Director: Sean Byrne
Starring: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke, Jai Courtney
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 93 mins

Dangerous Animals is the new film by Tasmanian horror filmmaker Sean Byrne, best known for The Loved Ones and The Devil’s Candy. Jai Courtney plays Tucker, an eccentric ship captain who runs a shark cage tourist attraction business. But as we very quickly learn, he’s also a serial killer with a seriously twisted mind, with his latest victims Heather (Ella Newton), an Englishwoman on a gap year and a feisty American drifter, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison). He likes to harness women up and slowly dunk them into shark-infested waters, and film the results. This genre mash-up of a crime thriller and a shark film is certainly clever, especially the latter where virtually all recent efforts in the genre haven’t landed, such as The Shallows, The Meg (and its dreadful sequel) and 47 Meters Down to name a few.

For about 70 minutes of its run time, Dangerous Animals is a near-perfect genre mash-up that’s deliciously nasty – a blending of Jaws meets Peeping Tom, but turned up to eleven. Nick Lenard’s script is sharp and deftly develops the characters, so it’s easy to care for them later into proceedings. The film’s also gorgeously shot by cinematographer Shelley Farthing-Dawe, with some stunning ocean vistas and blending the turquoise waters with blood red. Until that 70 minute mark or so, I’d go as far as to call Dangerous Animals the definitive shark film.

It’s such a shame that in the last 20 minutes, the film really jumps the shark (pun fully intended) – neither Byrne or writer Nick Lenard have the strength to act on their sadistic convictions and you really have to suspend disbelief.

This is easily career-best work from Jai Courtney – unfortunately, he’s been an actor who’s been easy to poke fun at, with terrible performances in films such as A Good Day To Die Hard, Terminator Genisys and Suicide Squad. But Byrne really makes the most of his talents here, with a role that requires him to be equally charming and disconcerting that he completely laps up. I hope Dangerous Animals is the film that revamps Courtney’s career.

Hassie Harrison as the aloof American drifter is also excellent, reminiscent of a young Jennifer Lawrence, and completely sells her plight as a seemingly impenetrable young woman who doesn’t quite understand the world and how she fits in. Based off this performance, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her earn higher-profile work.

Many films have been trying to chase the success of Jaws, but without success. For the most part, Dangerous Animals smartly demonstrates why simply copying that format doesn’t work, by reframing the sharks as not being the predator but a force of nature. This is a wonderfully demented film with a sadistic edge that builds and sustains its tension until that 70 minute mark. But what a shame that Byrne can’t work out how to end the film.