scary comedy horror. It makes a virtue of being as gruesome and unlikely as possible. But while it's rarely fall-down hilarious, it's witty enough to please horror fans in search of a light-hearted tribute to splatter flicks of old.

Black Sheep is out in the UK on 12th October 2007.