By George & Josh Bate
The logline for Dangerous Animals previews a “rebellious surfer” abducted by a “shark-obsessed serial killer” intent on carrying out a “ritualistic feeding to sharks.” If that doesn’t grab one’s attention, we don’t know what does.
The new thriller from director Sean Byrne exists at the intersection of shark flick and serial killer film, a rare genre blend to say the least. The film stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, an American surfer struggling with a troubled past after immigrating to Australia. Zephyr, who finds herself in an internal prison due to her mental health, soon finds herself in actual captivity when she is kidnapped by an outgoing and insane serial named Tucker (played by Jai Courtney), determined to use Zephyr as part of a feeding ritual to sharks.
At a glance, Dangerous Animals is the kind of high-concept thriller that is destined to entertain. Who wouldn’t want to watch Jaws meets The Silence of the Lambs? Despite its clever premise and committed performances though, director Sean Byrne’s latest struggles to live up to its potential. It certainly offers up some thrills but never gets quite bizarre enough.
Dangerous Animals offers a kind of corrective experience for portrayals of sharks, who have been depicted as vicious, bloodthirsty killers in films The Shallow (much to the dismay of scientists and shark enthusiasts). Byrne, working from a script by Nick Lepard, does not shy away from the potentially brutal outcomes that result from interacting with sharks (for the most part, that is), but the sharks play far more of a background role than one might expect.
The real threat comes from Jai Courtney’s Tucker, an eccentric and strangely charming maniac. Courtney chews up the scenery with a performance unlike anything he has produced to date. The actor known for his roles in Suicide Squad and Terminator Genisys hasn’t always found the right films to showcase his talent, although he finds a role that truly lets him stretch his acting muscles in Dangerous Animals. Courtney portrays Tucker as the kind of stereotypical likable, lively, and charming Australian man seen in a variety of films and easy to envision for anyone who has a cinema-informed conception of what a typical Australian man is like. He wears flip flops, sings, and is always smiling. However, Tucker is also a serial killer. Courtney’s performance is unique in that he leans so heavily into the charming qualities of an archetypal Australian man while portraying a truly deranged character. It’s an odd juxtaposition, and yet one that crafts Courtney’s Tucker into a distinct and memorable antagonist. At times, the threat posed by Tucker becomes disturbingly easy to overlook as his charisma and likability prove so potent. And then, of course, there are scenes where his psychopathy is on full display. A scene in which he dances (inspired by Buffalo Bill’s iconic dance in The Silence of the Lambs) aside, the charm and horror very rarely coexist in perfect harmony in the same frame, meaning you never know what you’re going to get from Tucker.
Across from Courtney’s antagonist is Hassie Harrison’s protagonist Zephyr, a character who compels far less than her villainous counterpart. Zephyr is introduced as someone with a vague troubled past that never really becomes elucidated over the course of the film. She is distant from others, as evidenced by her pulling away from Moses (played by Josh Heuston), a sweet man she meets for a one-night stand, and drops ambiguous hints at a difficult upbringing involving numerous foster parents. Not much more is gleaned of Zephyr, who is admittedly portrayed well by Hassie Harrison given the material at her disposal, but she still manages to be a protagonist who is easy to get behind nonetheless.
Disappointingly, the lack of backstory for Zephyr also hinders Courtney’s Tucker character. A beginning scene that explains how Tucker was attacked by a shark as a child and later scenes that depict his ritualistic shark killings are all we really get to know of Tucker (in addition to his humorous rattling off of shark and fish trivia facts to his victims). The psychological inner-workings of such an intriguing character seem fascinating and yet are frustratingly left unexplored.
Dangerous Animals also moves at a breakneck pace that dampens the impact of the tension and thrills. Once Zephyr is kidnapped by Tucker near the beginning of the film, Byrne opts to keep his film moving the entire time, only seldom slowing down enough to catch one’s breath. Thrillers like this often work best when they balance nail-bitingly intense sequences with stretches of relative quiet, as Spielberg’s Jaws did to perfection. Byrne, however, seems disinterested in letting the movie breathe and, instead, opts to transition Zephyr (and, in turn, the audience) from close call escape attempt to the next until the big finale.
More success is found with the tone that Dangerous Animals strikes. Although there’s a version of the movie that could have played very light and funny, Byrne takes the material more seriously, which raises the stakes and makes the thrills and chills all the more striking. Reverberating throughout the film though is a pulpy, almost B-movie quality. Despite the premise not being taken to its full bizarre potential, there are undeniably funny moments about the film, most of which come from Courtney’s zany performance. Adding to the somewhat over-the-top nature of the film is a piercing, startling score from Kasra Rassoulzadegan that offers a handful of jolts and jump scares throughout.
High-concept thrillers like Dangerous Animals are destined to feature a myriad of narrative implausibilities that are easy to overlook given the tone and nature of the film at hand. Byrne’s film is no exception here as there are a number of head-scratching moments that occur throughout, although none that derail one’s immersion in the plot. That is, until the ending, which features a massive, eye roll-inducing implausibility that feels so silly and takes one completely out of the movie. The fact that the film’s big finale hinges on this moment makes it all the more egregious and demonstrates that, even in high-concept thrillers like this, one still has to retain a sense of reality in order to truly compel.
VERDICT: 6/10
The rare genre blend of shark flick and serial killer thriller, Dangerous Animals features a captivating and bizarre premise that proves more engaging on paper than on screen. Unlike other shark films that perhaps over-dramatize the horror and viciousness of sharks, director Sean Byrne’s film offers a corrective experience that relies on a human character for the bulk of its chills. This character is Tucker, an eccentric and strangely likable serial killer played by Jai Courtney, who chews up the scenery with a performance we’ve never seen from the Australian actor before. Courtney crafts Tucker into a distinct and memorable antagonist due to the odd juxtaposition of his stereotypical, friendly Australian qualities with his penchant for ritualistic shark murders. Proving less engaging, however, is protagonist Zephyr, played by Hassie Harrison. Zephyr, quite like Tucker, lacks any semblance of compelling backstory, but, unlike Courtney with Tucker, doesn’t have the benefit of rich material to work from. A breakneck pace that never gives the film time to breathe has the unintended effect of dampening the thrills and chills at hand, although the darker yet pulpy tone works quite well. Disappointingly, a completely implausible and eye-roll-inducing ending concludes the film on a frustrating note. A synopsis about a shark-obsessed serial killer has all the makings of a bizarre and chilling psychological thriller, a description that doesn’t quite fit the rather mundane Dangerous Animals.