FILM REVIEW: "Dangerous Animals" is a refreshingly sharp take on a shark-tale
Dangerous Animals is a surprisingly fresh blockbuster that asks what happens when man, not beast, is the real threat at sea. The film centres Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a young American drifter on the gold coast who lives purely to chase the best swell. After an impulsive night of connection with local surfer Moses (Josh Heuston), she’s kidnapped and taken aboard Tucker’s Experience, a tourist front for a serial killing operation. The magnetic Tucker (Jai Courtney) has a peculiar proclivity for filming his victims’ death-by-shark. As Moses tries to track down Zephyr in the name of their fleeting romance, Dangerous Animals becomes a race against time to save life and love.
Tightly scripted and well-paced, this is a consistent romp which knows when to circle…and when to bite. The film builds steadily throughout, regularly wowing with Tucker’s unhinged malice. Truly, he is the terrifying but lovable heart of the film. Specifically, it is his strange obsession with fitting himself and his victims in a psycho-macho hierarchy of prey and predators that becomes the driving question of Dangerous Animals. As his thesis begins to hold water, audiences get to enjoy the clash of willpower at play between the two leads.
There are very few points throughout that anything felt stilted or unearned – a self-awareness within a horror blockbuster is unprecedented, and very welcome. Dangerous Animals earnestly tries its hardest to give audiences what they paid for and largely delivers.
Under the surface, the film is no traditional shark film. Director Sean Byrne does an exceptional job re-casting the marine predators in a new light through both narrative and cinematography. For Australia, this is an important step away from the Jaws craze that promoted anti-shark stigma. Acknowledging that these animals have little to gain from killing is both thematic and eco-positive. This underlying reframing at no point dilutes what ultimately is an original, colourful, slasher-flick at sea.
If this sounds like your cup of tea, don’t hesitate. Go catch Dangerous Animals on the big screen.
