A fellow Sci-Fi & Horror movie aficionado FB buddy shared a movie title with me last night. It was Black Sheep – a 2006 flick that had previously escaped my notice. I found it on Amazon Prime; it was free with commercials. Late in the evening, Susan and I watched it.
This is a no spoiler review of the movie – albeit in questionable taste. Black Sheep is more a creature feature than a Sci-Fi movie. Still, the premise involves GMO sheep; so, it makes it into Sci-Fi for that attribute alone. It is also a Zombie type movie as well as a creature flick in the spirit of Arachnophobia and Big Ass Spider – based on real rather than fictional species. Haven’t seen those spider flicks? Check them out.
Two brothers, in a Cain and Abel paradigm, are in a contest over their legacy. Their father has left them a New Zealand sheep farm.
Let me digress here to comment that I eat lamb at least a couple of times a month – most often a shoulder chop but occasionally a rack of lamb. The latter is a dish that Susan prepares using a recipe from Julia Childs’ Joy of Cooking.
The elder brother, focused on turning the sheep ranch into a mega financial success, has embraced GMO methods albeit with more abandon than is probably scientifically responsible.
The younger brother returns to the family spread after years of studying abroad, and wouldn’t Ewe know it, he discovers that his brother has gone awry in his GMO pursuits. A couple (actually three) environmentalists enter the property illegally, and they engage in a shear trespass for which they will pay an unexpected price.
Due to a series of breaks in GMO hygiene, the sheep become zombified and proceed to attack the humans who then develop Ovine attributes. It isn’t pretty, I tell you. In fact, it is really baaaad.
It’s a wooly tail, to be sure, but it ends on a positive note. This movie, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. was an enjoyable little gem. I’m sorry that I came to it so late – the wool having been pulled over my eyes, as it were.