As if a movie about sharks wasn’t scary enough, the filmmakers behind “Dangerous Animals” have upped the screams by adding what every thriller needs — a serial killer.
While that may sound like very dangerous moviemaking, the result is actually taut and well crafted, a worthy birthday present to “Jaws,” celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer.
“Dangerous Animals” stars Jai Courtney as an Australian boat captain who likes feeding his female customers to sharks and videotaping it, while also offering little brainy speeches about the nature of makos, mosquitos or sailfish while toying with his prey.
He meets what seems like his match in Hassie Harrison’s Zephyr, an American antisocial surf queen who lives in a van and refuses to be tied down. “There was nothing for me on land,” she says. She’s kind of a handful for any serial killer, For instance, she can pick locks with the underwire from a bikini top.
Nick Lepard’s screenplay is muscular and satisfying, with nods to “Jaws,” of course, but also to “Point Break,” “Hannibal” and even the song “Baby Shark.” He says he was inspired to write “Dangerous Animals” by seeing a surfboard bag and imagining it carrying a body, which says something about how Lepard’s mind works, though we’re not judging.
Director Sean Byrnes has a super ability to build dread and his scenes are crisp without being exploitative. The movie was shot on Queensland’s Gold Coast, but may take a bite out of the region’s shark cage diving fleets. I’m looking twice even before taking showers now.
Zephyr and the serial killer play an engaging game of chess for most of the movie, if by chess is meant she’s fighting to stay alive by wriggling out of handcuffs and running or swimming away and he’s determined for her to be shark food.
“Oh, you’re a fighter. I love fighters. It makes for a better show,” he says, biting into the scenery almost as viciously as the sharks chomp on chum.
He also does that thing that all serial killers do — saying he and his victim are similar. “You’re hard as nails. Like me. You and me, we’re sharks,” he tells her. She tells him to stop talking so much and calls him ocean scum.
The music department has a fun wink with the soundtrack. One scene uses Steve Wright’s “Evie (Part One)” — in which the singer begs his love to let her hair hang down — as the serial killer makes mementos out of his victims’ hair. Another moment, astonishingly, plays Etta James’ “At Last,” the ultimate wedding song, just as the bad guy finally captures his quarry inches from rescue.
The setting of a boat in the middle of the Coral Sea unlocks a delicious new home for terror. Sealable hatches and no one for miles means screaming is no good. And the serial killer has weaponized Vegemite.
One thing Zephyr has up her sleeve is a boy, smitten after a meet-cute in which she tries to shoplift ice cream. He’s played by the hunky Josh Heuston and they’re perfect for each other but she resists until she’s snatched by our nasty boat captain. But even though she blew him off, her boy is suspicious about her disappearance and is on the hunt.
“Dangerous Animals,” thankfully, doesn’t try to be more than it is, although the quite beautiful images of sharks sliding through the ocean show, naturally, that we are the species that inspired the title. After all, sharks don’t see a surfboard bag and wonder if they can put a body in it.
“Dangerous Animals,” an IFC Films release in theaters Friday, is rated R for “strong, bloody violent content, grisly images, sexuality, language and brief drug use.” Running time: 98 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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