Film Review - Dangerous Animals
Images courtesy of Kismet Movies.
Dangerous Animals has a fascinating backstory. Director Sean Byrne (The Devil’s Candy,The Loved Ones) set out to portray sharks as authentically as possible after shark experts panned movies such as The Shallows for portraying the majestic animals as cold-blooded psychopaths. Most shark attacks occur due to mistaken identity, and the real cold-blooded psychopath in Dangerous Animals is the shark-obsessed Tucker, played by Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad and my personal favourite role of his, Varro in the TV Show Spartacus). Courtney provides an extremely entertaining performance, while simultaneously delivering insights about the misunderstood creatures to his victims before their demise.
Tucker runs a shark-observing business where unwitting tourists are taken out to sea to dive with sharks, only for them to be captured and used as bait for Tucker’s true passion: feeding his tortured subjects to the sharks, and filming their demise on a camcorder. Tucker’s fascination with sharks catalysed from surviving a shark bite to the torso in his youth. Like a shark, Tucker is constantly on the move for new prey and that’s where the ultimate prize comes into his crosshairs, catching a loner surfer named Zephyr (Hassie Harrison). Zephyr is a capable survivor who tries her best to flee Tucker’s clutches, but finds herself trapped in an inescapable position.
One of the most interesting components of the story was the analogy of the serial killer hunting his victims, likened to fishermen catching their prey. The victims in the film are the fish caught on the end of Tucker’s hook and no matter how hard they try to fight, they are ultimately trapped and can’t escape the inevitable. Slowly they are reeled in, and the more they fight, the moreTucker enjoys the chase, and the thrill when the victims are finally caught! Dangerous Animals can be compared toThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) where humans go through the slaughterhouse experience, which many have described to be a critical analysis of the ways that humans produce and consume meat. Dangerous Animals falls a little short of establishing such effective criticism despite some similar plot themes,, primarily because the majority of the film follows the familiar tropes of a slasher flick. This includes some eye-rolling, cringey dialogue, forgetful side-characters, and an uninspired, cliché love-interest side plot between the two main victims.
Despite its pitfalls, Dangerous Animals still manages to thoroughly entertain for its full duration - particularly for any viewers who share an interest in sharks, though perhaps not quite as much as Tucker. This is definitely a slasher, creature-feature flick that is worth checking out. At the very least you might learn a thing or two about these creatures of the deep!
Follow Tyler on Instagram and Letterboxd.
Dangerous Animals is screening in select cinemas now. For tickets and more info, click here.