Dangerous Animals
Writer: Nick Lepard
Director: Sean Byrne
Cast: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Jai Courtney, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke
This year marks a decade since The Devil's Candy, the second feature from Australian writer/director Sean Byrne. And before that, horror fans had to wait six years after his debut feature, The Loved Ones, to get another dose of his particular blend of horror, humor, and pure human brutality.
But here we are, 10 years after The Devil's Candy, and the horror world is rabid for Byrne's third feature, the much-anticipated Dangerous Animals. It might take him a while to step back into the director's chair, but every time Byrne does, he delivers an unforgettable experience. Thanks to beautifully layered tension, a great concept, and some truly devastating sequences of violence, Dangerous Animals has once again proven that every Sean Byrne film is worth the wait, no matter how long that wait might be.
Byrne's first feature which he didn't also write (Nick Lepard is credited with the screenplay), Dangerous Animals follows Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), an American girl with a troubled past who's escaped to Australia to live life on her own terms. Hopping around the coast in her van, which is also her home, Zephyr lives for surfing, subsists on a diet of mostly cheap bread rolls, and isn't interested in being tied down, even when she meets Moses (Josh Heuston), a cute guy with whom she forms a strong, immediate connection.
Moses wants to press forward with that connection and possibly consider a future with Zephyr, but she's not sure. The ocean keeps calling her. The freedom it brings is a source of comfort, but what Zephyr doesn't know is that the same ocean she thrives in is about to bring an unimaginable threat. Tucker (Jai Courtney), a shark tour guide operating on the same coast where Zephyr's about to surf, is actually a serial killer with a lifelong obsession with sharks — and he thinks Zephyr would make a wonderful meal for his ocean friends.
For a little added impact, Byrne introduces Tucker well before he introduces Zephyr, giving us a taste of the killer's modus operandi and, well, general weirdness even before the protagonist gets to meet and battle him. And it's in these moments that, despite a very solid performance from Harrison, we learn that this is Jai Courtney's movie. With his wild eyes, artfully scruffy wardrobe, and seemingly boundless energy, he takes total command not just of his shark tour boat, but of the entire narrative, building Tucker into a force of nature not unlike the sharks he so adores. He's less a human than he is an appetite, or a high priest of carnage who demands sacrifices to his finned gods. It's an incredible performance, one that should earn him plenty more villain roles in the years to come.
But while Courtney steals all of his scenes, the driving force of Dangerous Animals as a satisfying narrative is still Byrne's direction, making excellent use of Lepard's script to deliver another masterclass in artful violence. This is a high-concept film, and for large portions of its runtime Byrne convinces you that he's going to stick within the bounds of that concept, giving us a straightforward cat-and-mouse game between killer and potential victim like so many thrillers that have come before. But as he did with The Loved Ones and The Devil's Candy, Byrne doesn't waste time trying to find ways to sustain the basic premise. Instead, he keeps evolving it, pushing Zephyr and Tucker into uncharted territory with each new scheme, each shift in the tides, each chance for escape turned into shark-fueled mayhem.
Time and time again, Byrne tricks you into thinking you know how something will go, setting up familiar rituals for Tucker to follow — from the way he keeps his victims captive to the particular method he uses for feeding — and then breaking those rituals in new ways each time. The violence doesn't always come the moment you expect it, but when it comes, it's relentless and so beautifully choreographed that you're instantly reminded why Byrne is still considered one of the most exciting genre filmmakers working right now, even if it does take him years to cook up new films.
Dangerous Animals is not just worth the wait for Sean Byrne fans. It's a new take on the serial killer film, the killer shark film, and the survival horror film, all rolled into one fiendish blast of a flick. Whether you're a longtime fan of Byrne's work or you're coming to his films for the first time, this is the kind of horror movie summers were made for.
Dangerous Animals is in theaters June 6.
