Firerose Says the 'Truth Is Coming to Light' About Her Ex-Husband Billy Ray Cyrus: 'It's Very Sad'
The Australian singer issued a statement two days after Billy Ray's son, Trace Cyrus, wrote an emotional open letter asking his father to get help
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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Back in shark-laden waters, 'Dangerous Animals' is a horror film with tired blood
Sean Byrne knows how to show an audience a bad time. Sixteen years ago, the Australian filmmaker launched onto the scene with 'The Loved Ones,' his proudly grisly debut about a misfit teenager who gets gruesome revenge on the boy who refused to go to prom with her. Part expert torture porn, part exploration of adolescent romantic anxieties, the film was an instant midnight-madness cult item that took Byrne six years to follow up. When he did, he went in a different tonal direction with 'The Devil's Candy,' a surprisingly emotional psychological thriller about a heavy-metal-loving painter who moves his family to a beautifully rustic home, only to lose his mind. Working in recognizable horror subgenres, Byrne entices you with a familiar premise and then slowly teases apart the tropes, leaving you unsettled but also invigorated by his inventiveness. It has now been a decade since that distinctive riff on 'The Shining,' and for Byrne's third feature, he once again pillages from indelible sources. 'Dangerous Animals' draws from both the serial-killer thriller and Hollywood's penchant for survival stories about hungry sharks feasting on human flesh. But unlike in the past, Byrne's new movie never waylays you with a surprise narrative wrinkle or unexpected thematic depth. He hasn't lost his knack for generating bad vibes, but this time he hasn't brought anything else to the party. The movie stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a solitary surfer who explains in on-the-nose dialogue that she prefers the danger of open water to the unhappiness of life on land. An American in Australia who grew up in foster homes and who lives in a beat-up old van, Zephyr encounters Moses (Josh Heuston), a straitlaced nice guy whom she hooks up with. Not that she wants him developing feelings for her: She takes off in the middle of the night so she can catch some waves. Unfortunately, Zephyr is the one who gets caught — by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a deceptively gregarious boat captain who kidnaps her. Next thing she knows, she's chained up inside his vessel out at sea, alongside another female victim, Heather (Ella Newton). Read more: The 27 best movie theaters in Los Angeles Like many a movie serial killer, Tucker isn't just interested in murdering his prey — he wants to make something artistic out of his butchery. And so he ties Heather to a crane and dangles her in the water like a giant lure, pulling out a camcorder to record her final moments as sharks devour her. Watching his victims struggle to stay alive is cinema to this twisted soul and Zephyr will be his next unwitting protagonist. Working from a script by visual artist Nick Lepard, Byrne (who wrote his two previous features) digs into the story's B-movie appeal. Tucker may use old-fashioned technology to record his kills, but 'Dangerous Animals' is set in the present, even if its trashy, drive-in essence would have made it better suited to come out 50 years ago as counterprogramming to "Jaws." With Zephyr's tough-girl demeanor and Tucker's creepy vibe, Byrne knowingly plays into genre clichés, setting up the inevitable showdown between the beauty and the beast. But despite that juicy setup, 'Dangerous Animals' is a disappointingly straightforward and ultimately underwhelming horror movie, offering little of the grim poetry of Byrne's previous work and far too much of the narrative predictability that in the past he astutely sidestepped. There are still subversive ideas — for one thing, this is a shark film with precious few sharks — but Byrne's sneaky smarts have largely abandoned him. Rather than transcending expectations, 'Dangerous Animals' surrenders to them. One can't fault Harrison, whose Zephyr spends much of the movie in a battle of wills with her captor. Because 'Dangerous Animals' limits the amount of sharks we see, digitally inserting footage of the deadly creatures into scenes, the story's central tension comes from Zephyr trying to free herself or get help before Tucker prepares his next nautical snuff film. Harrison projects a ferocious determination that's paired with an intense loathing for this condescending, demented misogynist. It's bad enough that Tucker wants to murder her — beforehand, he wants to bore her with shark trivia, dully advocating for these misunderstood animals. It's an underdeveloped joke: 'Dangerous Animals' is a nightmare about meeting the mansplainer from hell. Alas, Courtney's conception of the film's true dangerous animal is where the story truly runs aground. The actor's handsome, vaguely blank countenance is meant to suggest a burly, hunky everyman — the sort of person you'd never suspect or look twice at, which makes Tucker well-positioned to leave a trail of corpses in his path. But neither Byrne nor Courtney entirely gets their arms around this conventionally unhinged horror villain. 'Dangerous Animals' overly underlines its point that we shouldn't be afraid of sharks — it's the Tuckers who ought to keep us up at night — but Courtney never captures the unfathomable malice beneath the facial scruff. We root for Zephyr to escape Tucker's clutches not because he's evil but because he's a bit of a stiff. Even with those deficiencies, the film boasts a level of craft that keeps the story fleet, with Byrne relying on the dependable tension of a victim trapped at sea with her pursuer, sharks waiting in the waters surrounding her. Michael Yezerski's winkingly emphatic score juices every scare as the gore keeps ratcheting up — particularly during a moment when Zephyr finds an unexpected way to break out of handcuffs. But Byrne can't redeem the script's boneheaded plot twists, nor can he elevate the most potentially intriguing idea at its core. As Tucker peers into his viewfinder, getting off on his victims' screams as sharks sink their jaws into them, 'Dangerous Animals' hints at the fixation horror directors such as Byrne have for presenting us with unspeakable terrors, insisting we love the bloodshed as much as they do. Tucker tries to convince Zephyr that they're not all that different — they're both sharks, you see — but in truth, Byrne may be suggesting an uncomfortable kinship with his serial killer. But instead of provocatively pursuing that unholy bond, the director only finds chum. Sign up for Indie Focus, a weekly newsletter about movies and what's going on in the wild world of cinema. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
8 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Back in shark-laden waters, ‘Dangerous Animals' is a horror film with tired blood
Sean Byrne knows how to show an audience a bad time. Sixteen years ago, the Australian filmmaker launched onto the scene with 'The Loved Ones,' his proudly grisly debut about a misfit teenager who gets gruesome revenge on the boy who refused to go to prom with her. Part expert torture porn, part exploration of adolescent romantic anxieties, the film was an instant midnight-madness cult item that took Byrne six years to follow up. When he did, he went in a different tonal direction with 'The Devil's Candy,' a surprisingly emotional psychological thriller about a heavy-metal-loving painter who moves his family to a beautifully rustic home, only to lose his mind. Working in recognizable horror subgenres, Byrne entices you with a familiar premise and then slowly teases apart the tropes, leaving you unsettled but also invigorated by his inventiveness. It has now been a decade since that distinctive riff on 'The Shining,' and for Byrne's third feature, he once again pillages from indelible sources. 'Dangerous Animals' draws from both the serial-killer thriller and Hollywood's penchant for survival stories about hungry sharks feasting on human flesh. But unlike in the past, Byrne's new movie never waylays you with a surprise narrative wrinkle or unexpected thematic depth. He hasn't lost his knack for generating bad vibes, but this time he hasn't brought anything else to the party. The movie stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a solitary surfer who explains in on-the-nose dialogue that she prefers the danger of open water to the unhappiness of life on land. An American in Australia who grew up in foster homes and who lives in a beat-up old van, Zephyr encounters Moses (Josh Heuston), a straitlaced nice guy whom she hooks up with. Not that she wants him developing feelings for her: She takes off in the middle of the night so she can catch some waves. Unfortunately, Zephyr is the one who gets caught — by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a deceptively gregarious boat captain who kidnaps her. Next thing she knows, she's chained up inside his vessel out at sea, alongside another female victim, Heather (Ella Newton). Like many a movie serial killer, Tucker isn't just interested in murdering his prey — he wants to make something artistic out of his butchery. And so he ties Heather to a crane and dangles her in the water like a giant lure, pulling out a camcorder to record her final moments as sharks devour her. Watching his victims struggle to stay alive is cinema to this twisted soul and Zephyr will be his next unwitting protagonist. Working from a script by visual artist Nick Lepard, Byrne (who wrote his two previous features) digs into the story's B-movie appeal. Tucker may use old-fashioned technology to record his kills, but 'Dangerous Animals' is set in the present, even if its trashy, drive-in essence would have made it better suited to come out 50 years ago as counterprogramming to 'Jaws.' With Zephyr's tough-girl demeanor and Tucker's creepy vibe, Byrne knowingly plays into genre clichés, setting up the inevitable showdown between the beauty and the beast. But despite that juicy setup, 'Dangerous Animals' is a disappointingly straightforward and ultimately underwhelming horror movie, offering little of the grim poetry of Byrne's previous work and far too much of the narrative predictability that in the past he astutely sidestepped. There are still subversive ideas — for one thing, this is a shark film with precious few sharks — but Byrne's sneaky smarts have largely abandoned him. Rather than transcending expectations, 'Dangerous Animals' surrenders to them. One can't fault Harrison, whose Zephyr spends much of the movie in a battle of wills with her captor. Because 'Dangerous Animals' limits the amount of sharks we see, digitally inserting footage of the deadly creatures into scenes, the story's central tension comes from Zephyr trying to free herself or get help before Tucker prepares his next nautical snuff film. Harrison projects a ferocious determination that's paired with an intense loathing for this condescending, demented misogynist. It's bad enough that Tucker wants to murder her — beforehand, he wants to bore her with shark trivia, dully advocating for these misunderstood animals. It's an underdeveloped joke: 'Dangerous Animals' is a nightmare about meeting the mansplainer from hell. Alas, Courtney's conception of the film's true dangerous animal is where the story truly runs aground. The actor's handsome, vaguely blank countenance is meant to suggest a burly, hunky everyman — the sort of person you'd never suspect or look twice at, which makes Tucker well-positioned to leave a trail of corpses in his path. But neither Byrne nor Courtney entirely gets their arms around this conventionally unhinged horror villain. 'Dangerous Animals' overly underlines its point that we shouldn't be afraid of sharks — it's the Tuckers who ought to keep us up at night — but Courtney never captures the unfathomable malice beneath the facial scruff. We root for Zephyr to escape Tucker's clutches not because he's evil but because he's a bit of a stiff. Even with those deficiencies, the film boasts a level of craft that keeps the story fleet, with Byrne relying on the dependable tension of a victim trapped at sea with her pursuer, sharks waiting in the waters surrounding her. Michael Yezerski's winkingly emphatic score juices every scare as the gore keeps ratcheting up — particularly during a moment when Zephyr finds an unexpected way to break out of handcuffs. But Byrne can't redeem the script's boneheaded plot twists, nor can he elevate the most potentially intriguing idea at its core. As Tucker peers into his viewfinder, getting off on his victims' screams as sharks sink their jaws into them, 'Dangerous Animals' hints at the fixation horror directors such as Byrne have for presenting us with unspeakable terrors, insisting we love the bloodshed as much as they do. Tucker tries to convince Zephyr that they're not all that different — they're both sharks, you see — but in truth, Byrne may be suggesting an uncomfortable kinship with his serial killer. But instead of provocatively pursuing that unholy bond, the director only finds chum.
Time Magazine
12 hours ago
- Time Magazine
Breaking Down the Ending of Netflix's Tense Aussie Thriller The Survivors
Warning: This post contains spoilers for The Survivors. Based on the 2020 novel by Jane Harper, Netflix's new Australian series The Survivors follows a man named Kieran Elliott (Charlie Vickers) as he returns home to the (fictional) Evelyn Bay, a small coastal community in Tasmania. Fifteen years ago, tragedy struck the town when three people died in an accident—one for which many blame Kieran. When Kieran returns, now with a family of his own, the town is rocked by a murder that threatens to awaken long-dormant secrets. At the start of the series, the murder of Bronte (Shannon Berry) has thrown Evelyn Bay into chaos. Bronte wasn't local to Evelyn Bay, but she was a tourist and true crime enthusiast who'd been living there for some time to try and find out what happened to Gabby, the third person who went missing on that fateful day 15 years ago. While the bodies of the two men—Toby and Finn (Kieran's brother)—were found, Gabby's body has never been located. A number of people are considered suspects in Bronte's murder, including Kieran's father Brian (Damien Garvey). Brian has dementia, but he's a prime suspect after his DNA is found on Bronte's clothing and inside her mouth. But something isn't adding up, as Brian hardly seems capable of murder, especially in his condition. Thankfully, the finale of The Survivors uncovers the show's biggest mysteries: the truth behind the disappearance of Gabby and the murder of Bronte. The mystery of Gabby's whereabouts seemed to get some clarity when Kieran's girlfriend Mia (Yerin Ha) discovered a photo of her on a boat just before she disappeared. The picture showed Gabby in a bikini drinking a beer on the same boat as Toby and Finn. But Gabby was just 14, and the men were adults, seriously calling into question what happened to Gabby and whether or not Toby and Finn died as heroes or harboring a dark secret. In the finale, Mia discovers another photograph at the home of George (Don Hany), whose darkroom Bronte had been using to develop her photographs. The photo is of a rock carved with Gabby's name and a date on it, but the date is unclear. It's a tradition for those who make it to the nearby treacherous caves to carve their name in the rocks, and if Mia and co. can verify the date, they could prove Finn and Toby's innocence. Kieran takes his friend and Toby's brother Sean (Thom Green) to help him. They get to the rock, but discover that the inscription has been scratched out. Someone else knew Gabby had carved her name and was trying to cover their tracks. Meanwhile, Kieran's mother, Verity (Robyn Malcolm), goes to see Sean and Toby's father Julian (Martin Sacks). She's devastated by the revelation that Gabby was on Toby and Finn's boat, and is concerned they did something wrong when raising their children. Furious, Julian is adamant that Gabby wasn't on the boat with Finn and Toby. Stunned by his conviction, Verity asks Julian how he could be so sure. The person who scratched out Gabby's name on the rocks turns out to be Sean. It was Sean who used the boat to take Gabby to the caves, so she was never on the boat with Toby and Finn. Gabby was looking for Kieran (whom she had a big crush on), and Sean told her that Kieran was at the caves, agreeing to take Gabby to him. In the caves, Sean tried to kiss her, but she wasn't interested. Sean became immediately hostile and ran off, abandoning her in the caves. Gabby didn't know the way out, and since she didn't have Sean to help her, she drowned in the caves. Sean told his father Julian everything that happened, and he encouraged Sean to cover it up, thus revealing why Julian was so sure that Gabby wasn't in the boat with two adult men. Julian had already lost a son in the other cave incident, and he couldn't bear the thought of losing his other son too. Kieran is shocked by Sean's confession in the caves. He tells Sean he must tell Trish (Catherine McClements), as she's been trying to discover the truth about her daughter Gabby's disappearance ever since she vanished. But he refuses. It's then that Kieran realizes that the flashlight Sean is carrying is one that Bronte had borrowed from Sean, who had gone to Bronte earlier on the night of her death to get his flashlight. Bronte asked Sean if she'd go to the beach with him, as there was supposed to be bioluminescence she wanted to see, but she didn't want to go alone because she was being stalked. (The finale confirms that the man spying on her was George, who was cautious about his relationships with women after some problems in Melbourne.) Sean joined her, and Bronte shared her theory about Gabby, believing that Gabby may have been at the caves. Sean freaked out, screaming at her. The Survivors suggests Sean had incel tendencies, claiming that Bronte looked at him like he was worthless, and that it made him feel so small. His whole life, he'd been laughed at, and nobody cared about him. This idea is left frustratingly underdeveloped, but it speaks to his treatment of both Gabby and Bronte. Bronte tries to get away from Sean, screaming for help, but he attacks her, punching her before striking her in the head with the flashlight, killing her. He then drags her body out to sea and runs off, but Brian finds the body on his nightly walk, and brings her back to land, unsuccessfully attempting CPR, which explains why he was an initial suspect in the murder. Terrified that the truth about killing Gabby and Bronte will be revealed, Sean fights Kieran in the caves, unaware that the police have been tipped off and are in pursuit. Kieran gains the upper hand and starts to strangle Sean, but stops; he's not a killer. Sean then punches Kieran in the face, and The Survivors cuts to black. Hours later, the police have successfully intervened, arresting Sean and saving Kieran. The series ends with a memorial for Bronte and Gabby. After 15 years of waiting, Trish is finally able to find closure. Both Trish and Bronte's parents can begin to heal, though their lives will never be the same again. Perhaps this closure can finally give the people of Evelyn Bay a chance to move forward.
