Sharks, survival, and serial killers: Behind the scenes of Dangerous Animals

News24

12 hours ago

Hassie Harrison stars alongside Josh Heuston in Dangerous Animals, a genre-blending survival horror set on Australia's Gold Coast.
The film follows a troubled surfer's fight for survival after being abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer.
In this Q&A, Harrison and Heuston discuss chemistry, high-stakes stunts, and exploring complex themes in their roles.
Yellowstone actor Hassie Harrison stars in the Australian survival horror film Dangerous Animals.
Directed by Sean Byrne, the film follows Zephyr (Harrison), a solitary surfer with a troubled past who has come to Australia's Gold Coast to find an escape. Her peaceful existence is disrupted when she meets Moses (Josh Heuston), a local real estate agent and fellow surfer. After a romantic night with him, she flees to the ocean but is abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a shark-obsessed serial killer.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival during the Directors' Fortnight section and received various reviews. Courtney was lauded for his performance, with many calling Tucker one of the best new horror villains, while Byrne's direction was praised for blending serial-killer thriller with a 'creature feature,' delivering tension and slick production quality.
In this Q&A, Harrison and Heuston discuss their roles in Dangerous Animals. From building instant chemistry to navigating thrilling stunts and blending complex themes, they share behind-the-scenes insights.
You both create a believable connection in such a short time, which drives the action for the audience. We understand why these two people now have something to fight for and live for. How did you work with Sean to establish that relationship?
Josh Heuston: Sean, first of all, had it all mapped out, every single moment and beat. He had hand-drawn sketches for everything, so every day he comes to set, he already has the entire shot just mapped out for you. So there's that. But then, in terms of building a connection, we just clicked instantly.
Hassie Harrison: We did a chemistry read before, and just have always had each other's backs and championed each other.
JH: Hassie already booked the role, and I dropped a line in the chemistry read, and then Hassie was like, 'Oh, that was my bad', and pretended that she made a mistake to help me get over the nerves. I messed up the audition for a moment, and she had my back and saved me.
HH: I had his back since day one. It's actually kind of funny, too – when we did the movie, our whole first week was just our opening love story. So when we first started the movie, it felt like I was doing a rom-com. It was just so easy, fun and light, and then all of a sudden, we had to switch gears.
Courtesy of Independent Film Company and Shudder
Dangerous Animals is such a fantastic mash of genres; it's a shark thriller, but it has the serial killer element added. What did you enjoy about having that blend of genres?
HH: It's always cool to be able to bend genres because I feel like it's more representative of how complex life is. It's more than just one note.
JH: For me, it was my first time stepping into thriller or horror, so it was just exciting. In certain dramas or sci-fi stuff that I've done before, the stakes aren't always 110%, whereas [in this], we're kind of all fighting for our lives. It was very exciting and fun; you're not usually screaming and running away or fighting a bear of a man - you're not doing that in other genres. It was a learning experience, but at the same time, it was just insanely fun.
You both get to do stunt, fighting and combat work. What did you enjoy about the practicality of blocking that all out?
HH: To be honest, it really inspired me; I want my next job to have a lot more stunts and stuff like that. I'm luckily a very physically capable person, and it adds this whole other fun element of choreography to the acting. It's just fun; you feel that adrenaline, just like you hope the audience does.
JH: For me, I came into it being like, I want to do every single stunt I can, and I didn't want to have to use a stuntman too much. I loved it, but if you asked me in 20, 30 years, I'd probably be like, 'Someone else can do it'. It's physically demanding, but at the same time, this movie was just so much fun to make from day one through to the last day.
Jai has spoken about how there were moments on set where you've got actors strung up in Tucker's feeding harness and how he felt the intensity and the weight of that in playing the villain. How did you both decompress from the darker elements of the story?
JH: To be honest, after the harness scene, I went and got a massage. I was like, 'my body's not working the way it used to'. But I loved having Jai opposite me; he's feeding me the entire time. So it's so easy to fall into that.
HH: It took me a little time to shake it, I'll be honest. I started having nightmares and stuff. Honestly, for me, just being on the beach, and we got to shoot on the Gold Coast – I would just go get in the ocean every day and wash it off.
Courtesy of Mark Taylor.
You're shooting much of the film on a boat, on location – what was that experience like, out on the water?
JH: I grew up in Australia, so I'm used to being out there. I love the ocean, and I grew up with it - grew up surfing and doing all that sort of stuff. But I'm not a very good surfer, that being said.
HH: You're great! That's what everybody says.
JH: For me, I'm happiest near the ocean. So it was like a holiday, but just doing something I love at the same time.
A lot of the tension and the horror in Dangerous Animals comes from the stillness that Sean Byrne employs, as much as he uses fast-paced moments. How did that manifest on set?
JH: He's a very visceral director, so he knows exactly what he wants, and he's in the scene with you. We had a running joke, which was 'gritted teeth'. So a lot of his direction was 'gritted teeth, we need the gritted teeth', and we're all trying to deliver that. But he's heavy breathing and tense and fighting with us while we're in these same scenes. He's acting just as much as we are in the entire process. Which, for me, gave so, so much support.
HH: Essentially, he's great at building tension. It's not like there's this overuse of gore just for gore's sake. There are these earned moments, and it builds up and then has a release. And that's what makes the ride so fun.
The story contrasts humans as social animals against solitary sharks, but also against Tucker, this man who's isolated himself from the world because of the pain he's experienced. How did those themes resonate for you?
JH: Moses' heart is on his sleeve, and he leads with that. For me, it was always trying to find the connection with Hassie, and that's my throughline throughout the entire film. He's just trying to follow this connection. It was a 12-hour experience of them hanging out, but for him, it was such an important moment in his life, and he just followed that. So, in terms of isolation, Moses is not trying to isolate himself at all. He's just trying to follow the love of his life in that moment, and it gave me something to fight for.
HH: Zephyr is fighting what she feels and knows is real love, and the fact that she hasn't known a lot of kindness in her life, has her walls built up and has created a life that can match the level of intimacy she can handle. And then there's that mirror; as soon as she meets Josh's character, all of that is brought up to the surface, and she's like: 'Wait'. She's just a scared pup, a hurt pup.
Courtesy of Independent Film Company and Shudder.
We get some clues as to the reasons she feels isolated from the world. How did you understand Zephyr's mindset coming to Australia?
HH: A big part of what informed a lot of my research, and it's not even touched on in the film really, but there's a tattoo that she has on her back that actually is a universal symbol for sexual abuse. And that's a big part of why she has closed up and run away and has become this vagabond. It's a really hard and truthful topic, and doing the research on that was heavy, but that's what was real for her.
Australian horror is known for its particular brutality, and that's matched in this film with some fairly brutal moments – like a character biting their own thumb off. As an American, what was your sort of understanding of the Australian horror genre?
HH: Australians are so well respected in this space. Between The Loved Ones and The Devil's Candy, Sean knows his stuff when it comes to all things genre. I love my Aussies, but you guys do seem to have a little dark, wicked side. But I was down to come play, and I knew I had big shoes to fill. [To Josh] Was I the only American on set?
JH: Yeah, pretty much. Hassie showed up, ready to rock from day one. There were no reservations of jumping into the Australian culture-
HH: And ocean.
JH: Literally. There was no hesitation; she jumped straight in. I guess Australians are known for a bit of grit, like Wolf Creek, one of our cult classic Australian horror films. Recently, there's Talk to Me, which is amazing. Australia's on a wave right now, I think, with horror, and Hassie came and brought it and drove it as well. It's great seeing Australia kind of rock it in horror.
Courtesy of Independent Film Company and Shudder
Okay, let's finish on Zephyr biting off her own thumb to escape. What I loved about the thumb is how it wasn't just like this incredible act of bravery, but it matched thematically – the whole idea of a bear gnawing its way out of a trap. What was it like shooting that?
HH: I was actually the most nervous about that scene. Of course, they saved it for the very last day, and everybody's trying to have this super cool last day, all partying together; summer camp's over. I think one of the things that was important for me to feel was her vulnerability and how scared she was to do it; you know what I mean? That was a hard scene to shoot. I kind of hyperventilated.
JH: She passed out.
HH: Yeah, I passed out.
JH: The stakes are so high for you, too, like I'm still covered in blood across the room from you and trying to be present as much as possible. But yeah, you if you're like, because you are hyperventilating in a way, to try and get yourself to that emotional state, and Hassie, again, committed 100% and passed the f*** out.
HH: I'll never forget. I just started, like, slowly tipping. And our DP was like, 'Hey!' and came and caught me. It's one of those scenes that you just have to commit to, and it looks so rank. I couldn't believe, watching it in the theatre, how everyone was cheering. I was like, 'Yeah, okay, all right!'