Dangerous Animals
Director: Sean Byrne
Writer: Nick Lepard
Cast: Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke
Part of: SLASH Filmfestival
Seen on: 20.9.2025

Plot:
Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney) give shark diving tours with his boat. And whenever circumstances allow it, he will feed the tourists to the sharks. When he stumbles upon Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) who is heading for a lone surf, he is sure to have found his next victim. But Zephyr has more fight in her than he expects.

Dangerous Animals has a clear message, a love for sharks and great characters and combines these ingredients into a bloody and funny mixture that is sure to entertain you.

Dangerous Animals knows just how to introduce us to its characters, so we have time to get to know and like them before the killing really starts. This is such an essential part of what makes a horror film work, and it is still something a lot of films miss out on, making this particularly special. Also, justice for Heather (Ella Newton), she absolutely broke my heart.

We don’t really care for Tucker in that way, and we are not supposed to, but we do get a good sense of him as a character. Courtney certainly has fun with him, but he is not just a maniac for mania’s sake – he is also charming, and we can understand why he kept getting away with it.

The film overdoes it a little in how many times Zephyr almost gets away. And I also found it very impressive how much both Zephyr and Tucker can handle on a purely physical level. It had something cartoonish that could have bothered me, but I found it more funny in an absurd way. Not as funny as the actual jokes, though – the film has some really good ones.

It is not exactly subtle in its message: sharks really aren’t the dangerous animals of the title. Instead it actually manages to capture the beauty of the sharks in the middle of a lot of bloodshed. It also isn’t subtle about romance: it is a very romantic movie at its core, and I can always appreciate a good romance. There should be something in this mix for everyone.

Summarizing: not your typical shark movie.