Dangerous Animals

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Date Reviewed: 11/06/2025

Dangerous Animals had its world premiere last month as part of this year’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival. While it wasn’t part of the In Competition Selections, or the type of movie that would usually win an award at Cannes; reviews from the Cannes screening were strong, citing Dangerous Animals as a fun, crowd-engaging, and self-aware film…as much as a film about a psychotic, shark-loving, serial killer, can be fun.

Australian director Sean Byrne made waves (pun intended) over 15 years ago with The Loved Ones, which combined elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Misery in an Aussie setting. Even though it was not a huge money-earner, Byrne set himself up as a new horror movie director to watch. Staying with the horror genre, his follow-up effort and US debut was The Devil’s Candy, which received praise, but also failed to do big box office numbers. After that, Byrne was inactive for a decade. But he has made a splash (pun #2) on his return with Dangerous Animals. It’s his most complete—and certainly most rewatchable—work to date.

While Dangerous Animals will quite rightfully be classified as a “Shark Movie”, it is different from others, like Jaws, The Shallows, and Open Water, in that the villain (or in this case, the titular Dangerous Animal) isn’t actually the shark. Instead, it’s Jai Courtney’s Tucker that is truly the bad guy here. And Courtney really goes for it. Hamming it up to eleven, while still giving his character intelligence among his eccentricities; the movie simply would not work without Courtney’s performance. Hassie Harrison (TV’s Yellowstone) is tough girl protagonist, Zephyr. This is the sort of straight character that could be ably performed by a dozen or so of the top young female stars in the world. But with Harrison seemingly channelling both Jennifer Lawrence and Blake Lively in her performance, it is a potentially star-making turn, if Dangerous Animals can gain the traction it deserves. 

Horror fans may be disappointed with a lack of gore, contrary to initial reports about the movie’s violence. But much-like Tarantino’s torture scene in Reservoir Dogs, a lot of the violence and gore here is implied or kept just off screen. And like that famous ear-cutting scene, Dangerous Animals often shows us just the aftermath, rather than anything too graphic on-screen. But Byrne still makes it work, and successfully has the viewer believing they have seen more graphic things than they actually have.

While this is a self-aware movie, that does have fun among all the unsavoury subject-matter; it resists going anywhere near Deep Blue Sea/The Meg-levels of absurdity. And apart from a little silliness in the final act; it keeps thing relatively grounded. This works to elevate the movie above the novelty-flick, there was a danger of it being reduced to. And as a side note, the soundtrack is a banger.

If Wolf Creek is the reigning heavyweight champion of Aussie horror movies, then this is the first serious title challenger in the 20 years since. In fact, you could do a lot worse than to describe Dangerous Animals as “Wolf Creek-on-water”.

Reviewed by Dion Gaunt