Dangerous Animals (2025) Film Review: Grisly venture into shark-infested waters delivers solid serial killer thrills

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When free-spirited, savvy Australian surfer, Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), is abducted by an unhinged serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must use her resourcefulness and resilience to find a way to escape before her captor carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below.

Equipped with high-quality direction, editing and superb lead performances, this bone-chilling survival horror/thriller will probably put you off the ocean for life and makes for a successful, yet familiar addition to the shark sub-genre, which was famously made popular and profitable by Steven Spielberg with his hugely influential blockbuster Jaws (1975).

The cinema landscape has arguably become over-saturated with deadly sea creatures hungry for human flesh, imagined as either a huge monstrosity or your conventional, yet reliable, ordinary sharks. Therefore, it would be understandable for audiences to instantly roll their eyes at this film's seemingly predictable premise. Despite initial concerns, this film is able to stand on its own as an effective thrill ride from start to finish, evolving a clickbait concept into a disturbing exploration of the inside of a serial killer's psyche.

Jai Courtney as shark-obsessed serial killer, Bruce Tucker, steals the spotlight with a deeply disturbing performance

This is aided in large part by Jai Courtney's thrilling screen presence as butch, eccentric boat captain, Bruce Tucker. This character could easily have come across as comically cartoonish, however, there is something terrifyingly realistic about Courtney's sinister, yet charismatic performance, who displays a creepy obsession with sharks after being bitten by one as a child and developing a horrific fascination with filming his victims' gruesome deaths. It is a delightfully deranged performance, with a cold, hard edge that constantly tests our lead's limits.

Hassie Harrison's Zephyr also commands the screen alongside her co-lead, playing a fierce force of nature who never gives up despite all of the pain she is put through and the constant obstacles thrown her way. She is instantly endearing due to the mystery surrounding her troubled past and is easily relatable because of her likability and intrigue.

The film also sports fantastic nighttime and underwater sequences when our characters are forcibly suspended above the sea to be fed to the sharks. A combination of jolting edits and a bold, brash sound design is very effective at building anticipation and enhancing the shock value and natural fear factor of the setting. Director Sean Byrne and composer Michael Yezerski are strategic in how they implement the score, knowing when to rely on the power of silence to enhance the raw performances of the actors.

Hassie Harrison's strappy Zephyr fights for her life against dangerous threats, both animal and human

Writer Nick Lepard turns in a solid screenplay full of twists and turns, with plenty of gripping, adrenaline-fueled sequences as our leading lady desperately uses anything at her disposal to find help and escape her horrifying situation. The movie could have potentially been a tad shorter, as the narrative does begin to become repetitive when Zephyr gets close to succeeding in her pursuits, only to be recaptured again. Also, despite the trailer promising a blood fest, the actual body count is surprisingly low, with only one real major death occurring. Although this sequence is particularly well done with a distressing intensity to the performances and overwhelming dread, as the nonchalant Tucker sadistically revels in the gnarly events.

Despite the lack of gore, the movie does a fantastic job of conveying the horror through what we are not shown. Simply observing Tucker watching one of his recordings whilst happily tucking into a meal and casually listening to the blood-curdling screams of one of his previous victims is a notable highlight of the film and further extenuates Courtney's incredible commitment to the role. The film offers nothing ground-breaking or original for the horror genre, however, it works well as a nail-biting thriller, which will have you glued to the screen with its strong writing and engaging performances.

Check out the trailer for Dangerous Animals (2025) below, and please let me know your thoughts in the comments!