DANGEROUS ANIMALS Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Sean Byrne
Stars: Jai Courtney, Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke.
Many reviewers have called this Australian made thriller the best shark movie since Jaws. It’s easy to see why. This film taps into our innate fear of these alpha predators of the sea. But Dangerous Animals also serves up a rather unique twist on the serial killer genre.
Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney) runs a charter boat operation on Queensland’s Gold Coast with his “swimming with the sharks experience”. He takes tourists out to sea and allows them to enter a shark proof cage which he lowers into the water where they can observe these predators of the deep up close. But Tucker is also a twisted serial killer who preys on tourists, terrorising them before feeding them to the sharks for his own perverse pleasure. He records their deaths on his video camera, which he then adds to his extensive collection of snuff videos stored in a cupboard. We first witness his sick sideline when he takes a Canadian tourist and British backpacker Heather (Ella Newton) for a trip. He stabs the Canadian and locks Ella up in a cabin.
We next meet Zephyr (Hassie Harrison, from Yellowstone, etc), a free-spirited American drifter with a love for surfing. She is travelling through the local beaches. She meets hunky local real estate agent Moses (Josh Heuston, from Heartbreak High, etc) when he approaches her asking for some jumper leads to jumpstart his car. This leads to a one-night stand. But then Zephyr sneaks away early in the morning hoping to catch the first waves of the day. She runs afoul of Tucker in a beach car park when he abducts her. She wakes up handcuffed to a dingy bed in a cabin on Tucker’s boat in a cabin she shares with Heather.
Thus begins a harrowing battle for survival as Zephyr finds herself trapped on the boat. She tries to help Heather escape and also avoid becoming Tucker’s next victim. She is feisty, resourceful and fights back. Meanwhile the lovelorn Moses goes looking for Zephyr and eventually arrives on Tucker’s boat.
Dangerous Animals is the first feature script from Nick Lepard. It is simple and straightforward, but director Sean Byrne (The Loved One, etc) milks it for all it’s worth. He knows how to deliver some visceral thrills. He ratchets up the claustrophobic tension and even includes a couple of nicely timed jump scares during the cat and mouse game between Tucker and Zephyr.
This marks Byrne’s first film in ten years, but it is arguably his best one to date. This was also something of a grueling shoot as most of the action is confined to Tucker’s boat while at sea. There are a couple of gory moments here with scenes featuring sharks and dismembered bodies. There are also some gory special effects and good make-up and prosthetic effects from the design team.
The film has been nicely shot by cinematographer Shelley Farthing-Dawe (Transfusion, etc) who captures some great vistas of the open ocean. Byrne uses real footage of sharks where possible.
Courtney is over the top and chews the scenery as the psychotic and scary Tucker. He initially comes across as a typical Aussie larrikin until we learn about his dark nature. He has a physically intimidating presence and unsettling here. Harrison brings a feisty quality to her performance and acquits herself well with the physical role. Heuston is likeable as Moses, an essentially decent young man. Rob Carlton, best known for his comedic roles, brings a touch of edgy humour and a slightly sleazy quality to his role as Tucker’s neighbour at the boat yard.
Dangerous Animals also contains a fantastic soundtrack of classic Australian rock songs, including Stevie Wright’s epic Evie and Russell Morris’ The Real Thing that had me tapping the arm rests of my cinema seat.
★★★★
