Dangerous Animals (2025) is an Australian survival horror film. Directed by Sean Byrne, It had a world premiere at Cannes Film Festival (the first Australian film in the program in over a decade)

A serial killer (Jai Courtney) kidnaps and films his victims being eaten alive by sharks. It’s revealed he has made dozens of videos. Apparently he’s somehow trying to deal with his own childhood trauma of being mauled by a shark.

Eventually, the killer chooses the wrong girl, our protagonist, a van life surfer chick, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison). She possesses both physical and mental strength, as well as being drop dead gorgeous and very clever.

You can imagine how the plot unfolds. It’s comparable to big game deep sea fishing in which the Marlin resists and tries escape for hours on end and the fishermen slowly reels it in. So too, does the killer thwart escape attempts time and time again.

In this regard, I feel a bit let down by the film’s only real strength. It’s a tight story but predictable. The viewer is ultimately just waiting for the final victorious escape and revenge (the scene is a glorious and fitting demise for the killer though).

Most of the film is shot on a smallish fishing boat with some very nice underwater shark scenes, the soundtrack is pretty cool with old school songs by Billy Idol, Creedence, The Regrettes, Crowded House, Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie Wright.

A solid horror film, maybe like a Wolf Creek on the water. It’s worth one viewing but, I probably won’t ever watch it again.

6.8/10 gaffer hooks