Any right-minded horror buff's hopes would be raised by a story synopsis that begins: "On a vast New Zeland sheep station, a reckless genetic engineering experiment goes horribly wrong...."

Yes, it's that old horror chestnut - scientific mutation. We had a decent shot of it in 28 Days Later but here it's played for laughs with carniverous sheep ripping the throats out of Japanese businessmen.

Henry Oldfield (Meister) is returning to the New Zealand farmstead he quit fifteen years before after his malicious brother Angus (Feeney) played a particularly gory practical joke on him.

Still suffering the effects in the form of a sheep phobia, he's reluctantly headed home to close a lucrative deal signing his share of the farm over to his supercilious bro.

However, while taking a tour with genial farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis), they discover that someone - or something - has developed a taste for human flesh. Yes, it's the dark side of Dolly, a genetically modified sheep with a full-on bloodlust.

It seems that Angus has attempted to tinker with the DNA of his woolly livestock... and a flask containing an foetal lamb has been pinched by animal rights activists only for one of them to meet a sticky end. And the gamboling killer to head for the hills.

Any foreboding about this horror yarn is heightened by the knowledge that it's been written and director by Jonathan King. How did he get out? Thankfully, it's not the gurning paedophile but another JK.

This genuine glimpse of terror safely accounted for gives way to a pretty formulaic comedy-horror lifted by some truly disgusting special effects and a sharp script, also written by Kiwi King.

The best lines go to Experience (Danielle Mason), an eco warrior who probably knits her own yoghurt and recourses to sparking up a geranium-scented candle to lift her spirits (particularly handy when you are lying at the foot of pit awash with infected offal).

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but there's plenty of chuckles and chills along the way as Henry, Tucker and Experience face the threat of a couple of hundred salivating sheep heading towards them teeth bared.

You'll also never look at mint sauce quite the same way again.

Tim Evans