It’s officially summer movie season, and what better time to release a film about a serial killer that feeds his victims to sharks and videotapes it so he can relive the moment over and over again on VHS? That is pretty much the hook for the new thriller being released by Shudder, and I’m all-in for it. I’m a sucker for shark films. Good or bad, I can’t help myself; I have to watch it. But Dangerous Animals is more than just a guilty pleasure; it’s the kind of summer fun I crave to see on the big screen, and this film didn’t disappoint, so grab your snorkel and let’s dive in and discuss the movie I feel audiences are going to sleep on simply because of a crowded box office. First off, the film has one of my favorite openings I’ve seen in a while. It opens up with a pair of friends who are traveling around Australia, and they’ve decided to charter a boat to go diving with sharks. The ship’s captain is Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney), who is a bit rough around the edges but still manages to be a charming guy. Everything seems innocent enough as we see Bruce take these travelers on this dive of a lifetime, but things take a brutal turn as we see him stab one of the travelers and let them fall into the water to be devoured by the sharks circling below.
The film then shift gears by introducing us to Zephyr (Hassie Harrisson), an American who has travelled to Australia and has taken up a nomadic life, living out of her van so she can live her best life surfing. She runs into Moses (Josh Heuston), who is having some car trouble, and their brief meeting turns into something a little bit more …This sequence is pretty much a way to give us Zephyr’s back story of living in foster care, and of course she has trust issues and can only trust herself. Moses, of course, seems to have fallen in love overnight, and when he comes to deliver her breakfast in bed (her van), it turns out she’s already gone (cue the sad trombone). All seems lost for Moses till he gets a text message from Zephyr to meet him at a surfing spot, but alas, she gets kidnapped, and only Moses seems to know anything about Zephyr’s existence, so it is up to him to find her.
Seeing Bruce and Zephyr interact is definitely fun. For Bruce, he finally sees that he has a worthy adversary, and Zephyr has pretty much mentally prepared for this nightmare her whole life, so can she escape? This film definitely does a good job of making Zephyr a bad-ass “final girl” who never allows herself to be a victim … and what’s surprising is that despite some of the messed up things we see Bruce do, he is still a likeable scumbag.
It seems like this is just going to be a straightforward thriller, but the film does throw some curveballs that really do keep this film interesting. What sells the film is the performance by Jai Courtney. Now, I’ve seen people want to gush about this performance and throw out names like Robert De Niro in Cape Fear or Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but I feel these people are way off base. I’m not saying it’s a bad performance; honestly, I enjoyed the heck out of it, but for me it felt like a carbon copy of the character Mick Taylor from the Wolf Creek films. The more I even let Dangerous Animals simmer in my mind, I can’t help but feel the film is pretty much Wolf Creek on a boar. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it did kind of deflate some of my enthusiasm for the film. Another gripe I have with the film has to do with its climax. I’m not going to spoil anything, but I will say it got a bit silly and underwhelming. Let’s just say that “it jumped the shark” is a very apt way to put it here.
At the end of the day, this film is still a lot of fun. There’s some cool kills, and it does take a familiar trope and give it a new setting, which I really dug. I’d call this a B-movie, not as an insult, but more in the sense that it is just pure fun for 98 minutes. It was shot on a budget, but I feel that didn’t limit it in any way. This is right up there with the film Shark Night (2011). Is it great? No, but it sure is a heck of a lot of fun. Dangerous Animals will be streaming on Shudder soon, so I’d highly recommend this one, especially if you are a fan of “man vs. nature” films. This is late-night cinema bliss, and for me that’s a pretty big compliment.
