Dangerous Animals (2025) review – Sharks, rituals, and serial killers

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today, we are going to be reviewing a brand new survival horror movie coming from down under – Dangerous Animals (2025).

Survival Horror With a Difference

We have reviewed a ton of shark horror movies on Knockout Horror. To be honest, it is actually quite difficult to avoid them. We have another one coming up in just a few days in the form of Great White Waters (2025).

“The sharks are the cherry on the top of what is already a delicious thriller sundae.”

It’s just a really easy formula for directors to work with. Grab a few people in bikinis and swimming shorts, drop them somewhere in the ocean, and throw in a few terrible CGI sharks. People will watch them because they are suckers for punishment and the money will roll in (I assume).

Whereas most of these shark themed horror movies are, frankly, pretty garbage. Dangerous Animals is actually really decent. Much of this comes from the fact that it isn’t a straight up shark movie. The story follows a surfer girl who is kidnapped by a demented killer who sacrifices people to sharks in a form of ritual.

Dangerous Animals features sharks as a main plot-point but it’s Jai Courtney’s psychopathic killer Bruce that takes centre stage. This movie is, at its core, a cat-and-mouse style thriller featuring a woman’s attempts to escape from the boat where Bruce has her held captive. Don’t worry, though. There are plenty of other victims for Bruce to torment.

When we enter the water, it’s more to use the sharks as an additional weapon in Bruce’s arsenal. He has some warped sense that the sharks demand sacrifices but likes to do the whole ritualistic ceremony with a side of panache. That means legs being slowly dipped in the drink as the toothy buggers give the victim’s toes love bites. It’s fun stuff!

It’s really quite effective

Dangerous Animals feels very refreshing when it comes to shark movies. Don’t get me wrong, sharks have been used as a side character in plenty of thriller style crime films before. The damp and soggy Dead Sea from 2024 is just one such example of a similar premise. They rarely seem to work, however, which is why Dangerous Animals stands out. The sharks are the cherry on the top of what is already a delicious thriller sundae.

This movie manages to stay interesting throughout. It includes some seriously decent thrills and even a couple of spills (literally). It’s nothing new, of course, but there is a good balance of tension and some well timed chase sequences to keep things fun.

Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is actually a capable protagonist. Sure, she is a little brusque and occasionally annoying but she puts up a fight. This means that Bruce is most definitely not in for an easy ride. If he wants to make chum out of her, he is going to have to put in some effort. Zephyr runs, hides, and fights back with the type of vigour that suggests she is far from happy with engaging in a cageless shark dive.

Both elements of the movie are very satisfying and it can be enjoyed from multiple perspective. It stands up well as a serial killer themed horror movie with an charismatic antagonist. But it also works as a shark survival movie with some decent sequences of characters being mauled.

A standout performance

Much of the film’s success is down to Courtney’s absolutely stellar performance. It feels like Hollywood spent a long time trying to make this dude a leading man and it just never came together. He was stale and pretty wooden in most of the films I watched him in. In Dangerous Animals, however, it’s a completely different story.

He is on top form, here and really feels in his element as a demented killer. Courtney is charismatic and really quite sinister in the role. Utterly scene stealing, in fact. I can’t help but think that portraying a genuinely evil character in a lower budget horror movie has allowed him to loosen up a bit and show some of his actual acting chops.

“It is probably fair to say that Dangerous Animals wouldn’t work nearly as well without Courtney’s performance. His character elevates the film.”

It is probably fair to say that Dangerous Animals wouldn’t work nearly as well without Courtney’s performance. His character elevates the film beyond what is, frankly, a pretty generic thriller with unlikable characters, a stupid romance side-plot, occasionally bad writing, and a whole bunch of those typical thriller plot holes.

It’s occasionally quite generic but that’s not a bad thing

Dangerous Animals features a tried and tested formula of rinse and repeat “escape-chase-fight-capture” sequences that feels extremely familiar. It doesn’t go out of its way to rock the boat and doesn’t really innovate at all. Something which I found really disappointing as I was, honestly, expecting more. It makes sense, though. Why play around too much with something that works out of the box?

I absolutely love director Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones. Whereas The Loved Ones is an incredibly witty and clever splatter horror that takes a bunch of risks. Dangerous Animals is the most generic of generic horror, thriller movies that takes no risks at all. Anyone going into this expecting a spiritual successor to The Loved Ones is going to be disappointed.

Outside of Courtney’s fantastic antagonist, everything else has a bit of a paint-by-numbers feeling to it. This isn’t, necessarily, a bad thing because it’s ultra satisfying, for the most part. Especially where fans of these types of movies are concerned. But it doesn’t bring anything new to the genre at all, and feels extremely safe.

A few issues do deserve mention

The majority of the issues in Dangerous Animals seem to come about due to the poor writing. The screenplay is woeful! Some of the lines are toe-curlingly awful and horribly unnatural. I can’t help but wonder whether horror writers are enlisting the help of AI to pad out their scripts.

“The screenplay is woeful! Some of the lines are toe-curlingly awful and horribly unnatural.”

Here’s a quick example. Picture the scene: a character wakes up chained to a bed and notices another woman chained up opposite to her. This woman has clearly been there awhile. Rather than elaborate on what is going on or ask if her new cellmate is okay, the woman apologises for the smell coming from the shit-bucket on the floor. That would be far from your biggest concern and it’s a great example of the unnatural dialogue here.

The story features a horribly shoe-horned in love side-plot, as well. It feels rather unnecessary, incredibly old-fashioned, and completely unbelievable given the circumstance. Protagonist Zephyr is a bit unlikable. I think this is largely due to that age-old trend of men writing female characters extremely poorly.

There’s a lot of plot holes, stuff that doesn’t make any sense, and unbelievable character actions that will probably frustrate you if you aren’t a thriller fa. That’s par for the course with these types of movies, though. There’s minimal jump scares and minimal gore, so horror fans might feel short-change. One scene, however, will either make you wince or laugh your arse off depending on how ridiculous you think it is.

Byrne’s direction is decent but a bit unremarkable. Pacing is fine, some of the shot setups are very nice, a few sequences feel a bit overused, but the movie flows pretty well for a thriller. Cinematography is, occasionally, fantastic with some scenes looking utterly great. The sea wide vistas are glorious and every drop of beauty has been drained out of that stunning location.

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Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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