Dangerous Animals
Content Advisory: Kidnapping
An American surfer is kidnapped by a shark-loving serial killer in Dangerous Animals. Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is a loner on a surfing trip in Australia’s Gold Coast. She has a one-night stand with local real estate agent Moses (Josh Heuston), but flees soon afterwards to the ocean. However, on the way, Zephyr is taken by charter boat captain Tucker (Jai Courtney).
Zephyr wakes up cuffed to a bed on board Tucker’s boat, where she finds another young woman named Heather (Ella Newton) in the same situation. It soon turns out that Tucker is a sadistic serial killer who enjoys feeding his victims to sharks for his entertainment. Meanwhile, after seeing her van get towed away, Moses desperately tries to find Zephyr before it is too late.
Dangerous Animals Synopsis
Dangerous Animals is a horror film directed by Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devil’s Candy) starring Jai Courtney (The Suicide Squad) as the sadistic serial killer Tucker. In the film’s opening prologue, Tucker is shown luring in the tourists Heather and Greg (Liam Greinke). However, it isn’t long until this charter going swimming with the sharks turns sinister.
Meanwhile, we are introduced to the protagonist Zephyr, played by Hassie Harrison (Southbound, Yellowstone), who encounters a real estate agent and fellow surfer, Moses, while at a convenience store. This soon turns into a night of romance, though Zephyr soon flees. However, she is soon helped at the side of the road by Tucker, who ends up taking Zephyr, intending her to be his next victim.
My Thoughts on Dangerous Animals
Dangerous Animals sees the return of Sean Byrne to the director’s chair after a decade-long hiatus. Byrne first made his mark with 2009’s highly original and darkly humorous The Loved Ones. This was followed in 2015 by the much darker and chilling heavy-metal-infused horror film The Devil’s Candy.
Dangerous Animals is the first film that Sean Byrne has directed that he hasn’t also written, with this film being the debut script from writer Nick Lepard. That is likely one of the reasons that I did not find Dangerous Animals to be as engaging as Sean Byrne’s previous two features. The film is trying to come across as a combination of Jaws and Wolf Creek, but apart from an unhinged performance by Jai Courtney, Dangerous Animals feels relatively generic.
Dangerous Animals feels like a horror film that was toned down for mainstream consumption. While Tucker still kills plenty of people, the film is not as gory as you would expect from a film where a serial killer feeds people to sharks. The most graphic moment in the film does not involve sharks at all.
The true saving grace of Dangerous Animals is Jai Courtney’s performance as Tucker. After his early film credits, such as A Good Day to Die Hard and Terminator Genisys, where they tried making Courtney an action star, the Australian actor has found his niche playing unhinged characters. It can be argued that Tucker is the serial killer version of Captain Boomerang from the Suicide Squad films.
Much of the plot of Dangerous Animals is a cat-and-mouse game between Tucker and Hassie Harrison’s Zephyr. This ends up being one of the faults of the film, since it is hard to believe that Zephyr would ever truly be killed by Tucker. This is even true after the film’s many failed escape attempts. The only main character I ever believed to be truly in danger was Josh Heuston’s Moses, particularly since he was a bit of a one-dimensional character to begin with.
Given how much I liked Sean Byrne’s first two films, I have to call Dangerous Animals a bit of a disappointment. Jai Courtney’s serial killer charisma is not enough to stop this from feeling like a generic waterlogged thriller. I hate to say it, but I think Sean Byrne has jumped the shark.
Trailer for Dangerous Animals
