Vague Visages’ Dangerous Animals review contains minor spoilers. Sean Byrne’s 2025 movie features Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney and Josh Heuston. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Tons of shark movies get released each year, but few manage to make a ripple, let alone a splash. Fifty years after its release, Jaws (1975) remains the granddaddy of them all, with just Deep Blue Sea (1999) — the only other sharksploitation movie to also effectively utilize shark animatronics — and 2016’s The Shallows (convincing CGI and a ruthlessly simple premise) nipping at its feet (although the nasty 2024 Netflix film Under Paris deserves a nod too, for the sheer audacity of putting sharks in the Seine River). Now comes Dangerous Animals, the latest production from accomplished Tasmanian filmmaker Sean Byrne (2009’s The Loved Ones, 2015’s The Devil’s Candy), which, true to form, is as deliciously day-ruining as his previous films. It also just might be the next great sharksploitation movie. 

Dangerous Animals stars Hassie Harrison (who normies know from Yellowstone [2018-24) and the cool kids from Tacoma FD [2019-23]) as Zephyr, a loner surfer who visits Australia to escape the shitty life she had back home as a former foster kid. Heartbreak High (2022) star Josh Heuston co-stars as Moses, a sweet-natured and local real estate agent who takes a shine to Zephyr and figures out that something is very wrong when she goes missing right before an early morning surfing session. And finally, there’s one-time DCEU star Jai Courtney, who plays loony serial killer Bruce Tucker, a man so obsessed with sharks, after being bitten by a Great White as a kid, that he feeds unsuspecting young women to them and makes home movies of their final moments (it’s unclear whether there’s a way to profit from such an endeavor, or if he cares). 

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Byrne plays his ballsy set-up completely straight in Dangerous Animals, aside from a few sly, well-placed jokes here and there to alleviate the throat-constricting suspense. Working from a script by debut screenwriter Nick Lepard, the director crafts a pulpy, propulsive and totally terrifying survival thriller that arguably boasts the most realistic depiction of a shark attack ever committed to film (crucially, as Jaws proves, what’s seldom seen is scarier). And the fact that you can’t spot the seams, even during a sequence bravely shot in broad daylight, only makes it more impressive. Byrne paces Dangerous Animals perfectly, hitting all the scariest beats with the requisite care and attention to detail, while the resonant sound design and thundering, Jaws-aping score by Michael Yezerski (who also composed the music for The Devil’s Candy) turns everything up a notch. 

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Dangerous Animals’ premise might be ridiculous, but it’s still undeniably bone-chilling. Byrne’s film has drawn comparisons to Wolf Creek, but that’s a major disservice to the Tasmanian filmmaker. Greg McLean’s 2005 film is exploitative, misogynist garbage, with a terrible lead performance bafflingly heralded as genius. Courtney, on the other hand, is so committed to the bit in Dangerous Animals that he goes all the way from mustache-twirling villainy to sinister to pathetic and back around to campy again. But the underused actor is never less than completely intimidating — even when he gets dressed down for being too verbose. Tucker is also charming enough that it’s easy to believe unassuming young people would happily head out on the water with him, especially when he sings “Baby Shark” to calm them down before cage diving. (The song has now shown up twice in a horror movie this year, following Christopher Landon’s Drop, which could be a sign of a burgeoning trend). 

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It’s incredibly gratifying that Courtney didn’t get swallowed up by the superhero machine. The Aussie actor — who dances in saggy undies and tucks into some fish as Bruce enjoys his homemade snuff movies — has long been the butt of jokes (#JaiBless), but Courtney proves that he’s more than capable of devouring a meaty part and giving a seemingly one-note character real depth and nuance, when provided the opportunity to do so. As for Harrison, she’s more than capable of going toe-to-toe with her co-star. On the page, Zephyr would probably read as a bit of a cliched bad girl type, but the character is so damaged that she’s been physically running from people forever. As such, when Zephyr gets handcuffed to a bed, she refuses to accept it, thrashing around to the extent that one might question whether she can be contained. It’s a ferocious turn from Harrison, which chimes nicely with Heuston’s sensitive take on Moses.

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In fact, Tucker proudly tells Zephyr at one point that she’s a shark like him (he later changes it to a marlin instead, as an insult). There’s an intriguing push and pull between the two main performers, and Dangerous Animals thrives off their unpredictability, much of which comes from what these two wildly opposed but also bizarrely similar characters will do next. Much of the action takes place aboard Tucker’s rusty old boat, which is another risk with a movie like this since it essentially means eking tension out of every minor development while balancing the quieter moments on land so that the audience doesn’t get too much of a reprieve.

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As Byrne proved with his breakout hit, The Loved Ones, he can do nasty. And, as the filmmaker demonstrated with The Devil’s Candy, he also knows how to handle the emotional stakes too. Viewers can appreciate Zephyr just as much as Moses does, and Harrison’s protagonist is believably in danger throughout Dangerous Animals. Despite Zephyr’s toughness, or how hard she fights, there’s no arguing with a hungry shark. Byrne gets tons of mileage from the bloodcurdling terror of someone being slowly lowered into shark-infested waters. Dangerous Animals’ body count is low, comparatively speaking, but the director knows when to draw blood slowly and when to go for the jugular. Much of the imagery Byrne conjures is truly nightmare-inducing. 

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It feels trite to declare “sharks are scary again” when they’ve always been terrifying, but it’s only while watching a movie as masterfully done as Dangerous Animals that it becomes clear how tricky it is to present nature’s greatest predators accurately onscreen while also not necessarily making them the bad guys, especially since nothing is scarier than a straight, white man with a power complex. Both Tucker and Zephyr take pains to note that sharks should be protected, and that they aren’t to blame for attacking humans, continuing the recent (and very welcome) trend of including a strong conservation message in sharksploitation movies. But that still doesn’t mean any of us will be hopping in the water any time soon after watching Dangerous Animals.

Dangerous Animals released theatrically on June 6, 2025.

Joey Keogh (@JoeyLDG) is a writer from Dublin, Ireland with an unhealthy appetite for horror movies and Judge Judy. In stark contrast with every other Irish person ever, she’s straight edge. Hello to Jason Isaacs. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film reviews at Vague Visages.

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