Dangerous animals

In a genre overrun by finned ferocity and B-movie predictability, Dangerous Animals navigates murky waters with brutal elegance, unbridled energy, and character study that reads like a bloody meditation on isolation and obsession. Directed by Sean Byrne, who makes a striking comeback ten years after The Devil's Candy, this film blends shark horror and serial killer thriller to create something far more disturbing than the sum of its parts. While the concept alone—a maniac who uses sharks to murder his victims—could have sunk into its own absurdity, Sean Byrne navigates this murky territory with just the right amount of skill, intelligence, and savagery to make it a film that stands out in its genre. Carried by a career-defining performance from Jai Courtney and resilient acting from Hassie Harrison, Dangerous Animals challenges you to laugh, scream, and squirm, often in the same scene.

From the opening minutes, Sean Byrne doesn't mince words and sets the tone for a joyful menace when Bruce Tucker, played by Jai Courtney, lures two unsuspecting tourists aboard his shark cage diving boat, the Tucker's Experience. In a twisted masterstroke, he makes them sing Baby Shark before revealing his true nature in a bloody bloodbath before the credits roll, which serves as both a statement of intent and a mischievous trap: sharks may be dangerous, but the real ultimate predator here is man. Tucker's character is a deranged cocktail of Australian charm, childhood trauma, and shark-worshipping madness. Jai Courtney, long miscast in square-jawed franchise roles, delivers a performance that is both deranged and magnetic: he dances drunk in his underwear to 70s rock, coos disturbing monologues about the animal hierarchy, and casually films the last moments of a woman who is about to be eaten by sharks. There is a specific death behind his eyes that makes Tucker's pathology far more convincing than any overwritten origin story.

To counterbalance this chaos, Hassie Harrison plays Zephyr, a drifting surfer who lives in her van and roams Australia like a ghost in search of waves and fleeing intimacy. Known for her television roles, Harrison delivers a physical and emotional performance that elevates what could have been a stereotypical final girl archetype. When she wakes up chained in the hull of Tucker's boat, the real game of cat and mouse begins. Hassie Harrison imbues Zephyr with a raw, animalistic survival instinct that makes every attempt at escape feel desperate and deserved. Her relationship with Tucker is fascinating: neither romantic nor sympathetic, but an intense clash between two philosophies. Tucker sees sharks as spiritually pure creatures, free from human weakness, and tries to impose this twisted belief on Zephyr. She resists, not only physically but also intellectually, questioning his delusions while seizing every opportunity to turn the tables. It is in this tension between the two characters that Nick Lepard's script finds unexpected depth. While the film flirts with camp, it never loses sight of the horror.

 Tucker's murders are not only grotesque, they are ritualistic. He films them on VHS, labels each tape, keeps strands of hair as macabre trophies, and dines to the sound of the sordid images. In one particularly revolting scene, he plunges a captive woman into the sea while whispering “action,” thus transforming murder into cinema. The commentary is not subtle: Tucker is both a filmmaker and a predator, staging a spectacle for himself and, implicitly, for us. Byrne uses this metatext to denounce the audience's complicity in horrific voyeurism, implicating us in our desire to see blood and sharks in a breathtaking scream.

Visually, Dangerous Animals stands out for its claustrophobic staging and maritime atmosphere. Director of photography Shelley Farthing-Dawe captures both the dazzling serenity of the open sea and the nightmarish rust and grime of Tucker's boat. The sharks themselves, captured using a mix of real footage and minimalist special effects, are mostly hidden, a technique that draws inspiration from the best of Jaws and amplifies fear through suggestion rather than overexposure. Editor Kasra Rassoulzadegan maintains a steady pace, even if the film occasionally threatens to become repetitive in its middle section as Zephyr's escapes and recaptures pile up. Nevertheless, each encounter reveals something new—about Zephyr's resourcefulness or Tucker's growing madness—and maintains a constant tension that rarely lets up.

The supporting cast does their job effectively. Moses, played by Josh Heuston, is a wide-eyed romantic who is presented with just enough charm to be believable, and who brings a touch of humanity to the film. His romantic idealism and love of Creedence Clearwater Revival add a gentle, if somewhat timid, emotional touch to Zephyr's ordeal. Ella Newton, as Heather, another of Tucker's terrified captives, makes the stakes painfully real with her vacant stare and deep fear. And yet, ultimately, this is a duet. It's the chemistry—or anti-chemistry—between Jai Courtney and Hassie Harrison that fuels the film's most captivating moments. Their fight is more than just a battle of strength; it's a war of ideologies, of wills, of survival against extinction.

If Dangerous Animals falters, it's in its third act, which is a little too long, where the need to wrap things up undermines some of the tension. There are one or two too many false twists, and a few moments that stretch credibility, even in the exaggerated logic of genre cinema. But Sean Byrne's direction always knows where to land its blows, and when the final shark finally bites, the reward feels deserved, not gratuitous. The film's final moments are imbued with poetry, a darkly lyrical coda that reminds us that nature, though indifferent, is far less monstrous than man.

Dangerous Animals is more than just an ambitious horror gimmick. It's a brutal, intelligent, and surprisingly thoughtful film about obsession, trauma, and the monstrous means we employ in our attempts to regain power. Sean Byrne has made his best film yet as a director, refining his Ozploitation roots with a genre-defying edge. And in Jai Courtney, he finds the perfect monster: one who smiles, jokes, and sings “Baby Shark” before throwing you to the real monsters. This is a film that won't just stop you from going swimming, it will make you think twice every time a charming stranger offers you a boat ride. Dangerous Animals is a horror thriller that is a worthy, if disturbed, descendant of Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

Dangerous Animals
Directed by Sean Byrne
Written by Nick Lepard
Produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell, Chris Ferguson, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Starring Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Ella Newton
Director of photography: Shelley Farthing-Dawe
Editing: Kasra Rassoulzadegan
Music: Michael Yezerski
Production companies: Brouhaha Entertainment, LD Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment, Range Media Partners
Distributed by IFC Films / Shudder (United States), The Joker Films (France)
Release date: May 17, 2025 (Cannes), June 6, 2025 (United States), July 23, 2025 (France)
Running time: 98 minutes

Seen on June 21, 2025 at the Forum des images

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