Director: Sean Byrne
Screenplay: Nick Lepard
Starring: Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Ella Newton
Country: Australia
Running Time: 93 min
Year: 2025
BBFC Certificate: 15
Self-proclaimed loner Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is surfing her way around Australia, that is until she meets shark tour diver Tucker (Jai Courtney). And by “meets”, I should say “is kidnapped by, and wakes up handcuffed to a rail on his boat in the middle of nowhere”.
It should be no surprise at this point that if you want me to be interested in your movie, you gotta put a shark in there, and it seems I’m not alone in this stance. Director Sean Byrne helmed a couple of well-respected and somewhat gnarly horror movies with The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy, but it’s been ten years since his last release. In that time he’s had numerous projects fall through, but something about Nick Lepard’s screenplay, featuring a shark attack survivor turned shark-feeding serial killer, made it stand out enough to secure funding and make it to release, and I think that special something is the sharks.
To be fair, the sharks aren’t a crucial element of the film, and if anything I could’ve done with more shark-related scenes, but you have to factor in that I co-host a shark movie podcast so that’s the case with pretty much every film. The story would even work well enough without them at all, albeit with a little retooling, but just having them present secures a whole cinematic demographic that I’m more than happy to swim in, and allows for some tense and exciting sequences. Some elements of the plot get a little repetitive, but they remain tense enough, and offer plenty of payoff to make them worthwhile. Plus the soundtrack is great too.
Serial killers feeding their victims to animals isn’t necessarily that unique of a premise, but what sets Dangerous Animals apart is the performance from Jai Courtney, who is clearly having a blast here as Tucker. He’s a sizeable unit, using his imposing form and manic energy to dominate every scene, really sinking his teeth into it and giving one of my favourite performances of 2025 so far. The rest of the cast also does a great job filling out what could be fairly stock characters and making them likeable and engaging.
This is definitely best scene with a crowd, there are some incredible moments and the group setting just elevates the experience. Gore-wise this sits between Byrne’s other films, so if you’re concerned about watching The Loved Ones but with more teeth then don’t worry, there’s a respectable amount of blood but not horrific volumes.
It’s a strong recommendation from me, check this out as soon as you can. I cover a lot of shark movies on this site and it’s rare that I get to rave about one this much, but I loved it and I hope you do too!
Dangerous Animals is in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday 6th June.