When I tell you that I have been waiting for this movie, I mean I have been waiting for this movie.
Sean Byrne, despite the fact that he’s only made two movies, is one of the directors I’ve followed most closely in my time as a horror fanatic. 2009’s iconic slasher The Loved Ones remains to this day one of the defining pieces of the Ozploitation genre, and The Devil’s Candy is a weird, trippy story of art and murder that features a favourite performance from a favourite actor in the form of Ethan Embry to boot.
But that movie came out in 2015, and I have been waiting ever since for another film from Byrne. And, thank God, a few months ago I smelled blood in the water in the form of his new shark-centric slasher movie, Dangerous Animals, directed by Byrne and written by Nick Lepard.
And I’ll cut to the chase: it’s a fantastic comeback for Byrne, one that makes all those years of waiting worthwhile. The movie follows Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) as she ends up kidnapped by Tucker (Jai Courtney) with the intention of feeding her to sharks in a ritualistic ceremony. It’s incredibly lean and taut, with this real denseness to the characters that’s delivered with a trust that the audience will put the pieces together. In some ways, it’s a parallel to The Loved Ones – the genders of the victim and perpetrator switched, both villains embodying a sort of hyper-version of the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Or maybe I just see The Loved Ones in everything. That could be it, too.
Courtney’s performance here could easily have tipped into over-the-top parody, but, matched with Lepard’s taut and focused scripts, he turns in a charismatic and utterly arresting villain up there with the all-timers. He’s easily matched by Hassie Harrison, who turns in a gritty role rich with intense physicality, putting the “survival” in “survival horror”. A special shout-out, too, must go to Ella Newton, who serves as the chum for the film’s central setpiece, but who manages to imbue her with enough heart that her death feels particularly wrenching as a result.
But the main characters here are the sharks – hardly a new conceit for horror directors, but one that Byrne makes excellent use of here. In most other shark-centric movies, the sharks themselves are the villains, but here, they’re the tools – while Tucker gives them some direction over the course of the movie, they are functionally neutral, a force of nature that’s ultimately uncontrollable and all the more terrifying for it. They’re framed almost as religious beings in Dangerous Animals, and, the way the fins cut through the inky-black reflection of the sky in the water, you could almost believe it.
As a comeback, Dangerous Animals is a worthy entry into Byrne’s fascinating trilogy of serial killer movies. But more than that, it’s a compelling, lean thriller in its own right, and one that breathes appropriately-bloody new life into the deep blue sea horror genre. I would love to hear your take on this movie, and what you’d like to see next from Byrne (preferably before the decade mark this time) in the comments below!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via Variety)
No But Listen 