DANGEROUS ANIMALS (2025)

New in theaters from IFC Films and Shudder!
Directed by Sean Byrne.
Written by Nick Lepard.
Check out the trailer here!!

The free-spirited Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) doesn’t want to be tied down with relationships and heads to Australia to live out of her van and surf. But as she preps for an early morning wave-ride, Zephyr is abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a serial killer who runs a “swim with the sharks” boat tour and uses the abundance of sharks in the middle of the ocean to dispose of his victims. Bound with chains in the hull, Zephyr and another abductee Heather (Ella Newton) are up next to fill Tucker’s and the hungry sharks’ appetite for flesh.

While there is a heavy dose of potent shark action in DANGEORUS ANIMALS, it’s not really a shark movie. Shark movies tend to be man vs nature films where nature’s frustration is personified by a giant, man-eating shark (or sharks) that relentlessly pursues the protagonists acting as if it just cut them off in traffic, despite the fact that in nature, sharks really don’t give a shit. They don’t really get mad. And they never fixate on one person or persons once that party starts to fight back.

In DANGEROUS ANIMALS, the sharks are a means to an end for our serial killer, Tucker. They represent the apex predator and that’s what Tucker believes he is. He’s a giant, bulky, and savage man who takes what he wants with confidence and deadly force. Tucker goes out of his way to explain this to his victims, taking pleasure in inciting fear as much as he does watching them get devoured by sharks. He also recognizes that Zephyr has the same qualities that he does. She’s a loner with very few ties to others yet will fight ruthlessly to survive. The film does a good job of likening Zephyr with the shark, down to a very intense scene where she stares one right in the eye, making a connection with the animal that few could do. I know about this a bit myself as this photo proves I had quite an intense connection with a manatee last time I visited Florida. But how similar Zephyr is to a shark leads to a crucial flaw in the story that I’ll get into a bit later.

DANGEROUS ANIMALS is a brutal movie. It doesn’t shy away from the gore as it shows people being torn to shreds by sharks. At the same time, Jai Courtney adds a vicious physicality to his performance as Tucker, basically tearing apart anything in his path as well. In many ways, this might be considered a slight version of torture porn, as it does feature a bound person being forced to watch physical devastation and enduring that devastation themselves. But the focus here is on the victim, the serial killer, and the sharks much more than that and there’s less of a spotlight on the torture, so those who are turned off by torture porn films have other things to pay attention to.

While he tried his hand with heroic leading man roles in TERMINATOR: GENYSIS, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, and DIVERGENT, Jai Courtney seems to be much more convincing and have much more fun with villainous roles as seen in SUICIDE SQUAD and THE TERMINAL LIST. He is absolutely horrifying in DANGEROUS ANIMALS and I hope this film gets him some more meaty villain roles to play. Whether he is battling rowdy prisoners, fascinated by watching the sharks eat people through his VHS video camera, or dancing like a roided up Buffalo Bill and chugging liquor in his boat galley, Courtney is the toxic masculinity at its absolute best. That’s a compliment, for those who in the cheap seats. There is a sort of message here, as Tucker is very much an abusive male, looking to lord his power over bound and weaker women. And Zephyr herself represents the exact type of woman that thrills and terrifies him, herself digging her nails into his psyche confronting him on his mother issues in one scene. But honestly, that type of divisive man vs. woman talk bores me and thankfully, the film doesn’t lean into it too hardly.

Hassie Harrison is believable at Zephyr, who is in every way, just as much of a shark as Tucker, despite her small stature. This film is an ordeal for her and nothing comes easy. The series of events that plays out is maddening as every attempt to escape is thwarted by Courtney. But the strength of her character is that she endures. Harrison’s also quite beautiful, looking like someone took the prettier parts of both Jennifer Lawrence and Shailene Woodley and smooshed them together into a Kate Beckinsale mold, if you can imagine that. This was a physically demanding role and she did it seemingly with ease.

This leads to the ending which is the only thing I had issue with in DANGEROUS ANIMALS. I’m not going to get into spoilerific specifics here, but the film really drives the point home that Zephyr is even more of a shark than Tucker, even so much that she is able to accomplish the aforementioned, looking into the shark’s eyes scene. But later, the film goes for a more conventional Hollywood ending than committing to the bit that Zephyr is this cold-hearted, loner. Sure the happier ending might show a bit of growth in the character, but I feel that with the fact that this is such a brutal and vicious film, it would have had a more nihilistic sort of end. I feel that the ending that DANGEROUS ANIMALS goes with is a crowd pleaser, but I feel a darker end would have kept closer to the main themes of the film.

That aside, DANGEROUS ANIMALS is a brutal film. Courtney gives a truly iconic performance as a villain worthy of a sequel or maybe even a prequel. Harrison is a true up and comer. And the shark stuff made my toes curl so hard they almost broke. Not for the squeamish, DANGEROUS ANIMALS may not be as intense as Sean Byrne’s previous films THE LOVELY ONES or THE DEVIL’S CANDY, but it is a devastatingly powerhouse of a horror film that bites hard. That’s also meant as a compliment, by the way.

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