Few things are more refreshing than a horror movie that knows exactly what it wants to be. Dangerous Animals is under no illusions about its true nature: it may be the latest addition to the sharksploitation genre, but it’s more sympathetic to the sharks than it is to the humans obsessed with their destructive power. The ocean predators aren’t even the true villains here — instead, they’re the tools through which Bruce Tucker (a delightfully menacing Jai Courtney) can enact his sick fantasies in the open water.
We meet Tucker, the curator of a diving experience on the Australian coast, as he ferries his latest group of tourists to swim with the sharks. Greg (Liam Greinke) and Heather (Ella Newton) have only just met, but their one-night stand in a nearby hostel reveals all we need to know about the chemistry between these relative strangers. It doesn’t take them long to warm up to Tucker, either: he’s properly charming, if a little rough around the edges, but one could easily chalk that up to the shark attack he survived as a child. It left him with a gnarly scar and a reverence for the predators that borders on worship — but when he murders Greg and confines Heather in the bowels of his boat, that affinity takes on a darker edge.
