Richard Crouse

SYNOPSIS: In “Dangerous Animals,” a new survival horror film now playing in theatres, Jai Courtney is an unhinged, shark-obsessed serial killer who kidnaps and holds surfer Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) captive on his boat. To escape she must use her wits or risk becoming fish food in her abductor’s twisted plan. “You’re a fighter,” he says to her. “I like fighters. Makes for a better show.”

CAST: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke, and Jai Courtney. Directed by Sean Byrne.

REVIEW: It would be tempting to say that “Dangerous Animals” is “Silence of the Lambs” via “Jaws.” Or “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer” meets “The Meg.” But, in its sadistic horror, it’s more like “Saw” at sea than anything else.

It’s not a subtle movie. In the first few minutes a young couple, about to board the murder boat, are referred to as “chum,” and asked if they have their last well and testaments in order.

Later, when Zephyr, a free-spirited American surfer in Australia catching waves, hanging ten and putting a troubled past behind her, comes under the radar of serial killer Tucker, he listens to Crowded House on the turntable. “She came all the way from America,” they sing. ”She had a blind date with destiny.”

A blind date with a shark obsessed serial killer is more like it, but you get the idea.

This is a movie unafraid of foreshadowing. Not that any of that matters much, because director Sean Byrne and screenwriter Nick Lepard aren’t all that interested in surprising the audience. The movie is all anticipation, leading up to jump scares, some nasty nature-gone-wild thrills and survivalist horror, but not a lot of actual surprises.

Much of it will catch your eye, and they do a good job of building tension, but much of what happens is predictable, especially if you know what the term “Final Girl” means or have seen survival movies like “Wolf Creek” or “The Descent.”

The dangerous animals of the title, are, of course, not the sharks that go into a feeding frenzy when victims are lowered into the water, but the man doing the lowering. Jai Courtney makes for a compelling killer who self-identities as a shark, “a solitary creature who fends for himself.” He does the now standard serial killer underwear dance and makes fishing lures out of his victim’s hair. There’s not much else to him, but as an unhinged symbol of pure evil, he gets the job done.

As Zephyr, whether she’s handcuffed to a cot in the cold storage room of Tucker’s boat, or going to extremes to ensure her survival, Hassie Harrison is resilient and tough but unfortunately is saddled with a silly romantic angle that really takes some of the air out of the film’s finale.

Unfortunately, “Dangerous Animals” misses as many marks as it hits. Tucker’s voyeurism—he likes to videotape his bloody, orchestrated shark attacks—for example, could have been amplified to highlight his cruelty, but is woefully unexplored. And don’t get me started on the fake endings, but it still delivers some good gory moments, even if I think they missed the mark by not using “Shark Attack” by Split Enz as one of their on-the-nose soundtrack picks.