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A fleece-tacular achievement
We owe The Lord of the Rings for New Zealand's weirdest horror film
Director Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is undeniably one of the greatest fantasy films ever. The acting, phenomenal soundtrack, and breathtaking New Zealand scenery make it a masterclass from beginning to end.
However, The Lord of the Rings trilogy couldn’t have looked half as good without creative studio and special effects house Wētā Workshop (not to be confused with the digital effects behemoth Wētā FX). Every elf ear, dwarf nose, orc prosthetic, and even ring of chainmail were painstakingly crafted to help bring Middle-earth to life. Most importantly, the lessons learned from the trilogy's hard work undoubtedly helped Wētā create one of its most beautiful yet gross comedy-horror film projects just a few short years later.
Baaaaad to the bone
The horror genre is so open-ended that it can lead to some pretty far-out concepts. Serial-killer thongs, children's book characters gone murderous, and even a black bear ready to chow down on anything and everything after snorting cocaine have all been the focal points of scary movies in recent years.
Yet before any of those strange concepts came to life, director Jonathan King ventured forth into intriguing territory with the horror film Black Sheep. As the title suggests, the 2006 horror-comedy follows Henry (Nathan Meister), who develops a phobia of sheep after a cruel prank by his brother Angus (Peter Feeney). A decade later, Henry returns to sell Angus his share of the farm. Unbeknownst to Henry, his brother has been conducting genetic experiments on the sheep — with a truly unfortunate side effect. Unlike the docile sheep grazing in the New Zealand countryside, these sheep are more interested in chewing on any human foolish enough to get close. And if they do get bitten? The humans transform into bloodthirsty half-human/half-sheep killers too.
Black Sheep’s premise is absurd, but you’d be mistaken if you went in expecting nothing but cheap thrills and cheaper comedy. King treats the zombie-sheep-plague concept as seriously as, well, the plague. Yes, there is a scene where throwing mint sauce at a sheep makes it smoke and writhe in pain, but Black Sheep’s message about corporate greed and animal cruelty remains pretty damn relevant even 20 years later.
King clearly wasn’t the only one who put his heart and soul into making a film about killer sheep. Wētā Workshop, which had already brought several movie masterpieces to life with its expertise in animatronics, prosthetics, makeup, and creature effects, knew how to lean hard into the gruesome elements King needed for Black Sheep.
In fact, aside from a few mistakes the crew had to edit out, the film used very few visual effects. Instead, the gnarly, viscera-covered killer sheep were created by combining animatronic puppets with stitched-together creature suits for performers to wear. One particularly memorable puppet was the bloodthirsty sheep baby experiment that tears through a hapless environmental activist in an early scene.
Made of foam latex, with dual-gimbal cable controls, rod puppetry for its arms, and a servo pack to aid movement, the sheep baby animatronic was impressively expressive, grotesque, and slimy as it chomped into a man's jugular. Horrible, but undoubtedly a work of art.
Wētā had already proven itself with The Lord of the Rings’ orc prosthetics, but the studio went the extra mile for Black Sheep by turning creature-suit performer Kevin McTurk into a were-sheep. While some visual effects were used to convey the transformation between human and sheep, the were-sheep itself was carefully crafted. The suit was eight feet tall, built around McTurk’s frame (though he still had to wear stilts), and even included an animatronic head.
Though the orcs of Moria and the were-sheep of Black Sheep may seem to have nothing in common, Wētā’s work on both films proves that practical effects were exactly what they needed. This is especially true of Black Sheep, whose premise alone is strange enough to make anyone dismiss it. But once you sit down to watch, you see how realistic these murderous sheep look — and how CGI simply wouldn’t have compared.
Wētā’s work with King and Black Sheep isn’t over either. Though 20 years have passed by, a sequel, Black Sheeps, is on the way, set to release on Nov. 12 this year with both King and Wētā Workshop returning. Whether it lives up to the original remains to be seen, but with Wētā involved, we can expect master puppetry and animatronics.
Black Sheep is streaming on Starz.