Cinematically speaking, it's true that the cuddlier an animal is, the funnier it would look chomping on your genitals. Well, maybe not your personal privates, because that would hurt, and one's own agony is rarely funny (conversely: pain + somebody else's junk = totally funny). The point I'm trying to make is that if you're going to craft a campy horror movie, you can't go wrong when you opt for the fluffiest, most docile creature with which to raise hell. But don't choose sheep. Jonathan King has beat you to it.

Set amidst the heaving grasslands of New Zealand, "Black Sheep" is writer-director King's debut feature, a wild and woolly look at the bloodletting that ensues when science tries to outdo Mother Nature. Our outsider point of view is embodied by Henry, the proverbial prodigal who returns to the farmstead after a decade spent attempting to recover from childhood trauma. His homecoming coincides with the trespassing of crunchy activists Grant and Experience, out to expose "the most reckless genetic engineering in the Southern Hemisphere." In their crosshairs is Henry's brother Angus, whose shortsighted quest to create the perfect sheep inadvertently leads - in one of the goofiest scenes you're likely to see this year - to Grant's grisly mutilation at the hooves of a tiny yet ambitious lamb zombie.

Any self-respecting moviegoer knows how any self-respecting zombie flick goes down: a violent frenzy of munching and carnage leads to an undead epidemic that those responsible try to downplay while a renegade crew battles the expanding throng. And "Black Sheep" is no different, with the sheep-phobic Henry and vegan Experience joining forces to silence the lambs as Angus descends further into madness... but not before a killer set piece in which Angus proudly unveils his downy-white specimen to an international group of investors, all of whom become justifiably aghast at the flock of rampaging puffballs bearing down on them and relieving them of their delicious guts.

King called upon fellow Kiwi Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop to bring the bloodthirsty ovines and their mutated human victims to non-CGI life, and the influence of Jackson's earlier films ("Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive") is apparent in the way the monsters stay just to the left of realistic, allowing them to be both scary and comical at once. Sure, the sheep look a little fearsome with brains caked on their fuzzy muzzles, but they're still sheep. Much manipulative mileage is derived from this future cult flick's moody lighting, tense music, and some especially yucky sound mixing.

The cast of "Black Sheep" is rather forgettable, to be honest, with Peter Feeney as Angus standing out simply because of his disturbingly square-jawed merger of B-movie king Bruce Campbell and the Powerpuff Girls' dad. Feeney also earns glory for his willingness to go really low, as evidenced by a priceless cutaway showcasing that après-bestiality glow as well as a hand-over-the-mouth shot in which Angus proves my opening hypothesis beyond any doubt.

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Mélanie is a solemn, single-minded young lady, intent on becoming a great musician. But when the careless indifference of famous pianist Ariane ruins her concentration during a crucial audition, Mélanie's new focus becomes revenge. Fast-forward a number of years to when Mélanie is interning at a law firm and ingratiating herself with one of the partners, and it's not hard to guess to whom he might be married. Denis Dercourt's elegantly suspenseful "The Page Turner" evokes Chabrol and Hitchcock as he illustrates Mélanie's meticulous preparation of a dish best served cold.

An American film might find lovely, cool Mélanie (Déborah François, "L'Enfant") seducing husband Jean (Pascal Greggory, "Gabrielle"), but her target has always been Ariane (Catherine Frot). So Mélanie goes about her reckoning in a most thorough way, earning Ariane's trust and causing Ariane to become increasingly reliant on her, both at home and on the concert stage. And just when it appears that Mélanie may be softening toward this seemingly kind woman - perhaps even falling for her? - a flash of Mélanie's dead eyes or contemptuous smile ices your backbone. Or perhaps it was the businesslike way in which Mélanie drove the endpin of a cello into the foot of Ariane's lecherous colleague. Yeah, that's probably what did it.

"Black Sheep"(NR), written and directed by Jonathan King, opens Friday, July 20, at Little Theatres | "The Page Turner" (NR), directed by Denis Dercourt, screens at the George Eastman House's Dryden Theatre on Saturday, July 21, 8 p.m., and Sunday, July 22, 7 p.m.