Black Sheeps: The Killer Sheep Are Back 20 Years Later

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Black Sheeps poster snippet

It has taken 20 years, but there are still filmmakers in New Zealand who believe sheep are not to be trusted - Black Sheeps is the long-awaited sequel to the 2006 horror comedy Black Sheep, bringing director Jonathan King back to the world of genetically modified livestock, ridiculous amounts of blood and sheep that really should not be anywhere near a human being.

The new film also once again has genetically modified sheep, practical creature effects, gore and the kind of deliberately stupid dark humor that makes the whole concept work in the first place, and after two decades, I suppose there was really only one sensible thing to do - make the sheep even worse.

What Is Black Sheeps About?

The story centers on a young scientist who becomes convinced that a dangerous new pathogen is threatening the population, where her investigation eventually leads back to her hometown, where the connection to the old sheep station starts becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

That puts her in the middle of the same rural nightmare that originally turned New Zealand's apparently harmless national animal into something considerably less cuddly, but he difference this time is that the story takes place two decades after the original, so the events of Black Sheep are now part of the history hanging over the area rather than simply being repeated from scratch.

The filmmakers have also introduced a new group of characters, including Tabatha Killick as Oats, Lucia Davison as Maia, Joseph Witkowski as Frank, Renaye Tamati as Ana, Paul Waggott as Paul, Heather O'Carroll as Colleen and James Partridge as Curly, while Nathan Meister returns as Henry Oldfield, giving the sequel a direct connection to the character who survived the original sheep-related disaster.

Jonathan King Returns to the Farm

The most important piece of the original that has returned is Jonathan King himself - King wrote and directed Black Sheep back in 2006, and he's now back behind the camera for the sequel, working from a screenplay credited to King, Matthew Grainger and Rosie Howells.

The original was King's feature debut and became one of those movies that found an audience well beyond its New Zealand origins, where it was a very simple joke taken extremely seriously - what if sheep became murderous mutants? - and the film's combination of creature horror and broad comedy turned it into a cult favorite.

For Black Sheeps, King has returned to New Zealand to make the sequel in and around the same general area used by the original, where the production has been described as a genuine independent film, with financing coming through private equity, pre-sales, New Zealand incentives and support from the New Zealand Film Commission.

Wētā Workshop is also back for the sequel 0 Wētā worked on the first movie's creature effects, including animatronic sheep and the enormous were-sheep created around performer Kevin McTurk - the original production involved extensive prosthetic, makeup and creature work rather than relying entirely on digital effects, which was a big part of the film's charm.

For Black Sheeps, the company has once again been involved in the practical creature work, but this time the filmmakers have access to technology that simply wasn't available 20 years ago, as King has specifically mentioned refining creatures such as the Were-sheep, while the production has also involved a large amount of practical gore, miniatures and stop-motion work.

The first Black Sheep was released in 2006 and went on to become a cult favorite, taking a very specifically New Zealand idea and turning it into a full-blown creature-feature comedy, and it also reportedly earned around $5 million worldwide, which isn't a bad result for a small horror movie about genetically engineered killer sheep.

Black Sheeps will make its international premiere at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain in October 2026, where it will screen as part of the festival's genre programming, before it then heads into New Zealand cinemas on November 12, 2026, although release dates for other territories have not yet been announced.