Dangerous Animals came out on 2025 and probably became one of my favorite shark movie that I actually give a damn about because honestly there is that stiga to Jaws where the shark is always the bad guy of the movie although here we got a hybrid, most shark movies bore me or feel way too fake but this one hit diferent, because as it starts to unfold you start to realize that this isnt even really about the sharks at all, its about Jai Courtney playing this absolutely insane serial killer named Tucker who runs one of those shark tour boats in Australia where he lowers people in cages to see the sharks up close, except Tucker uses the sharks as his weapon to kill people and records everything on VHS tapes like some twisted collector keeping trophys of his victims. The hook alone had me interested right from the trailer so I knew this was worth waiting for and Im glad I went in without watching only the first official trailer and not much context, sometimes its hard because you basically have to be dodging content online because discovering how messed up Tucker really is made the experiance so much better, this guy dangles victims over shark infested water while their loved ones watch them get torn apart and films the whole damn thing. Sean Byrne directed this and hes the same guy who made 'The Loved Ones" and "The Devils Candy", the first one I havent seen but did enjoy "The Devils Candy" so I had some faith going in that he would deliver something entertaining and he absolutely did. Jai Courtney is a good actor although we havent seen him doing a movie like this one in a wile or at least in one that he is one of the main protagonist and not just support actor, he probably deserve better roles, ones that let him do much more but this role as Tucker might be the best work Ive seen from him ever, he completly owns every scene hes in and makes Tucker feel terrifying, menacing, but also weirdly fun to watch in that villain way where you cant look away.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32299316/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
Rottentomatoes Rating
The story starts with Tucker taking this couple out on his boat for a shark tour and just in a couple minutes you get the first peak behind the courtin as he stabs the boyfriend in the neck and throws him to the sharks while keeping the girlfriend with him in the boar, thats how this movie basically goes from 0 to 100 real quick, what kind of sick bastard Tucker is and it sets the tone perfectly putting any kind of character build up necessary aside. Then we meet Zephyr played by Hassie Harrison who is this American surfer traveling around Australia in her van looking for good waves, shes got this loner vibe and seems like someone who keeps moving to avoid getting too close to anyone so my first thoughts were, who broke her?. She meets this guy Moses at night when his moms car needs a jump start and they end up having a one night stand, I guess thats what loner travelers do? look too cliche to be honest but if you go with it seem to really click together even though Zephyr ghosts him the next morning because commitment isnt her thing. She heads to the beach super early before sunrise to surf at a spot Moses recomended and realizes she forgot this key tool she needs for her surfboard, she sees Tuckers truck parked and goes looking for help when Tucker comes out of nowhere without shoes, this guy is creepy AF, he had to be hiding something all looking back because he was probably dumping a body or something. He gives her the key and drives off but then comes back and captures her, just like that shes chained up in the bottom of his boat with another woman named Heather who he had captured earlier. The whole setup happens so fast that it keeps the momentum going and doesnt waste time with unnecessary build up, by the time were twenty minutes in weve already got our main drama / kidnap and I was like wtf, if I try to pull this it would never happen so easy in a million years, this guy.
Source
Moses turns out to be way more dedicated than most one night stands would be because when he finds Zephyrs van still parked at the beach with her phone inside he knows somethings wrong and goes to the police, they dont take him seriously at first because he doesnt even know her last name but he keeps looking and eventually finds her surfboard washed up on shore. He ends up finding security camera footage from the beach that shows Tuckers truck pulling in around the same time Zephyr disapeared, he tracks down Tuckers business address and breaks into the boat while Tucker is out buying a new video camera because Zephyr had thrown his old one in the ocean, this Moses guy is a keeper and Zephyr a fool but I get it, the movie is design for things to go easy on both sides, bad things go really bad so tension always stay at higher and higher levels. The way Moses figures all this out feels a bit too easy and convienent, like the police couldnt do any of this but a random guy cracks the case in a few hours, but honestly I didnt care that much because it moves the story forward and gets us to the good stuff, I honestly never felt like the movie was dragging. Once Moses breaks in and finds Zephyr things go to hell real quick because Tucker comes back and now hes got both of them trapped, then comes in this cat and mouse game where Zephyr keeps almost escaping but Tucker catches her again and again this is the part that throws me off like are you that bad at escaping and are you that bad at keeping her under control??, and when Zephyr hits him with a frying pan I fkn laugh thinking this is just too clasic, stabs him, sets his boat on fire and none of it seems to slow him down much, Tucker just keeps trucking. Theres this one brutal scene where Zephyr bites off her own thumb to get out of the handcuffs because breaking it wasnt enough, that shit was intense and showed how far shes willing to go to survive, Hassie Harrison plays Zephyr as this total badass who refuses to go down without a serious fight and I really liked her performence even though she doesnt quit hit that emotional expresion, its like she had the same face on every tense scene.
I thought were were going to get a lot of shark action throughout the movie but I think is smart to keep it low key because when the sharks do show up it actually matters and feels tense, Tucker straps people into this harness and slowly lowers them into the water after throwing food around to attract sharks. Most of the time you only see the fin circling and imagination kicks in and classic Jaws memories take care of the rest, its way more efectiv than showing CGI sharks constantly because the fear comes from not knowing exactly where they are or how close, just like Jaws did it back in the day. The CGI they do use looks pretty convincing most of the time, theres defintely some computer effects mixed with real shark footage but they hide it well enough that it doesnt pull you out of the movie. Tucker has this whole philosophy about being like an apex predator and compares Zephyr to a marlin because shes such a challange to catch, he tells this story about how fishermen prize marlins because they fight so hard to escape and that gets a bit tiresome by the third time he brings it up. The ending goes a bit overboard with fake endings where it feels like the movies wrapping up but then keeps going, this happens like three or four times and it does make the ending feel longer than it needs to be. Eventually Zephyr gets dropped in the water and this great white shark shows up, the movie makes it seem like the shark spares her because Tucker had stabbed it earlier so now it wants revenge on him which feels like a stretch but whatever. Zephyr gets back on the boat and shoots Tucker with a harpoon into the water where the great white immediatly kills him, that final shot of Tucker getting eaten looked a bit rough CGI wise compared to the rest of the movie probably because they want it to look savage and agressive enough.
My biggest complaint is that I wanted way more gore, its a shark movie with a serial killer using this predators as his tools with the perfect place to disapear his victims so use the damn thing, like we get some blood here and there but for a movie about people getting fed to sharks I expected more brutal shots and that classic sound when people are about to drawn like taking in more water than breathing. The romance between Zephyr and Moses also felt rushed, like they had one good night together and suddenly hes risking his life to find her when most people would just assume she ghosted them and move on, the movie needed to give them more chemistry or more time together to make his dedication feel earned. Tucker keeps all these VHS tapes of his kills with pieces of victims hair attached to the cases and that was a nice creepy touch, you see hes got dozens of them so this guys been doing this for years without getting caught. Later on after watching the movie I find out he soundtrack for the movie is by Michael Yazerki and it really stood out and nail it, it matches the tone shifts between fun and terrifying, such sweet spot and sometimes the music lets you know things are about to get dark before you even see it on screen. Overall I had a really good time with Dangerous Animals, its not perfect and the pacing issues came up but mostly towards the ending, after all that dopamine rush I guess writers had a hard time wraping things up and bring it down a bit but its easily one of the best shark movie that is not about sharks, the contradiction right there, besides Jaws and Deep Blue Sea. Jai Courtney completly surprised me with how good he is as this unhinged killer and I hope he gets more roles like this that let him do some entertaining stuff and more screen time. If you like serial killer movies or shark movies or just want to see something thats a bit different than the usual stuff, Dangerous Animals is worth checking out, Im giving it a solid 7 out of 10 for being way better than most shark movies.
#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dangerous, #animals, #shark, #thriller, #courtney, #killer, #serial, #horror, #survival, #byrne, #harrison, #tucker, #zephyr, #australia, #revenge, #ocean, #predator, #chase, #escape, #violence, #suspense, #terror, #victim, #cage, #bloodshed