“A key thing about sheep is that you see them at a distance and they look like these little balls of cotton on the hillside.
“You say ‘New Zealand,’ and people go, ‘uh huh.’ You go ‘sheep,’ and people go, ‘uh huh.’ Then you say, ‘horror movie combining the two,’ and people go, ‘Oh, great!'”īut you still gotta wonder: sheep? Really? How does a director take something white and fluffy, that makes for good sweaters, and turn it into a monster capable of terrifying audiences? “This was one of those ideas you could put together,” King says.
The result, “Black Sheep,” which was produced in New Zealand, has already become that country’s highest-grossing horror movie of all time (though it has plenty of comedic elements). Hey, if Monty Python can turn a cute, white rabbit into “the most foul, cruel, vicious, bloodthirsty rodent ye’ve ever set eyes on,” why not make a movie about sheep who turn into ferocious murderers following a botched genetics experiment? That, says writer-director Jonathan King, was the first tagline that sprung to mind when he had the idea to create a movie about killer sheep. THERE’S something baaaaaaaaaaad down on the farm.
