As if your garden variety serial killer weren’t scary enough, Australia-set terror show “Dangerous Animals” features a sicko whose weapon of choice is … sharks. In some ways, the notion’s scarier than the razor-toothed creatures themselves, in that most people can avoid being chomped to death simply by steering clear of any body of water where sharks have been known to hunt. Now imagine minding your business, only to be knocked out, tied up and hauled out to sea, where some sadist dangles you over water thick with fins, while he records everything on VHS for his personal snuff film library.
We have screenwriter Nick Lepard to thank for these vivid new nightmares, presented with such conviction by “The Devil’s Candy” director Sean Byrne that the efficient and highly effective thriller scarcely allows a calm moment in which to question how deranged its premise truly is. Instead of hiding the psycho, “Dangerous Animals” introduces sketchy tour captain Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney) right up front, shown barreling through town in a beat-up old pickup truck like the aggressive predator that he is. Not that the American couple waiting beside his boat have any way of sensing the threat he represents.
Unfazed by the hunky chaperone who booked the excursion, muscular Tucker shamelessly flirts with one half of a thrill-seeking American couple looking to swim with sharks (from inside the protective confines of an underwater cage, of course). Remove the bars, and one half of this young lady is all that will be left floating in the ship’s wake. Tucker gets an almost erotic kick out of feeding live bait to these prehistoric carnivores, which come in various shapes and sizes, including a Great White so big, it could be quoting the poster for the most successful shark movie of all time.
Steven Spielberg’s classic blockbuster may have spawned dozens of imitators, but “Dangerous Animals” is something different — more “Saw” than “Jaws” — defined largely by the sadistic streak of its very human monster. Obviously, the title refers to men like Tucker as much as it does the sharks he identifies with. But it may also describe the would-be victim Tucker targets next: a thick-skinned loner named Zephyr (played by “Yellowstone” star Hassie Harrison), who looks like a young Jennifer Lawrence and packs much of the same underestimate-her-at-your-own-risk energy we associate with “The Hunger Games” star.
Zephyr spent her childhood being shuffled between foster homes, and has since sworn off society in favor of her true passion: seeking out the world’s best waves. That obsession has brought her to Australia, though Zephyr has a strict policy of not engaging with the locals. At this point in the film, the depth of Tucker’s depravity has yet to be revealed, though we’ve seen enough to share Zephyr’s wariness toward strangers — a stance that instantly smitten Moses (Josh Heuston) takes as a challenge after catching her shoplifting in town.
During the few short scenes Zephyr and Moses spend getting to know each other, “Dangerous Animals” assumes a very different tone — like something we might have stumbled across on the CW: The two actors are distractingly attractive, and their flirtation is almost too cute to accept (Moses cooks pancakes the morning after they meet, while she bashfully bats her eyes at the attention), but these scenes will matter later on, once Tucker abducts Zephyr. After all, the film is smart enough to make us care about the people Tucker is terrorizing.
Years ago, when Courtney first surfaced in films like “Jack Reacher” and “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” the strong young star suggested the sort of brick-wall security guard who crosses his arms outside a New York nightclub. He’s only gotten brawnier since, and the version of Courtney seen here could have swallowed such a bouncer in one bite. That means, you don’t beat someone like this through brute force; you have to outsmart him. But he hasn’t given Zephyr much to work with, handcuffing her to a steel bed in a locked cabin of his boat.
Not for one second does Lepard’s script reduce Zephyr to a mere damsel in distress. Rather, it recognizes that our engagement will be greater if Moses swoops in with every intention of saving her, only to be beaten, trussed up and turned into yet another of Tucker’s playthings. Though everything described so far must sound like the making for some grungy exploitation movie, “Dangerous Animals” is startlingly sleek and quite artful in its appearance. Byrne repeatedly frames scenes in such a way to suggest that all this bestiality is happening just a short distance from society (party boats and vacation resorts are just an arm’s reach away), but instead of providing hope, their music serves to drown out the screams.
Compliments to the production designer, who made Tucker’s ship feel like a floating abattoir. On its thick walls, Zephyr finds the names of previous victims carved into the paint. Elsewhere, Tucker keeps a cabinet stocked with roughly 40 video cassettes, each labeled with a name and a lock of hair. In “Dangerous Animals,” we don’t have to see this devil kill dozens of girls to get the picture — and it’s much scarier to let our imaginations extrapolate from limited clues. Rest assured, someone’s getting eaten before this movie’s through, and it won’t be the shark.
