Dangerous Animals: Sean Byrne pits 'surfer vs. serial killer on the open seas'
Jai Courtney and Hassie Harrison star in this 'sharksploitation' movie about a psychopathic charter-boat captain
Half a century after Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" stirred the public's "fear and fascination, by painting sharks as bloodthirsty monsters", a "sharksploitation" subgenre is flourishing, said Jen Yamato in The Washington Post. These films tend to have ludicrous premises ("Ouija Shark", "Cocaine Shark" etc.), and to make use of "atrocious CGI". But this "tongue-in-cheek" new horror-thriller from Australia is "a breath of fresh oxygen".
Lean, mean and bloody, Sean Byrne's film "finds a fresh way into the annals of survival horror by pitting surfer vs. serial killer on the open seas". Here, the shark is not the real threat. Instead, it's Tucker, a psychopathic charter-boat captain on Queensland's Gold Coast who makes a practice of kidnapping female tourists, using them as bait for the local great whites, and filming their grisly deaths for his collection of "twisted VHS snuff movies".
Tucker's spree is going well until he takes as his latest victim an American named Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), who puts up more resistance than he anticipated, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. "The movie is basically one knock-down, drag-out fight for survival between the pair of them. She escapes from his boat twice, only to be dragged back – lending a tedious circularity to the plot."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Still, Jai Courtney is "an absolute hoot" as Tucker, said Ben Travis in Empire – whether he is "leading a threatening singalong of 'Baby Shark', barking like a dog (at an actual dog), or watching footage of a vicious shark attack while chomping his own fish dinner". Nobody would call "Dangerous Animals" great art, but it's "stylish and tense", and very enjoyable.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Why Britain is struggling to stop the ransomware cyberattacksThe Explainer New business models have greatly lowered barriers to entry for criminal hackers
-
Greene’s rebellion: a Maga hardliner turns against TrumpIn the Spotlight The Georgia congresswoman’s independent streak has ‘not gone unnoticed’ by the president
-
Crossword: October 26, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
Roasted squash and apple soup recipeThe Week Recommends Autumnal soup is full of warming and hearty flavours
-
6 well-crafted log homesFeature Featuring a floor-to-ceiling rock fireplace in Montana and a Tulikivi stove in New York
-
Film reviews: A House of Dynamite, After the Hunt, and It Was Just an AccidentFeature A nuclear missile bears down on a U.S. city, a sexual misconduct allegation rocks an elite university campus, and a victim of government terror pursues vengeance
-
Book reviews: ‘Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife’ and ‘Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It’Feature Gertrude Stein’s untold story and Jane Leavy’s playbook on how to save baseball
-
Rachel Ruysch: Nature Into ArtFeature Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, through Dec. 7
-
Music reviews: Olivia Dean, Madi Diaz, and Hannah FrancesFeature “The Art of Loving,” “Fatal Optimist,” and “Nested in Tangles”
-
Gilbert King’s 6 favorite books about the search for justiceFeature The journalist recommends works by Bryan Stevenson, David Grann, and more
-
Ready for the apocalypseFeature As anxiety rises about the state of the world, the ranks of preppers are growing—and changing.