In 1975, Steven Spielberg brought us Jaws, a film that made people scared to go in the water while simultaneously setting the standard of the summer blockbuster. Along the way though he essentially created a subgenre of its own in the shark movie, a never ending stream of films trying and failing to capture the magic of Jaws over the past half century. Some of these have been good, I myself am quite fond of The Shallows and am partial to a "so bad it's good" one like the Sharknado franchise or the second 47 Meters Down. There have been so many over the years though that just suck, whether they be trying their best to be the next Sharknado or just deeply lacking in any quality. Because of that trend of poor quality, I was initially skeptical about Dangerous Animals. I am happy to report though, that this marks a perfectly solid entry into the shark movie lexicon.
Dangerous Animals follows Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), an American surfer and former-foster child living out of a van in Queensland, Australia. After spending the night with the charming Moses (Josh Heuston), Zephyr runs out to catch some early morning waves, where she is kidnapped by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a man who runs a "swimming with shark" business largely to fund his hobby of feeding people to said sharks.
I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but don't go into this one expecting some cinematic masterpiece. This is an over the top, cheesy, and often quite goofy movie, but that is exactly why it works. Rather than just focus on people trying not to get eaten by sharks, this is more a serial killer movie with sharks thrown in for extra fun. Much has been said about how films like Jaws have given sharks a bad reputation, and Dangerous Animals seems to reckon with that by making a crazy Australian guy the actual villain. Don't get me wrong, the sharks do some damage (some glorious damage I might add), but their carnage comes more from circumstance than them being monstrous which I appreciated. There's just as much tension from Zephyr trying to escape Tucker as there is tension from people trying not to be eaten, if not more, making this a pretty constant thrill ride with different threats to fill its runtime.
Hassie Harrison is good as the lead here, but isn't doing anything special. Her character is written with an almost cartoonish sense of familiarity with other shark/survival movie protagonists, but the film is self aware enough that I would assume this was intentional. She's tough, she has some very goofy lines, but isn't necessarily memorable. Jai Courtney on the other hand is giving a VERY memorable performance. We don't really get a ton of depth with Tucker, but I don't think any is needed. He is a sadistic menace that delights in torturing his victims and capturing it on camera, but his brutality is contrasted with a very goofy upbeat performance from Courtney. There comes a point where he just keeps ranting about sharks and making shark metaphors that really makes it click in that this film knows exactly what it is, and Courtney's commitment to the bit is a large part of why it works. In most serial killer movies we watch as the protagonists try to figure out who the villain is, but here we are shown immediately who Tucker is and Courtney is clearly having a ton of fun in the role.
This is just the kind of fun thriller that was made for the summer. It takes place mostly in one location but has so many different ways of creating tension that it never feels stale. The self-awareness of it all makes for a film that treads some familiar ground but in a constantly entertaining way, and Jai Courtney's performance as Tucker will go down as one of the year's best villains. Long live the shark movie. Strong 3.5/5
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