Kiwi killer sheep raise the baa

[KiwiCoromandel]

Overseas audiences have enjoyed having the wool pulled over their eyes with the world premiere of the Kiwi comedy-horror movie Black Sheep at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Jonathan King and shot in Wellington, the film depicts attacks on humans by blood-thirsty killer sheep after a genetic engineering experiment goes wrong.

Wellington company Weta, best known for The Lord of the Rings, created the gory visual effects.

King was at the film's red-carpet, midnight premiere on Sunday with one of its stars, Oliver Driver, and several live, non-lethal sheep.

"Black Sheep is funny and gore-drenched, and a definite crowd-pleaser," said reviewer Russ Fischer, from movie website Chud.

Festival audiences also applauded a New Zealand film about the 1990 Aramoana massacre.

Director Robert Sarkies attended yesterday's premiere of Out of the Blue. The film, which depicts how gun collector David Gray murdered 13 people in the small Otago coastal settlement of Aramoana, opens in New Zealand on October 12.

"It was fantastic to play in Toronto in front of a discerning audience who were clearly moved by what they saw," said Sarkies, best known for Scarfies.

"There was a Q&A (question and answer) session at the end of the film, and the audience was fascinated to learn more about the real events.

"The response really was incredible, and it was very gratifying to receive a long and sustained round of applause from an overseas audience."

The festival's co-director, Noah Cowan, praised Out of the Blue.

"The film may involve a lone gunman and a violent stand-off with the police, but it could not be further away from a conventional action flick," he said.

"The violence Sarkies portrays is sporadic and oddly anti-climactic. Most of the film's time is spent waiting – with the enigmatic gunman, the neighbours who are unsure of what is taking place, and the police, unaccustomed to anything like this happening in their village.

"This is a fitting and thoughtful artistic rendering of a terrible tragedy."

source:AP

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