Contains spoilers:
A new murder mystery movie, The Sheep Detectives, released on May 8th, 2026, has received astounding reviews, with Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter at a whopping 95%. This murder mystery is like no other, with the plot following along talking sheep as they investigate their shepherd’s murder, and help the policeman uncover who the culprit is. This added an exciting new aspect to a traditional murder mystery, as it added a humorous touch of the sheep working together, navigating the town outside from their meadow. This movie was exciting, humorous, and will keep you intrigued throughout the entirety of the film.
The movie begins with George Hardy, played by Hugh Jackman, writing a letter about his life as a shepherd. This immediately set the scene with a positive light, getting a brief introduction of George, and his sheep. The movie takes place in a fictional English town called Denbrook. This small town has a huge impact on the movie, because it follows the stereotype of everyone knowing each other in a small area. Right away we are introduced to six important characters, who are all seen as suspects. This made the film very easy to understand, as we are introduced to characters who become suspects immediately. After George Hardy is killed, the sheep Lily and Mopple begin to question if his death was really just from a heart attack, and start to work together to uncover the truth. While the sheep are balancing their own investigation and relationships with the rest of their flock, the one policeman in town, Officer Tim Derry, played by Nicholas Braun is learning how to do his job. Tim is clumsy and nervous in his investigation, as the murder was unexpected for being in a small town. The sheep begin to put in effort to work together with him, and bring him books that George used to read to them to help him out. The sheep do many things similar to this throughout the movie to help the humans find the killer. The movie was very clever as to build up suspense on who the killer was. It was fun to put together the pieces while watching yourself, and I was left surprised with the killer in the end.
The sheep play a huge role in the movie’s attempt to send out a message. At the beginning of the movie you are introduced to the idea that sheep do not typically let lambs born in the winter time join their flocks. They make them outsiders, and say that they are not to be trusted. Later on in the film Lily and Mopple develop a relationship with Sebastian, the sheep that George brought to his meadow not bonded previously with the floke. Sebastian is a very independent sheep, and would often venture out into town on his own and not stay with the other sheep. During the time of Lily investigating George’s murder, Sebastian helps Lily, and gives her a new perspective to the reality of Sebastian’s life, and eventually finds out he himself was also a winter sheep, when he stands up for the baby winter lamb. Sebastian ends up dying protecting Lily and Mopple from the dogs, and after this Lily starts to do things in his honor, like including the baby winter lamb in their flock instead of leaving it out.
This movie was super original, and unlike any other murder mystery I have watched before with the role of the sheep, but lacked strong acting. While the characters were funny and interesting, there were multiple moments where the characters showed little emotion in times where it was needed. The daughter of George Hardy, Rebecca Hamstead played by Molly Gordon, was a character that had many moments involving emotion. For example, when she is first arrested by Officer Tim, while it was meant to show disappointment of the arrest, Rebecca showed little real sadness from her arrest, which made the moment hard to watch.
Contrary to the sheep’s unique investigative role in the movie, the murder mystery storyline is fairly typical. A big part as to why the sheep become investigators in the film, was George’s role of reading them murder mystery books. This was a habit George did for the sheep every night, educating them on the important parts of a murder. This is the reason why the sheep become investigators in George’s murder. The sheep have many humorous moments throughout the movie like, crossing the street for the first time, or bashing into cars in town. It connects back to typical sheep behavior, but contributes to making it a more family friendly murder mystery. This makes the movie have a lot more of a positive light following the storyline, instead of a mysterious murder movie.
Additionally, the storyline is unpredictable and clever. The movie sneaks in multiple subtle clues that lead you to the killer. I myself would say these are very sneaky clues, because I was unable to realize their importance to the killer until the end of the film, where Officer Tim reveals the killer. I also really enjoyed the dynamic between the sheep and humans in town. The movie would switch between perspectives of the sheep and the townspeople doing their investigation separately. One of my favorite moments was towards the end of the movie when Lily and Mopple finally find out who the killer was, they brought the baby lamb George to the police station with paint to paint a picture on the floor with hints for Officer Tim, to help him realize he had the wrong killer.
This movie is perfect for all ages because of its humor and character development. It is a very light hearted and unique movie, in which you will walk out feeling like a new murder detective.
