Romancing The Shark

Dangerous Animals features a psychotic Jai Courtney feeding unsuspecting tourists to sharks and videoing the carnage for his (and possibly other peoples) pleasure. It's an unhinged performance and the film has some of the same sweaty ickiness that permeates classic Australian horror movies. Unfortunately, proceedings are hindered by some cringeworthy dialogue and focus on a hard to buy romance.

The film opens with an unsuspecting couple of travellers hiring Courtney's shark diving boat, despite the fact he instantly identifies himself as shady (he literally checks with them that nobody knows where they are), and sure enough, one of them is soon dead and the other a prisoner. We then cut to a meet cute of sorts between hard shelled American drifter Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) and local real estate agent Moses (Josh Heuston). They are stereotypical opposites, her cynical and untethered, him a romantic and stable, but bond over a love of surfing and end up having a one night stand. Zephyr bails at the first opportunity but Moses is smitten, which is good news for the free spirited surf girl as she has someone to obsessively track her down when she is abducted by the maniacal boat captain. The majority of the film plays out as a series of near escapes and last minute interventions as predator and prey engage in a fight to the death.

What we have is a film of two parts. Every time Jai Courtney is on screen, the film is great. Whether he is singing baby shark, dancing around in his pants or waxing lyrical about his admiration of sharks, it's a captivating performance. He is the semi charismatic but annoying guy down the pub who talks too much that just happens to feed people to sharks when he isn't drinking beer. He has a lumbering physicality and glint in the eye that really sells how much he enjoys turning people into shark bait.

The movie takes a noticeable nose dive when he isn't around because the dialogue that is supposed to flesh out the other characters and make you root form them simply isn't good enough. Rather than talk about how to extract themselves from mortal danger, the would be victims prefer to drop stock lines on their relationships. Within five minutes of waking up chained to a bed Zephyr is telling her fellow captive she needs to tell her mum that her plans for the future are "her dream, not yours!" Moses doesn't want to talk escape plans, he wants to know Zephyr "felt something" during their night together. The film would almost certainly have been better without a male love interest as Hassie Harrison gives a great performance and the battle of wills between her and Courtney is fascinating. As it is, having her find that extra bit of fortitude because they she met a few hours ago is in danger is a bit demeaning.

A well shot and atmospheric movie, with a great villain but its let down by a script that fails to make you care about a relationship it really wants you to invest in. Slight dialogue is fine in a slasher film where characters are bumped off left and right but Dangerous Animals aspires to something deeper and misses the mark.

5 full buckets of chum out of 10.

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