“Dangerous Animals,” the new horror film out of Australia, starts with a cheekily fun cold open. A pair of tourists decide they want to swim with sharks (bad idea, right off the bat) so they seek out a sketchy looking attraction run by Tucker, a boisterously bearded Jai Courtney.
Director Sean Byrne has a blast playing around with Tucker’s deceptive good nature, using quick cuts to up the tension. To calm down one of his nervous customers this intensely jolly boat captain launches into a rendition of “Baby Shark.”
But quickly you discover that despite the sing-along Tucker has no redeeming qualities, and as the movie digs into his dark side it becomes a repetitive throwback torture porn that lurches toward an inevitable conclusion. Tucker, a serial killer, has a creative way of killing his victims, but that’s about as clever as the film gets.
One of the reasons “Dangerous Animals” feels so stale is that after that fun little intro, it turns its attention away from Tucker and Courtney’s gonzo performance. Instead, Byrne introduces us to our heroine, the hilariously named Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) an American surfer, who is a proud loner. After stealing a pint of ice cream from a gas station she meets the cute realtor Moses (Josh Heuston). He needs a jump for his car. She’s reluctant to help out anyone, even a hunk, but they bond over a mutual affection for Creedence Clearwater Revival.
They have sex in her van, but in the morning while he’s making pancakes she’s off to catch the next wave. It’s an unfortunate decision because while she’s getting her board ready, Tucker is lying in wait to kidnap her. He transports her to the underbelly of his boat where he handcuffs her to the bed alongside the prettily naive tourist (Ella Newton) from that initial excursion.
So what does Tucker plan to do with these ladies? Well, let’s just say our guy has something of a shark fetish. He uses these hot babes as bait, dangling them above the open water while he lures sharks in with chum. Then he films their deaths on a DVR camera and lovingly adorns the resulting tapes with locks of the dead girls’ hair.
Why does Tucker do this? There’s a vague backstory involving his own brush with a shark at a young age, but nothing that convinces you it’s worth women in peril for just over 90 minutes. Tucker is just a misogynist, and even though it’s not a spoiler to say he ultimately gets what’s coming to him, it’s still exhausting to watch him enact his twisted schemes.
That’s a shame because Courtney, best known for failed franchise entries including “Terminator Genisys,” is having a great time here. Slotted into American blockbusters like “Divergent” and “Suicide Squad,” he has been an unremarkable presence, but there’s a wildman character actor lingering under his bulk, and he thrives when being asked to smile maniacally or dance around drunkenly.
Despite the fact that Tucker is a murderous villain, he’s much more fun to watch than Zephyr, who is framed as a rote badass lady with a mysterious past. Like Tucker, she also gets shades of a history that do little to deepen her character. She’s a foster kid who fled to Australia because the ocean is the only place where she’s felt at home. Although Moses is immediately enamored with her cool girl vibes, she’s resistant to letting anyone get too close.
Harrison confidently adopts the take-no-prisoners physicality that makes Zephyr a worthy foe for Tucker, but her line readings are bland, doing nothing to enliven the basic script by Nick Lepard. And every time it seems like she might have figured a way out of her conundrum, Tucker appears out of nowhere like a maritime Michael Myers to set her back.
“Dangerous Animals” has a retro nastiness to it. Occasionally, it’s pleasingly gross. (Zephyr finds a gruesome way out of her handcuffs.) Mostly, however, it just feels passé to be subject to Tucker’s hatred of women, especially since there’s no great reason his animosity is directed to that gender over any other. It’s not like he’s kind to the men that fall into his trap, he just apparently doesn’t get the same pleasure out of turning them into shark food. Zephyr’s girlboss attitude doesn’t offset any of the sadism.
In the daytime sequences, Byrne ups the ante by highlighting the sun soaked landscape, the bright orange of Tucker’s vessel pairing vibrantly with the blues that surrounds it. But too much of the action is confined to Zephyr’s dingy prison that looks like something out of “Saw.” And when the sharks do get involved they are so obviously CGI the terror is thin.
Speaking of those sharks: Much of Tucker’s motivation can be found in his monologuing about the hierarchy of the ocean. Still, one can’t help but feel that these creatures might just want to be left alone instead of roped into his games. Just like there’s something cruel about the way “Dangerous Animals” treats women, there’s also something thoughtless about the way it deploys its undersea threats. Sure, they’re not ultimately the bad guys, but haven’t they suffered enough bad press over the years?
Grade: C
“Dangerous Animals” had its world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight during the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. IFC and Shudder release the film in the U.S. on June 6.
Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers.
