84% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 132 reviews)
Runtime: 93 minutes
Directed by: Sean Byrne
Starring: Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Hueston, Ella Newton, Rob Carlton
From: A number of different companies
“Jai Courtney was the best part of the film” was not on my 2025 Bingo card of phrases that would be said concerning cinema. I don't have much memory of him in either Honest Thief or Alita: Battle Angel-meaning that he must have been fine-but wow, was that alleged Die Hard film atrocious and nothing he did elevated the heinousness. In addition, this is my first Sean Byrne picture; one day The Loved Ones and/or The Devil's Candy will be tackled; the former has been described as “depraved” so that's a reason the trigger hasn't been pulled yet.
Dangerous Animals has some gross-out moments and the sight of Courtney in his briefs & robe dancing to classic Aussie rock... otherwise this is relatively mainstream, albeit with quite the wacky hook. Jai portrays Tucker, a serial killer—who films his victims w/ a VHS camcorder and murders them via feeding them to sharks! His luck changes when he kidnaps an American living The Van Life named... ZEPHYR. Chuckles were had as while not an impossible name to have, it's still quite rare.
There were some moments that were scoffed at as much of this was Zephyr's repeated attempts to escape captivity on the boat. The sharks thankfully weren't portrayed as evil incarnate and this did have several assets. Courtney was the highlight, although Hassie Harrison and Josh Hueston were both good as Zephyr and her friend Moses. There were tense scenes and the film overall had a decent score along w/ a soundtrack I dug. It was nice to hear old songs I knew and even a few that were unfamiliar to me, such as the aforementioned classic Aussie rock. Shout-out to the blues-rock era of Fleetwood Mac, CCR, and the tune Evie, from Stevie Wright.
It's a movie you might like once it appears on Shudder later in the year. I was happy to support independent cinema along w/ something that is great in the field of “modern shark movies.” I know most of those are direct to TV/streaming/disc atrocities best left avoided.
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