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Times
15 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Dangerous Animals review — watch out! It's the arthouse answer to Jaws
This grisly horror b-movie premiered at last month's Cannes Film Festival and you can see why. On the surface, and with heavy nods to Wolf Creek, it is about an obnoxious Aussie psychopath and serial murderer called Bruce, played with unhinged intensity by Jai Courtney. Bruce lives on Australia's heavenly Gold Coast and hires out his decrepit trawler to clueless tourists desperate for a memorable cage-diving experience with the area's fearsome tiger, bull and great white sharks. Once at sea, however (not a spoiler — it's in the trailer and the first five minutes of the movie), Bruce kills the men, kidnaps the women and orchestrates an elaborate torture scenario involving an onboard crane, a dunking chair and bloody, chum-filled waters bristling with hungry man-eaters. • Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews Jai Courtney as the killer Bruce And the Cannes interest? In the film, the third from the director Sean Byrne, Bruce captures the shark torture on his ancient camcorder and the first killing features a dismembered leg falling to the seabed in a shot that is clearly 'in conversation' with the same imagery from Steven Spielberg's Jaws. And so, suddenly, this horror film is really about filming horror and the people, mostly men, who do it. There are echoes too of Michael Powell's Peeping Tom in the psychology of Bruce who, it transpires, is reliving his own childhood trauma in his strangely sensual cinematic consumption of every murder. The Cannes faithful love all that stuff. • Steven Spielberg: how Jaws almost sank my career Elsewhere the action is sharply directed by Byrne. There is no structural flab and he has created a gutsy, cheer-worthy protagonist in the surfer turned table-turning 'victim' Zephyr (Hassie Harrison from Yellowstone). In the end I wished the movie had had more money behind it, for it throws everything at a climactic 'shark reveal' shot that is abysmally ineffective and a deflating no-budget conclusion to a prestige nightmare. The Cannes crew, by the way, will say that Spielberg's shark looked rubbish too. And this is a point. ★★★☆☆ 15, 98min In cinemas from Jun 6 Make Wednesday your go-to cinema day. Each month Times+ members can bring a friend for free at Everyman on a Wednesday. The perfect cinema experience with plush sofas, a full bar and great food. Visit to find out more. Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
Irish Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
‘I couldn't resist the fact that the sharks weren't the monsters': Sean Byrne on making the thriller Dangerous Animals
Jaws did nothing to help the public perception of sharks. Steven Spielberg's 1975 film portrayed them as aggressive predators, instilling widespread terror. Its sequels doubled down on that idea, including Jaws: The Revenge, with its bizarre plot about a vendetta-harbouring great white stalking a family to the Bahamas. Sean Byrne, the cult Australian film-maker behind the new shark-heavy thriller Dangerous Animals, is aware of the negative impact. 'As much as I adored Jaws – and it's one of my favourite films – it does a great disservice to the sharks,' he says. 'Ever since then they've been hunted in greater numbers.' Indeed, a surge in fear-driven shark hunting has contributed to a 70 per cent decline in global oceanic shark and ray populations since 1970. 'You can't get a shark documentary off the ground unless you show a shark breaching the water, which perpetuates this lie that sharks just indiscriminately hunt humans. It's not true. There are fewer than 10 shark deaths a year, and they're usually accidents where the shark thinks the human is a seal. They are not indiscriminate killers.' READ MORE The director had no interest in adding to a collection of films more concerned with survival horror than oceanic adventure, not to mention the campy yet murderous absurdity of the abysmal Sharknado and its endless sequels, until he read Nick Lepard's killer script – that's surely the right word – for Dangerous Animals. 'I read several years ago on the internet that the shark subgenre was the only type of horror film that has never lost money,' Byrne says. 'And, of course, the internet doesn't lie. That was in the back of my mind when Nick's script crossed my desk. 'That combination of shark film and serial-killer film rolled into one was the first selling point. It's capturing two popular subgenres. It's so high-concept you could write it on a napkin. And I couldn't resist the fact that the sharks weren't the monsters.' In fact Dangerous Animals' tagline is 'You're safer in the water.' Sean Byrne at the premiere of Dangerous Animals in Los Angeles on May 27. Photograph: Michael Tullberg/Getty The film, which pits the oceans' apex predators against human savagery, features Hassie Harrison, the Yellowstone star, as Zephyr, a plucky surfer making her way along Australia's east coast. Her free-spirited vibe sours when she's abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a shark-obsessed serial killer who throws his victims into fishy feeding waters. He even sings a growling version of Baby Shark. Held captive on his drifting vessel, Zephyr must outwit her deranged captor and the circling predators. Back on land, Moses (Josh Heuston), a fellow surfer and recent romantic hook-up, embarks on a perilous quest to find out what has become of her. The director deftly marries muscular performances, gore, suspense and real sharks to keep the fearful viewer hooked. 'We had a shark historian,' he says. 'We didn't want to just feature the great white, because it has had its moment in the spotlight. We knew we wanted the sharks to have scars. The same way that humans have imperfections, they have scars from being hunted or from lovemaking.' You can believe what you see in Dangerous Animals. 'Everything that you're seeing underwater is a real shark,' Byrne says. 'Above water, when you're seeing the fins, we used CGI. Future Associate was the company, and they did an incredible job. In a lot of shark films they're almost animated to look like humans; they'll get an angry look on their face. We stayed close to nature documentaries. I watched a lot of the Discovery Channel.' Dangerous Animals has just delighted audiences at Cannes, where it premiered at Directors' Fortnight. Its selection by the film festival was a surprise for Byrne. 'We didn't submit it,' he says. 'It was the French distributors that submitted it, because they recognised that it's not a typical shark film. I think the subgenre had been crying out for a different take. I'm guessing that's why it got in. 'It subverts the form to a certain extent while also still being an extremely entertaining ride. We were trying to make this commercial, glossy Bruckheimer-influenced horror film but with a f**ked-up dark heart.' The son of an Tasmania-based Irish film critic, Byrne grew up watching press screenings and ploughing through armfuls of VHS tapes. His journey into film-making was haphazard. After completing a law degree he realised that he had taken a wrong turn. Driven by a passion for cinema, he returned to school at 25, enrolling alongside much younger students on a media-production course where he created several no-budget short films featuring friends and family. That portfolio led to his acceptance into the Australian Film Television and Radio School , the prestigious Sydney alma mater of directors such as Cate Shortland, Warwick Thornton and Gillian Armstrong. 'Towards the end of my degree I saw Pulp Fiction, and I loved how it broke every rule,' Byrne says. 'It literally never cuts to the chase. John Travolta and Samuel Jackson will get out of the car and we'll follow their conversation all the way up into the elevator down the hall. 'I started thinking about the structure. I recognised all the elements, but it made everything old new again. That set something off in my brain. Wow. You can take the sum of your influences and start to subvert them. So I started to write. I went to Rosny College, which was the only school in Tasmania that offered a video-camera course.' There's a great history of well-respected film-makers – Sam Raimi, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron – emerging from horror. Theoretically, it's far more intense than any other genre — Sean Byrne He laughs. 'One of the teachers gave me feedback that said, 'Sean is 25 going on 15.' And I'm not sure anything changed.' Byrne's feature films aim to remind viewers why they fell in love with horror in the first place. His festival favourite The Loved Ones, from 2009, mashed up Brian De Palma's Carrie and Ozploitation flicks to create a twisted high-school prom horror. The Devil's Candy, from 2015, channelled The Shining, heavy metal and Byrne's personal anxieties about parenthood into a wild supernatural battle. 'I had written some wannabe David Lynch scripts,' he says. 'My agent liked them. But they had no traction. I almost quit until I realised I should make a contained, low-budget horror. Something like The Evil Dead. Something I could make on a credit card. 'I was very influenced by Peter Jackson and what he'd done with Bad Taste. There's a great history of well-respected film-makers – Sam Raimi, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron – emerging from horror. Theoretically, it's far more intense than any other genre.' Byrne won't say who has come a-courting, but he has had bigger, shinier, commercial offers. He has turned them down, preferring to plough his own furrow. 'Life's too short,' he says. 'I've got kids, and I'd rather go back and make ads than spend two years on something I don't 100 per cent believe in. I think that's really unfair on the crew, the producers and the financiers. 'I do have the courage to pass on things that I don't feel are the right fit, because I'm terrified of failure. The best way to not fail is to be completely obsessed with something. You can't do that if you're not passionate about the project.' Dangerous Animals is in cinemas from Friday, June 6th
Digital Trends
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Brains vs. guts: Dangerous Animals cast relied on their instincts in new shark thriller
'People don't understand the hierarchy of animals in this world,' Tucker, a serial killer played by Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad), says in the new shark thriller Dangerous Animals. The eccentric Tucker explains how people think with their guts instead of their brains when the '300 razor-sharp teeth' from a shark are tearing at someone's flesh. Courtney had to trust his instincts to play a sadistic sociopath like Tucker. 'I'm a very gut instinct-driven person,' Courtney tells Digital Trends about his character choices in Dangerous Animals. 'Some people operate really cerebrally, and it's all about logic. I'm much more impulsive, and that all stems from here [pointing to gut].' Recommended Videos Directed by Sean Byrne, Dangerous Animals is a mash-up between a survival horror and a psychological thriller. Yellowstone's Hassie Harrison plays Zephyr, a free-spirited surfer looking to run away from her past. One night, Zephyr is kidnapped by Tucker, the rambunctious owner of a shark cage diving business. Tucker uses the business as a front for his nefarious passion: feeding his guests to sharks. Trapped on a boat with a serial killer, Zephyr must survive long enough to figure out a way back to shore before she becomes chum in the water. Zephyr's only hope lies with a kind stranger she previously bonded with, Moses (Dune: Prophecy's Josh Heuston). Below, the cast of Dangerous Animals discusses their time at the Cannes Film Festival, the physicality required for each role, and whether they rely on their brains or guts when acting. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Digital Trends: How was Cannes? Jai Courtney: It was such an unexpected gift to us to be able to go and showcase this. What an honor. I've never been to Cannes. Never experienced that. I think we were all surprised. It's not the most typical choice to have a shark serial killer survival thriller mashup there, but it's a testament to the wonderful film that Sean directed. Josh Heuston: Incredible, really. Hassie Harrison: We're still processing it all. Was it your first time? Harrison: Yes, that was our first time. I think it was just so surreal to go to Cannes and have a movie premiere there. Also, for it to be so well received was just the loveliest thing. So it's your first time with a standing ovation. Does it move from gratitude to awkwardness? Courtney: It started with awkwardness. We were so proud of the movie, and the audience was so on board the whole time. To have that reception, I was totally embarrassed. I was literally telling people to cut it [motioning to his throat]. I've got producers down the wing being like, 'Let it happen.' And I'm like, 'All right. Are we good, everyone? That's enough. Should we all get to the bar?' Heuston: So fast for me. [Laughs] Harrison: I just want to say Australians don't really love attention and compliments. I get it. Sometimes, it can feel like people are singing Happy Birthday to you on repeat, and you're like, 'Ohh.' Heuston: I just didn't know where to put my hands. Harrison: [Laughs] That is our job as actors. Heuston: Yeah, but then I hugged everyone like four times, and I didn't know what to do. [Laughs] I was fascinated by one of Tucker's speeches. This idea of how humans think with their brains and guts. Outside of a shark situation, as actors, when you're developing characters and on screen, do you find yourself relying on your brains or your guts? Have you found a happy marriage between the two? Courtney: I'm a very gut instinct-driven person, like a lot of sacral energy. I have to feel like something is a 'hell yes' or a 'hell no.' I think the brain gets in the way of that sometimes. Some people operate really cerebrally, and it's all about logic. I'm much more impulsive, and that all stems from here [pointing to gut]. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm always making the right move, but I've learned to trust that. It's how I have to approach life. Harrison: I think you gotta listen to your instincts. That's how you keep your nose to the joy trail. We need our brains to function in the world as well. I think what you're saying is ultimately about listening to your heart. Heuston: As an actor, I guess you use your brain to do all your prep work and your research. You figure out and learn as much as possible about the character and the given circumstance. At the end of the day, you've got to wing it and go with your instincts and your gut. Yeah, I feel that's kind of the way. Did you trust your gut for that dancing scene? Courtney: Yeah. I mean, that thing was two takes, totally improvised. I might have had a couple of little whiskies just to loosen myself up. Sean said it was on a Friday, so it was the last thing you did. Courtney: It was the last thing we did that week. We didn't know what it was going to be. We had an idea like, OK, it's about this celebration for Tucker. Sean wanted me to let loose. We pumped that track up that he [Tucker] danced to, which is an Aussie classic, Evie. I didn't know it was going to happen either, but I had to get myself into a mindset of stepping outside my comfort zone. Don't be afraid to look ridiculous. Zephyr, the character, is a free spirit. She looks to be having the time of her life. Obviously, she's damaged on the inside. She lives in that van; it's her cage. To get into that cage, what was your way of finding that character? Harrison: Zephyr's pretty close to home for me. I've always been attracted to playing strong, resilient women. I loved that she's a fighter. Her strength … I think I had a fast track in. She lives so close to home for me. What stuck with me is the physicality of this movie. All of the strenuous activity — going out on the line over the water, the night shoots, etc. How did you find a way into this character through the physicality and the strenuous activity? Heuston: I was in that harness for like two or three days. By the end of it, you're truly in there. As I was saying before, you feel much more grounded in that experience. You are getting taken across with the crane and then dunked in the water and then taken back out. You're doing it on repeat, and that is physically draining, just like Moses would be in that moment. I loved it though, to be fair, in like a really sadistic way. [Laughs] It hurt, but it was like really fun. What about you, Hassie? Harrison: Yeah, this was a very physically demanding role, to say the least. All the water stuff — filming out on the ocean, not in a tank — it gives you so much as an actor to just dig into that discomfort. Being in the ocean at night when you're genuinely scared makes my job easier. There's a fearlessness required to play Tucker. How did you go to that place, to really let yourself go and find the courage to do what's required to play this character? Courtney: I came from theater, and one of the earliest things you learn to adopt when you're playing on stage is you have to shed this fear of being ridiculous or looking like the clown. It's almost like you have to embrace that. Be unafraid to fall. You're not going to make every right choice. You have to look like an idiot. But what that injects into young performers is you can be nimble. There's nothing at stake here other than an opportunity to find something new. I knew with this role that it had to be big. It's all there on the page for me to sink my teeth into. If it was reduced down to playing some wash of an evil guy, it becomes uninteresting, and we believe it less. It had to stem from the truth. He had to be this wounded child within. I wanted to flood him with this performer that we see on the boat because he's the captain of Tucker's experience. This is all real stuff. It's not all geared toward his killings. He runs a successful business, which is why he's able to hide in plain sight. I wanted that to feel real to me like him taking the stage on the back deck and the way he sheds his wisdom, even if he does love the sound of his own voice too much. He needed to be somewhat of an affable presence as well as a threat. That's interesting. Now, I think of him [Tucker] as a theater performer. The boat is his stage. Courtney: I mean, we've all met this guy before in some way or another. He's the cab driver that won't shut up. He's the uncle at the wedding that like… Please stay away. Courtney: Exactly! We know this guy, and that's what sprung off the page for me. I've spent time in the pub with this dude. I don't necessarily want to be around him anymore, but I can lock into who he is. I love the power dynamics between Jai's character and Hassie's character. You're [Jai] pretty much in control in the beginning. Then, she starts to get under your skin, and it flips, where she's the one in power. Take me through those conversations about the power shifting throughout the movie. Courtney: I think it's just understanding how to shift the status. She plays such a strong character within herself. I think that's the thing. She really gets under his skin because she doesn't necessarily relent to his kind of threats and certainly not his charms. That's a tough thing for a guy like Tucker because he feels akin to her in some way. He's under the belief that spiritually, they see the world in the same way and operate in unison somehow, and she doesn't believe that at all. I think she has her own wounds, but ultimately, she's got a much stronger mind than him. Harrison: I think it's really just one of those classic tales of cat and mouse. That's what makes it so fun when you get those little wins and then get the setbacks. Jai is just a powerful person, indeed. [Laughs] It's cool to go toe-to-toe with him and do that dance. Even walking into the room, he's [Jai] such a big figure. So loud. Heuston: Big dude, and he's such a generous actor, though, so it makes it so easy to do those scenes. Dangerous Animals is exclusively in theaters on Friday, June 6.
Geek Vibes Nation
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Vibes Nation
'Dangerous Animals' (2025) Review - Another Shark Film Without Much Bite
On a picturesque day, two tourists board a seagoing expedition to dive with sharks. Under the guidance of the ship's captain, Tucker (Jai Courtney), there is a drumbeat of terror as the sharks swim around the cage. We are conditioned because this is a shark movie to expect bloodshed within the first few moments, and that is the case—however, we learn quickly that the real danger is not circling the cage but on the boat. This time, man is the real killer. As we approach 50 years since Jaws ' release , it is remarkable how 'shark films' have failed to make waves, let alone a splash on the movie screen. This is a testament to that film's enduring power in the subgenre, but it also shows that one good bite does not always deserve another. Shark movies are unique because, automatically, for better or worse, they are inevitably compared to Jaws. There have been pale imitations, passable entries, and out-of-the-box creations. Yet, a shark premise runs shallow in a world defined by Jaws . So what choice is there but to make a man even more deadly than the shark? Enter Dangerous Animals. It's a sufficiently fine B-movie, with an unhinged performance, but ultimately lacking much of a bite. Hassie Harrison in Sean Byrne's DANGEROUS ANIMALS. Courtesy of Mark Taylor. An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release. The story follows Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a rebellious surfer who falls into Tucker's clutches. Now, he holds on to his boat and heads out to see if she can escape before he feeds her to the sharks. In addition, her friend Moses (Josh Heuston) is searching for her and ultimately finds himself tangled in the serial killer's net. The movie sticks to the simple premise of a shark-obsessed serial killer. Save for a bit of backstory for Tucker and some exposition on Zephyr, the story commits to being a straightforward survival thriller. Dangerous Animals falls into the waters of being a B-movie, but an entertaining one. As a result, despite the simplistic nature, there is not a vast ocean of story to tell here. Ultimately, it feels like we are merely treading water throughout most of the runtime. Jai Courtney in Sean Byrne's DANGEROUS ANIMALS. Courtesy of Mark Taylor. An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release. Right off the boat, this film attempts to clear up the misconception that sharks are uncontrollable monsters. The most dangerous thing here is not in the water but on the ship. Dangerous Animals takes a shark movie's trappings while rolling into a serial killer exploit. Tucker is diabolical, a serial killer obsessed with sharks after surviving an encounter with one as a child. As an adult, he feeds unsuspecting captives aboard his boat to the sharks. Genre fans will no doubt relish a few moments of gore and splatter that surprisingly do not come from the sharks. If anything, the sharks take more of a backseat in this picture, save for the crowd-cheering moment at the end. Outside of the premise of feeding victims to sharks, the movie is more of a run-of-the-mill serial killer survival hunt, which offers nothing more than the usual slop from this subgenre. This is a frustrating film in many ways because the premise is clever, but the movie never gives up enough to sink in our teeth. It is surface-level, and there is no reason for a deep-dive psychological thriller for a B-movie. But even as a standard creature feature, this film left me more seasick than widely entertained. Jai Courtney in Sean Byrne's DANGEROUS ANIMALS. Courtesy of Mark Taylor. An Independent Film Company and Shudder Release. The characters are nothing but sketches. The tension is quick, but there is a redundancy. Being trapped on a boat leaves little room to propel the narrative forward. Several baffling story decisions and false ends dry up any adrenaline rush. This may be too harsh on the film, but it feels like a shark movie needs to fish or cut bait in a post- Jaws world. While mostly a forgettable sea excursion, what is noteworthy here is the performance by Jai Courtney. He works with the thin material and blurbs of exposition to deliver a truly maniacal ship captain. He hammers it up in a way that serves the story and allows him to make a lot of waves. It is easily the most three-dimensional performance in the film. Courtney is channeling a murderous Quint with a dash of Ahab. Dangerous Animals is passable, but it feels like playing in a pool instead of swimming in the ocean. If you haven't experienced the latter, then the former is perfectly acceptable. But once you've gone out into the deep blue sea, there is no going back. Dangerous Animals will debut exclusively in theaters on June 6, 2025, courtesy of IFC Films and Shudder.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Dangerous Animals review – shark-bait thriller boasts a gnarly Jai Courtney
Sean Byrne's gonzo horror thriller premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section of this year's Cannes film festival, in the sidebar where Cannes traditionally finds a place in its heart for genre or offbeat fare. Yet despite this stamp of authority – and a lead turn from Jai Courtney that could best be described as 'gnarly' – I couldn't get behind this movie, which has a bargain-basement straight-to-streaming feel to it. The scene is the Australian Gold Coast where surfers come to catch gigantic waves. Hassie Harrison (from TV's Yellowstone) plays a badass surfer named Zephyr, who travels around in her van as free as the wind sampling the most outrageous swells. She meets-cute with Moses (Josh Heuston), a nerdy guy who is very sweet and yet also kind of hot. When they part, Zephyr is to come fatefully into contact with the film's horrible villain, a beefy, bullish guy called Tucker, played by Courtney, who has a business taking attractive twentysomething tourists wearing only swimming costumes out on his boat, promising them an intimate encounter with sharks. But the unspeakable Tucker, a great shark enthusiast himself, has some pretty unusual ideas about the food he wants to offer to bring these creatures up to his boat. It would be pure pedantry to start quibbling about the fact that Tucker's long-term interests would surely have attracted the attention of local police before now. And in the real world, stabbing a bad guy in the neck with an improvised knife will not generally cause him to just lie down as if asleep for 10 seconds, just long enough for you to get a head start with your final-girl escape-run away from him. This film has an audience, certainly, but it feels very derivative. Dangerous Animals is in UK and Irish cinemas from 6 June and Australian cinemas from 12 June.
