Dangerous Animals ★★★★

Released: 6 June 2025

Director: Sean Byrne

Starring: Jai Courtney, Hassie Harrison

Australian genre cinema has never shied away from natural horror: whether it’s spiders, snakes, or good old-fashioned sharks (Bait 3D, anyone?), the land down under is our last stronghold of theatrical animal horror. Combine that with an affinity for outlandish setting combinations (a shark-infested supermarket, a cave full of killer crocs, etc.), and it’s hook, line, and sinker time for genre enthusiasts. That’s precisely how director Sean Byrne traps you with Dangerous Animals: come for the promise of gory sharksploitation, stay for psychotic Jai Courtney and his devilishly entertaining outing as a VHS-fetishist serial killer.

The concept here echoes the 2000s “tourist horror” boom: Tucker (Jai Courtney) gives killer cage diving tours to unsuspecting foreigners looking for a quintessential Aussie adventure. What they don’t know is that the affable guide prefers to use human flesh as chum, filming the fishing process on his VHS camcorder for future viewings. That is, until Tucker finds his match in Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a survivalist surfer he foolishly kidnaps.

To be clear, the prospect of a “Wolf Creek at sea” type slasher is somewhat deceiving, as the film is more interested in a game of wits – you won’t find an abundance of gore or “head on a stick”-levels of gratuitous violence here. Instead, Sean Byrne stages the whole thing in the vein of something like 10 Cloverfield Lane, albeit with a darkly comedic twist befitting of the film’s sun-kissed aesthetic. It’s lean and refreshingly unsophisticated, a killer premise for an exploitation flick that knows exactly the limits of being “in on the joke”.

The reason why this works is largely due to Jai Courtney’s infectious energy. We can talk about character actors all day long, but what he channels here is clearly the role he’d always been looking for: a gruff, hunky, menacing charmer who treasures his camcorder to a rather unhealthy degree. In some ways, he’s the bro-ified version of Mark Duplass’s character from Creep, a self-absorbed dancing maniac whose uncomfortable aura is just as threatening as his actions. When the narrative finally puts Tucker and Zephyr on equal grounds towards the third act, the film’s title starts making even more sense – and Courtney starts chewing the scenery like there’s no tomorrow.

It’s great to see Aussie genre filmmakers thrive in the theatrical space, especially when the on-screen action deserves to be seen with a packed crowd. Byrne is just as confident with his cat-and-mouse chases as he is with the film’s scares, directing the film with a keen eye for fluid motion and spatial awareness. Sure, it’s no 47 Meters Down when it comes to formal flourishes, but there’s a vivid kineticism to the film that renders its 98-minute runtime a breeze. As all hell starts breaking loose for Zephyr, you may find yourself wishing you were in an Open Water situation – after all, unlike men, sharks only run on instinct.