The killer shark movie has been swimming in circles for quite a while now as endless movies (usually straight to streaming) from all around the world have given us rather bland entries that’s seen thinly sketched characters trapped under the water (usually in a wreck, or a cave) trying to survive as they share valuable real estate with earth’s coolest predator. In fact, the only finned fear flick I can think of off the top of my head that was any fun was Netflix’s Under Paris that started as a generic chomper and then went full batshit at the end.
Someone who seems to recognise this dip in quality is Tasmanian director, Sean Byrne, a filmmaker who knows a bit about turning people into prey thanks to his 2009 debut, The Loved Ones. Can he give the floundering genre the shot in the dorsel it needs by adding a liberal dose of that other, overused, horror/thriller trope – the serial killer movie? It’s Jaws meets Wolf Creek and it’s here to turn the tide.
Meet Tucker. He seems like an amicable sort of bloke who, in his day to day job or running tourist excursions to go cage diving with sharks, is super friendly, undoubtedly charming and knows a hell of a lot about the sleek, gilled predators of the sea. However, Tucker has something of an unnerving habit in that every so often, he’ll take a much needed holiday from tourist’s questions, kidnap a couple of women and sail out to sea from Australia’s Gold Coast to engage in a ritualistic act that has him recording their final moments as he feeds them to any shark that comes a-sniffing.
Into his hunting ground wanders Zephyr, a surfer who finds her desire for a reclusive freedom challenged by a chance meeting with the charming Moses, a real estate agent who shares many of her loves and interests. However, after spending the night together, Zephyr finds herself ducking out to surf alone which is how she finds herself in the cross hairs of Tucker who is scanning for prospective victims. Waking up in the bowels of his ship and finding herself chained to a bed, Zephyr finds that she potentially shares a violent fate with Heather, another young woman who also has had the misfortune to be collected by the sea faring lunatic and as the two try to find ways to escape their fate, their captor works himself up for the main event of the night.
The ritual the shark worshiping serial killer has laid out is fairly complex and requires winches, a witness and VHS camcorder to fully make the most of the gruesome act, and if Zephyr doesn’t channel some final girl energy soon, she’ll be doomed to sleep with the fishes for real. Soon, the sharks are join with a little cat and mouse action as the surfer resorts to some extreme methods to avoid becoming a late night snack, but while Moses is doing the best he can to locate her, Tucker is eagerly ringing the dinner bell.
While it may sound counterintuitive at first, Sean Byrne plan to make shark movies cool again is to restrict the amount of screen time the graceful killers actually have and instead make them the weapon of choice for its central serial killer who seems to be the bastard love child of Buffalo Bill and Bartholomew Quint (yes, that’s really his first name) who looks an awful lot like a gleefully unhinge Jai Courtney. It’s a bold move, but the decision to let Courtney chew more scenery than the sharks chew flesh turns out to be the missing ingredient that makes Dangerous Animals so much fun and it even proves to be something of an entertaining calling card for its lead who’s been struggling to find his niche for far too long. Laden initially as something of a second coming for action heroes, Courtney earlier roles as John McClane’s son and a replacement Kyle Reese in the fifth Die Hard and Terminator respectively made me kind of hate the guy; but after Suicide Squad proved that the actor has a knack for playing unmitigated scumbags, the role of a toxic slayer of women seems to be the perfect role for him.
Strutting around the place with the exagerated confidence of an Australian Connor McGregor and prone to triumphantly dancing solo in his underpants and a bath robe, but his performance may be darkly fun, but all the eyebugging and posturing never backstrokes into parody. It’s a shame that his prospective victims aren’t quite so memorable as even though Hassie Harrison’s determined Zephyr carries all the grit and guile necessary to carry her through all the brutal indignities the movie foists upon her, she’s less a three dimensional character and more a walking, talking series of genre tropes empowered to try and kick some ass in the final reel. Likewise, Josh Heuston’s Moses is fairly inspid too as he and Zephyr seemingly fall in love after a single night of sex, discussing the validity of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Ooby Dooby and waxing lyrical on a bread roll diet – but they’re likable enough and Byrne makes their potential fate nasty enough to have you rooting for them in order to see Tucker meet the justice he’s so furiously deserves.
For the most part, Dangerous Animals is content to play the standard, edgy, thriller game that contains enough quirks and twitches to keep you interested, however it’s in its final third that the movie truly comes alive as string of Hitchcockian coincidences and hurdles means that even the villain of piece is constantly being kept off balance by the continuous turns of events – but once we head out to sea in the final stretch, it truly bares it’s teeth. The initial lack of sharks mean that when they show up, it’s a big deal and the arrival of a Bruce sized Great White manages to pull a trick that’s become exceedingly rare in shark movies as of late: to give the animals a sense of genuine awe. They also royally fuck people up too with one victim in particular being reduced to nothing more that some head and shoulders bobbing on the waves – but not to worry, the humans manage to inflict some damage on one another too in the gangbusters finale. In fact, things get pretty squeamish as blunt force trauma and even self mutilation enters the chat as matters escalate to a messy degree. However, while there’s an argument to be made that there’s a bit too much yo-yoing between being on the boat and getting off the boat and at times Byrne stretches credulity to the point of tearing. However, when you’ve got a majestically unhinged Jai Courtney blazing on all cylinders, you manage to rack up a lot of good will.
If mismanaged, Dangerous Animals probably could have been in danger of becoming Shark Night 3D meets Texas Chainsaw 3D (the 3D is merely coincidence), but thanks to Byrne’s perky direction, the tense moments are genuinely tense, the twisted moments are genuinely twisted and Courtney gives us a lunatic for the ages. While some may debate its claim to be a true killer shark movie due to the restrained use of the toothy fuckers, it hovers majestically at the sweet spot between shark flick and psycho thriller better than any film before it and confidently puts the “great” into Great White.
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