Directed by Sean Byrne and written by Nick Lepard, when Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. Starring: Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke and Rob Carlton.
Dangerous Animals comes right out of the gate hitting the classic horror elements, death and sex. The way that it throws the audience a nice bit of violence then quickly transitions to picturesque beach scenes topped by The Donnas’ cover of Dancing with Myself is a great sign of a horror flick that just wants to have fun. For the most part, that’s true, Sean Byrne strikes a tone that never takes itself too seriously. Especially as Nick Lepard’s story turns the usual shark adventure on its head to reflect reality, that sharks have a bad reputation but it’s humans who are the real monsters.
It’s a fantastic change of pace, playing with how fear can be self-inflicted or based off of propaganda, rather than pure fact and giving sharks the benefit of the doubt. It still very much makes the most of their strength and ferocity to inject that suspense but squarely frames Jai Courtney’s Tucker as the villain here. Courtney was a great choice, he brings that twisted, punishing and soulless personality to life with such a casual, almost charming tone, that he’s a lot of fun to watch. It feels like a run-off of the classic redneck, cannibal horror antagonists, mins the eating people and adding in some sharp nosed friends.
Tucker meets his match in Hassie Harrison’s Zephyr, she hits a few more classic horror points, loner, traumatic past, trust issues and a survivor. Ticking all the right boxes for a final girl and Harrison gives a strong performance, she’s really enjoyable to watch, effortless to root for and genuinely believable that she could fight back and be resourceful, not always a given in horror. Whereas Josh Heuston’s Moses ruins the balance, he brings a softness and sentimental which has little place in this type of film. It changes the atmosphere from killer to romcom, inspiring more rolled eyes than shock or thrill.
That’s really Dangerous Animals’ biggest weakness, the rest of the film knows what it wants, it’s good old fashioned, violent fun but once Moses is in the mix, it gets lost. There are moments which should be fearful, contemplating potential death at the hands of a maniac and instead he inserts a cutesy touch. It’s entirely at odds with what it’s trying to achieve and feels like a wrong choice. The CGI can also have its weak moments, particularly in one key scene but it’s passable. The score is intensely melodramatic but that feels appropriate and almost in homage to shark-infested cinema of the past.
Dangerous Animals flips the script on shark themed horror, making them pawns in a twisted game and giving the title of monster back to the humans. It makes a lot of good choices to focus on creating a piece of entertainment, to have fun with it and balance the violence with never taking itself too seriously. It works really well, until you add the overwhelmingly cheesy character of Moses who ruins the vibe, although that’s no fault of Heuston’s performance. It’s such a shame to see the film fall prey to sentimentality and add in too much of a romance element, had they kept the focus on Zephyr instead, this would have been better. Regardless, Sean Byrne clearly has a talent for horror and hopefully he keeps his streak going.
FilmCarnage.com 