Dangerous Animals (dir. Sean Byrne)

by Jack Martin | Jun 3, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 98 mins

UK Distributor: Vertigo Releasing

UK Release Date: 6 June 2025

WHO’S IN DANGEROUS ANIMALS?

Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Ella Newton, Rob Carlton, James Munn, Michael Goldman, Liam Greinke, Jon Quested

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Sean Byrne (director), Nick Lepard (writer), Chris Ferguson, Brian Kavanagh-Jones, Mickey Liddell, Troy Lum, Andrew Mason and Pete Shilaimon (producers), Michael Yezerski (composer), Shelley Farthing-Dawe (cinematographer), Kasra Rassoulzadegan (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A shark-obsessed serial killer (Courtney) captures a new victim…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON DANGEROUS ANIMALS?

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, a film that not only defined the word “blockbuster” and left several people afraid of the water, particularly the kind with sharks swimming within then, but also took considerable time getting to know and like the humans on the shark’s receiving end. Surprisingly, as of writing there doesn’t appear to be a theatrical re-release of the film on the horizon, which you’d think for an incredibly influential film like Jaws would be the least they could do to celebrate such a milestone. So, for the time being, director Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals is probably going to be the closest we’ll get to experiencing the shark-related terror on the big screen in 2025… but if that’s indeed the case, it’s a pretty neat trade-off.

While of course not quite as sophisticated or as crowd-pleasing as the Spielberg classic, Dangerous Animals is an entirely different beast with grindhouse B-movie thrills galore and a refreshingly straightforward narrative that delivers exactly what it promises, and does so rather well.

Set around the Gold Coast of Australia, we primarily follow Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a young American who’s escaped her troubled life back home to surf the gnarly waves and lead a somewhat bohemian lifestyle in her van. However, she’s soon kidnapped by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a boat captain offering cage-diving experiences for unsuspecting tourists who moonlights as a deranged serial killer. His M.O. involves taking his victims far out into sea and lowering them into shark-infested waters, all while he captures their slow, bloody demise on camera to add to his growing home video collection. Zephyr, of course, has no desire to be the star of his next snuff film, and thus begins a brutal battle for survival as the prey finds herself up against the predator.

The nicest thing to say about this otherwise nasty premise is how direct to the point it is. Dangerous Animals is not the kind of film that throws in unexpected twists at the last minute, nor does it become too packed with details that would have made it far more complicated than it ever needed to be. Instead, director Byrne and screenwriter Nick Lepard keep everything sweet and simple, establishing who is the clear hero and villain, what their motivations or backstories are, and just going from there without becoming too caught up in itself. Sometimes, it’s cool to see a film like this being exactly what you think it will be without being Trojan Horse’d something much deeper or convoluted, and even when the filmmakers do indulge in such things – as you may expect, there are shark-centric monologues galore from Jai Courtney’s psychotic antagonist – they’re executed with enough fiery passion that you’re still clinging onto every word, no matter how blunt or even silly they can be.

It goes without saying that those hoping Dangerous Animals offers more than its typical serial killer/survival movie hybrid template suggests won’t get anything as deep as the ocean we’re constantly surrounded by. However, it makes up for that lack of depth with some darkly twisted mayhem, much of which carries a fine confidence from a director who clearly believes in this simple yet effective premise, and Byrne does not shy away from the sheer brutality that Courtney’s Tucker unleashes, whether it’s suddenly stabbing people in the gut or throat mid-conversation, or – arguably worse – calming someone down by singing the Baby Shark theme.

As you may have already guessed, the actor is having a blast and then some, in a role that allows him to let loose with utterly unhinged energy which you’d expect from this kind of character, but Courtney is so good at being both charismatic and intimidating, either simultaneously or even one right after the other, that he completely grips you in moments where it threatens to become a bit too much of a reach in general logic. This is Jai Courney’s Nicolas Cage moment, where over-the-top is just the beginning for how much he revels in on-screen eccentricity (on the subject of Cage, between this and The Surfer – another recent Oz-set film involving a surfing protagonist – Dangerous Animals is the stronger movie).

He’s matched only by Hassie Harrison, an impressive find who more than fills the final-girl quota but with extra helpings of badassery. Hers is the rare kind of horror movie lead who is not only competent and able to think on her feet in almost inescapable situations, but who also feels like an actual character with just the right amount of hardening background to help the viewer understand why she does some of the things she winds up doing, even before she winds up on this deadly boat trip. She also participates in some of the film’s most wince-worthy moments, one or two of which don’t even involve sharks, and they earn this character, as well as Harrison’s committed performance, an earned place among modern horror cinema’s most gutsy heroes. Plus, any casting agent would be beyond foolish to not put Hassie Harrison in a film where she plays Jennifer Lawrence’s identical twin sister, because the resemblance is uncanny, to say the least.

With strong performances and straightforward storytelling brought to life by equally forthright filmmaking, Dangerous Animals more than gets the job done to satisfactory levels. It’s not that complex, but a film about a serial killer who’s obsessed with sharks shouldn’t have to be, for it knows what it is and does a good job at being that.

In a way, that makes it the real 50th anniversary tribute to Jaws, because it not only showcases the terror of being in the water surrounded by sharks, but it also carries enough humanity for you to actually care about the humans being targeted. An actual re-release would have been nice, though, but Dangerous Animals will certainly suffice.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Dangerous Animals is a simple yet effective serial killer/survival thriller that refreshingly delivers exactly what’s promised with an entertainingly nasty execution, complete with a pair of fun and engaging performances that leave some pretty large bite-marks to rival those of the sharks themselves.