Dangerous Animals is the latest film from Australian horror auteur Sean Byrne, known for gnarly, intense and fun films such as The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy. After a premiere at Cannes film festival that led to a ten minute standing ovation, it released last week in a limited release worldwide. The film follows Zephyr (Yellowstone’s Hassie Harrison), a young American tourist on an indefinite surfing holiday in Australia, as she gets kidnapped by a violent serial killer named Tucker (Suicide Squad’s Jai Courtney), who makes his living operating shark-diving experiences and has a habit of filming young women as he feeds them to sharks. Now, that’s one hell of a premise, and if you’re anything like me, a horror fiend, you’d be on board immediately. If not, this might not be the movie for you. It’s firmly in on the joke and commits wholeheartedly to its premise, fully sincere and surprisingly quite artful without ever sacrificing the sense of nasty, gory fun that keep the film afloat.
The film is directed by Byrne and written by Nick Lepard in his feature film debut (he has another film coming out this year, the mysterious Keeper directed by Osgood Perkins of Longlegs fame.) The film was acquired for international distribution by IFC Films, and is distributed in the United States by Shudder. Byrne had this to say about the making of the film, which shot in the Gold Coast of Australia for two weeks at sea before another two weeks at shore:
It was three o’clock in the morning at an isolated marina with shrill screams cutting through the night, and it did feel genuinely upsetting. That’s what I love about survival films. My favourites are when the protagonist has to truly earn their survival.
You can see this throughout the film, as Zephyr’s fight for survival is a particularly visceral one, featuring some gnarly and intense sequences of gore and a sense of darkness that fits right in with the other films of Byrne’s career. It’s also thankfully a horror movie that makes the most out of it’s characters, utilizing its small cast to great effect and making every character relevant in the story.
On a technical level, I was rather impressed. It would be easy for a film like this to have a cheap, b-movie styling to it but it looks gorgeous throughout. Incredibly well-shot by Shelley Farthing-Dawe, the sequences of daytime, sea-side horror are incredibly memorable and wonderful to look at. The movie comes alive even more during its nighttime sequences, and the first time we see Tucker’s full process will go down as one of the most haunting and well-shot horror sequences of the year for me. It’s well edited as well, with editor Kasra Rassoulzadegan keeping a sense of tension, dread and energy that helped the film’s runtime absolutely fly by. The film knows when to slow down, and spends a good chunk of its first half hour getting us to care about its main character, and to a lesser extent her love interest Moses (Bali 2002′s Josh Heuston). When things get wild and out of hand, you feel as exhausted as the protagonist, and whilst that might be frustrating to some, I think it added to the effectiveness of the movie as well as Byrne’s overall attitude towards making sure her survival feels well-earned. Some of the plot contrivances probably should’ve been polished and thought out more, but ultimately this film isn’t exactly trying to be high art. It knows what it is and commits wholeheartedly to being a gory, fun survival horror film.
The cast in general is pretty consistent. Harrison is fantastic as the lead, incredibly charismatic with a good understanding of how to make even the cheesy moments work whilst still coming off well. She conveys the terror of the situation well, as well as Zephyr’s anti-social tendencies and intelligence, and it’s a great showing for what is effectively her first lead performance. Heuston is a bit weaker, partially because his character spends most of the movie following breadcrumbs as he attempts to find Zephyr; their romance is unfortunately, the weakest part of the movie, climaxing in a groan-inducing moment towards the end of the film that was the only time I wasn’t really on board with it. Ella Newton plays Heather, a British tourist and another one of Tucker’s victims, and is fantastic. Her death is incredibly haunting, as mentioned earlier, and she conveys the sheer terror of dying slowly, bleeding out from dozens of shark bites. The two other primary cast members, Liam Greinke and Rob Carlton, are okay, but don’t make too much of an impression outside of gnarly deaths.
Jai Courtney gives the performance of his career as Tucker. Horror tends to bring out the best in character actors, and Courtney delivers wholesale. His hulking, imposing presence is balanced out by Tucker’s eccentric, often comical demeanor, which completely changes whenever he’s in the midst of his murderous routine. It’s a truly great bit of acting, and Courtney chews the scenery mercilessly, completing the movie. It would not work without him, quite frankly, as he puts his all into it. There’s a particularly memorable dance sequence, as all good campy horror movies should have, but I thought the best Courtney gets is later in the movie, when things start to get a little haywire and his ideology is getting challenged. He believes so firmly in his own philosophy that any challenge to it undercuts his very being, and it’s brilliant to watch. Courtney had this to say about the role:
He’s not twisting his moustache going ‘Let me create chaos.’ He actually believes in his crusade and his role in the order of things.
Dangerous Animals doesn’t necessarily focus on its themes too heavily, but they are there. In a time where right-wing ‘alpha’ male politics run rampant and actively harm so many people around the world, this film knocks that down a peg, by showing some of the weakness and cowardice underpinning those ideologies. Tucker might be a ‘strong’ man, but he’s a scared kid at his core, trying to reclaim his sense of control and power by exerting violence over those who are weaker than him and unable to stop him. I particularly enjoyed seeing Courtney’s performance shift gears as Tucker’s routine and process is interrupted, a great character detail that made him feel all the more real and believable as an antagonist. Zephyr, in contrast, is someone who is genuinely strong, even if she is physically weak, and outsmarts Tucker by preying on his vulnerabilities and his ignorance. It’s not necessarily new thematic territory, but it felt rather timely, and helps differentiate the film from other mean-spirited, gory b-movies that indulge all too heavily in the suffering of women rendered powerless. Byrne and company have no interest in doing that here, and show the sad, crushing reality of Tucker’s sadism, leaving Zephyr with permanent physical and psychological damage. There’s also tons of shark-on-human violence! It’s a film that’s saying something without ever taking itself too seriously. Don’t worry, fellow Shark enthusiasts. The film goes out of its way to portray Sharks in a good light, and not as some sort of antagonistic, monstrous beings. There are some beautifully shot underwater sequences showing the glory and beauty of sharks, which I loved.
Overall, Dangerous Animals knows exactly what it is and benefits for it. By smashing together an oceanic horror film and a serial killer story, it reinterprets some of the tropes associated with both genres and creates a unique story for itself that’s easy to find yourself invested in. It’s got blood and gore to spare, and is consistently entertaining throughout, with a surprisingly artful sense of direction and style that elevates the material without sacrificing it’s enjoyability. Jai Courtney delivers the best performance of his entire career, a stand-out horror performance in a year already filled with so many actors doing incredible work in the genre. Sean Byrne’s latest is much like his previous films; if you’re into it, you’ll absolutely love it, but if not, that’s okay too. If you sink your teeth into it, you’ll find a delightful and exciting little horror film that’s not quite like anything I’ve seen, as well as a rip-roaring good time at the movies.
