‘Dangerous Animals’ Review: Jai Courtney Chews More Scenery Than His Shark Co-Stars [B] Cannes

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws turns 50 years old on June 20th and its cinematic significance can’t be understated. Its colossal financial success gave birth to the term “blockbuster” and the film itself was so effective, that many people were afraid to set foot in the ocean after watching it.

But Spielberg also helped create a new subgenre of cinema; the shark movie. While no subsequent shark film has ever rivalled the critical respect or the box office takings of Jaws, there always seems to be a new one waiting in the wings for a prime summer release. 

Sean Byrne’s Dangerous Animals has the bragging right of being the first ever shark movie to debut at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Premiering as part of the 2025 directors fortnight, his film is less about killer sharks, than it is about a killer who uses sharks to kill.

The psycho in question is Tucker played by an unhinged Jai Courtney. Tucker is a jovial bear of a man who operates a private hire boat which offers tourists visiting Australia the experience of diving with sharks from inside a submerging cage that he dangles off the back of his boat.

Once he gets them into shark-infested waters miles away from land, he overpowers any female participants with brute strength and imprisons them on his boat. Chaining them to a seedy bed frame in the bowls of his boat where the names of previous women have been scratched into the wall as he prepares for an evening slaughter. Tucker has a Dexter-like ritual for his kills. He takes a lock of their hair as a memento, straps them into a body harness and then slowly lowers them into chum-laced waters so the sharks will attack and dispose of their bodies for him. Tucker himself is even a fan of the shark film genre – as he records each toothy murder on an old school video camera to rewatch for his own amusement.

His latest victim is surfer Zephyr played by Hassie Harrison. Zephyr is an ideal candidate for Tucker; a loner with no family who lives in her van so nobody will notice if she disappears. But Zephyr is a resilient survivor who has had to fend for herself since she was a kid bouncing around different foster homes. So she’s not going down without a fight. 

Shark movies often fall into the categorisation of dumb-but-fun (like the Meg franchise) and Dangerous Animals isn’t pretending to be anything other than a trashy summer flick. This is pure schlocky entertainment. The cinematic equivalent of fast food. It’s quick with a breezy 90 minute runtime. You know it’s not good for you but it certainly is delicious. And you walk away feeling equal parts guilty and satisfied.

Byrne knows what his audience have paid to see and delivers a lean, suspenseful and highly enjoyable romp with some sinister kills and a lot of laughs. Nick Lepard’s script is gleefully tongue-in-cheek with many foreboding lines from Tucker early on which Courtney is clearly revelling in delivering. He knows what he’s signed up for and Courtney does indeed shine as a deranged loony who gets to dance around in his underpants and sing Baby Shark. Do I smell Oscar buzz? Absolutely not but Courtney goes for it as if this were his best shot.

Normally it’s the sharks that are the stars of these types of B-movies but the acting is surprisingly sturdy despite the tacky premise. Harrison makes for a scrappy and resourceful final girl who refuses to appear meek or scared in front of Tucker. She calls him out on his pseudo-philosophical apex predator rants and plucks a nerve on more than one occasion. Harrison plays well with all of her scene partners. Whether it’s fellow prisoner Heather (Ella Newton) who she shares in the terror of their predicament. Or the hunky real estate agent Moses (Josh Heuston) who occupies the B-plot of the film. Moses launches his own search for Zephyr after she mysteriously vanishes shortly after their passionate one night stand.

As for the sharks themselves, Byrne seems to have taken a play out of Spielberg’s book by opting for a less-is-more approach. What we don’t see is scarier and Byrne cleverley relies more on our fear of the unknown than showing us an abundance of shots of the mostly CGI sharks. But he gets credit for interpersing shots of real sharks where he can. The tension really comes from the anticipation of Tucker’s actions rather than over-emphasizing the blood or guts. But don’t be fooled into a false sense of safety, there are still plenty of stomach-churning shots as well as jump scares to boot. 

Dangerous Animals is beat-for-beat predictable and it wont leave much for you to chew on after watching but it’s still a taught and tense survival thriller with a jolly good performance from Jai Courtney.

At times the screenplay becomes a little repetitive as Zephyr attempts to break free and outsmart her captor. But there’s enough palpable tension throughout to keep the audience gripped and it all builds to a joyfully bloody finale that will have you either curdling in your seat or cheering at the screen. Perhaps both.

Grade: B

This review is from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where Dangerous Animals premiered in the Director’s Fortnight section of the festival.