Man proves to be the world’s most dangerous animal in the latest thriller from The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy director Sean Byrne. One man specifically: Bruce Tucker, played by former Captain Boomerang Jai Courtney. Childhood shark bite survivor Tucker has a fetish for two things in life – feeding women to sharks, and VHS technology.
American beach bum Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) falls into Tucker’s clutches while chasing waves at a remote Australian beach. Bundled onto his boat, she meets UK kidnap victim and eventual chum Heather (Ella Newton), who became his captive during a shark dive gone wrong. Clambering aboard his boat during the film’s opening sequence, Heather sees Tuck’s bloodthirst firsthand, as he casually dumps the man she just met into the sharks’ feeding ground… and then rings the dinner bell.
What follows is a desperate fight for survival as Zephyr and Heather attempt to escape Tucker’s dungeon before he can turn them into shark bait. Between its genial Australian serial killer and his niche obsessions, Dangerous Animals is like Wolf Creek by way of Death Proof. Byrne’s oft-revisited theme of a terrified captive (last seen in Devil’s Candy) attempting to escape a demented kidnapper once again rears its head. There’s at least one thwarted escape attempt too many, but Harrison’s plucky survivor at least sets Dangerous Animals apart from the great swathes of horror films about kidnapped and abused women out there.
Alternating between shocking violence and charming comedy (employing the best use of Baby Shark in a film since Pinkfong), Dangerous Animals is a smart and creative version of the serial killer thriller, featuring lush cinematography and vibrant performances. It’s also refreshing to see a shark film in which the shark isn’t necessarily the bad guy. That’s all man – and what a man. In Bruce Tucker, Jai Courtney delivers the performance of his career, joining Harrison’s Zephyr as 2025’s best villain and final girl, respectively.
Letting the side down is lovelorn Moses (Josh Heuston), who grows obsessed with finding Zephyr after a one-night stand in her van. Convinced that there’s more at play than mere ghosting, Moses launches a dogged campaign of stalking which would be seen as creepy if he weren’t essentially right. There’s nothing wrong with Heuston’s performance, but it feels unnecessary in a film with such a tenacious and spirited leading lady. It also serves to dilute the evenly matched battle of wits between Tucker and Zephyr. Its final act is appropriately bloody and exciting, but there’s no hiding the sinking feeling that Dangerous Animals could have harnessed its more bonkers side to deliver something nastier and altogether stranger.
In denying its more primal instincts, the film charts a more conventional course, jettisoning the Ozploitation energy it briefly possessed. Ah, well, we’ll always have The Surfer.
DANGEROUS ANIMALS is out in UK cinemas from June 6th, 2025.
