Polygon.com / 07.06.25

Dangerous Animals, a giddy slasher where the knife is a shark

Australian director Sean Byrne is one of horrors premiere mixologists. His debut, 2009s The Loved Ones, meshed teen romance with gruesome Hostel-style extremism. 2015s The Devils Candy put a heavy metal spin on the haunted-house romp. His new film, Dangerous Animals, in theaters now, raises a question no one was asking about a classic B-movie subgenre: When is a killer shark movie not a killer shark movie? Answer: When the killer shark is just a weapon in a human killers hands.  Despite arriving just in time for the 50th anniversary of Jaws, Dangerous Animals has less in common with it (or with The Shallows or 47 Meters Down) and is more in line with Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Saw (or one of Australias modern horror successes, Wolf Creek). Hassie Harrison (Yellowstone) stars as Zephyr, an American surfer floating around the Australian coast looking for the perfect waves and maybe the right romance. She does not find it in Tucker (Jai Courtney of Terminator Genisys), who abducts her o...
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