Movie: Black Sheep (spoilers)

Happy Halloween!

Of course, I wanted some form of horror for this week's Netflix, so I went through my queue to see what I had. I'm not really a big horror person, so it took a lot of scrolling, when my eyes fell upon "Black Sheep" and I knew I had to go for it. I knew it was killer carnivorous sheep. The fact that sheep don't even have upper incisors doesn't stop them. And on top of that, I knew it included zombie were-sheep. Two hours of cheesy goodness, I figured I could point and laugh and have fun with it.

I was pleasantly surprised. It's not Night of the Lepus with a budget; it's actually an absolutely brilliant parody. In fact, it's one of the more skillful parodies I've seen in any genre, and hands down the best monster movie parody I've ever seen. Most monster movie parodies either take it so far over the top that they pass right by funny and land squarely in stupid, or take themselves too seriously and end up as just bad monster movies. This hits just about the perfect middle ground, where it's played straight but you can't take it seriously.

There are two flaws that make me say "just about" instead of just "perfect". First, Experience is a bit over the top at the start. If there were three of her, the movie would have been dead on arrival, but as is she's just kind of annoying until she gets into the nitty-gritty of the story. The second is that the ending depends on juvenile humor that I'm just not into. Up until that, I was thinking about buying myself a copy; the parody is that good otherwise.

Even with that, though, great fun. You should see it. You probably don't want to do see with me, though, because I squee in the middle of Scary Flock scenes and go "OMG, they're so CUTE!"
And when we reveal the Oldfield sheep, my reaction is "Oh wow, what a beautiful Corriedale." Actually, I don't know that it was a Corriedale. The commentary talks about how they just found the tallest, nicest-looking local sheep they could, so in New Zealand odds are that it's just another Merino that's been trimmed.

Oh, and in my opinion, the effects have the perfect balance of good and cheesy. The were-sheep get-up is actually really good. Incredibly good. And yet rampaging sheep are obviously sheep puppets, and the "carnage" scene has something Monty Python-esque. But it works, because... it's a flock of rampaging carnivorous sheep, for God's sake. It is Monty Python-esque.

And I also loved a shot where they basically admit that yeah, sheep don't have upper incisors. (It's actually even funnier with the commentary, because it seems the actor didn't know that until the director points it out, so the actor goes "so, they really can't hurt you at all, can they?" "Well, the lower teeth are really tough so they can rip up hardy shrubs...")

So, great parody movie.

On the DVD promos, "1408" looked really good. The other two horror movies just looked like "victimization of women theater", though; no thanks.
As mentioned, I'm not so much a horror person, but when I do watch I generally prefer ghost stories to monster stories. Monster stories just aren't scary to me, because not only is it never going to happen, there aren't even "true dangerous monster stories" like there are "true ghost stories" (with the exception of the chupracabra, I suppose). But on the other hand I don't generally care for serial-killer horror either, because it's either victimization of women, which I don't care to watch, or it's unrealistic because statistically speaking most serial killers' victims are women. [Yes, I do realize the seeming Catch-22 there. It is possible to make one I'll like (M, you're an awesome movie. I love you, Pete Lorre) but it's hard.]
A good ghost story I can get down with, though.

Speaking of promos, I stumbled across "Changeling" on the front of IMDB. That looks really good. This weekend isn't so great for me, but I may head to the theater next weekend.