Synopsis: When Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.
Stars: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke, Jai Courtney
Director: Sean Byrne
Rated: R
Running Length: 98 minutes
Movie Review in Brief: Dangerous Animals finally gives Jai Courtney a role worthy of his talents as a psychotic cage-dive operator feeding tourists to sharks. Sean Byrne’s nasty little thriller proves the scariest predator is always human.
Review:
Jai Courtney has been waiting his whole career for a role like Tucker. Hollywood kept trying to make him the next big heroic action star that fit into a box, and it never took. Turns out they had him all wrong. In Dangerous Animals, director Sean Byrne hands him a weathered fishing boat, a cage full of sharks, and permission to go full psychopath. Courtney doesn’t just take that permission. He runs with it, dances with it, and does unspeakable things with it.
The setup is mean and simple. Tucker operates out of Australia’s Gold Coast, running cage-dive tours for backpackers dumb enough to climb aboard a sketchy vessel captained by a guy who asks things like “So, nobody knows you’re here, right?” When free-spirited American surfer Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) catches his eye after a fling with local real estate broker Moses (Josh Heuston, Thor: Love and Thunder), she becomes his next offering to the toothy gods circling below. She wakes up handcuffed in a dank cell, names of previous victims scratched into the walls. Moses starts sniffing around when her van gets towed and the cops drag their feet.
Byrne, who made The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy, knows how to make audiences squirm. He filmed this thing on actual open water instead of faking it in a tank, and you can feel the difference. The boat creaks. The salt air hangs heavy. Shelley Farthing-Dawe‘s cinematography captures the raw beauty of the Australian coast before flipping it into something claustrophobic and hellish. Michael Yezerski‘s score pulses underneath without ever overselling the dread.
But the real attraction here is Courtney. There’s a scene where Tucker gets drunk, strips down, and dances to “Evie” while screams echo from below deck. It’s Buffalo Bill by way of Crocodile Dundee, and it belongs in the midnight movie hall of fame. He’s having the time of his life playing this monster, and that joy becomes weirdly magnetic. Harrison matches him beat for beat as Zephyr, channeling serious Shailene Woodley energy. She’s not playing a scream queen or a damsel waiting to be saved. Byrne gives her room to be a fighter, and she earns every moment of it.
The sharks themselves are used sparingly, mostly through practical effects and stock footage with a few dodgy CGI shots thrown in. Smart move. The real monster was always going to be human. Nick Lepard‘s script wrings sympathy and sick humor from a lean premise, and the cast commits fully.
It’s not perfect. Some of Zephyr’s escape attempts get repetitive, and a few characters exist purely to become chum. But when the third act kicks in, the film grabs you and doesn’t let go. There’s something almost sad underneath all the nastiness too. Byrne understands that real terror comes from being forgotten, from drowning in isolation long before the sharks ever circle.
For horror fans who’ve grown tired of the same formula, Dangerous Animals delivers something with teeth. It’s not just another shark movie. It’s a character study wrapped in saltwater and blood, and Courtney finally gets to show what he can do when someone lets him off the leash.
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