- Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston
- June 6th 2025
- Sean Byrne
The film follows an American surfer who is kidnapped by a shark-obsessed Australian and held captive on his boat.
What do you get when a shark horror and a serial killer horror collide? The Australian survival movie Dangerous Animals!
The film follows Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a rebellious American surfer who is taken by a shark-obsessed murderer named Tucker (Jai Courtney) on Australia’s Gold Coast and held captive on his boat.
Zephyr must use her wits, strength, resourcefulness and courage to escape before becoming the next tourist Tucker feeds to the sharks – all while filming the encounter for his own twisted video collection.
Dangerous Animals feels like a trashy B-movie that would typically go straight to streaming. But don’t let that put you off because it’s a really fun film to see in a crowded room with a bunch of strangers.
There are plenty of jumps, laughs and gory moments to react to together and it makes it more entertaining hearing everybody gasp, giggle, wince and react to the dumb decisions along with you.
Considering this is based on a boat, you might be wondering how it manages to sustain a 93-minute feature. Thankfully, there are some decent twists and turns, additional characters and escape attempts to propel it along.
The writing isn’t the best though. A romance subplot between Zephyr and a local Australian man named Moses (Josh Heuston) is a bit cheesy and it’s hard to believe that Tucker hasn’t been caught considering he runs a shark cage-diving business.
Also, it gets quite frustrating seeing all of Zephyr’s escape attempts, but it would be a short movie if she escaped easily.
Courtney seems to be having the time of his life playing an unhinged psycho.
The film isn’t scary but he is more frightening than the sharks (who aren’t in it as much as you’d think) and particularly menacing in a visceral and bloody fight with three other people.
Harrison holds her own and you’ll be cheering her on. She is smart and feisty and will stop at nothing until she puts an end to Tucker’s killing spree.
Dangerous Animals feels pretty cheap and schlocky but it’s still a fun cinematic experience, especially if you watch it with a crowd.
In cinemas from Friday 6th June
By Hannah Wales
© Cover Media