Dangerous Animals (2025) Movie Review - Generic But Enjoyable Survival Horror
Welcome to Knockout Horror. If you are new here, we review horror movies, explain endings, and occasionally put out horror ranking lists. 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).
It’s just a really easy formula to work with. Grab a few people in bikinis and swimming shorts, drop them somewhere in the ocean, and throw in a few terrible CG 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, pretty 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.
Works Pretty Well
It’s pretty effective and feels fairly refreshing when it comes to shark movies. Don’t get me wrong, sharks have been used as a side character in plenty of films before. Damp and soggy thriller Dead Sea from 2024 is just one such example of a similar premise. They rarely seem to work, however, which is where Dangerous Animals stands out.
This movie manages to stay fairly interesting throughout and does manage some 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.
Both elements of the movie are pretty satisfying. It stands up well as a serial killer themed horror movie with an enigmatic antagonist. But it also works as a shark survival movie with some decent sequences of characters being mauled.
A Stellar 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. 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 beyond what is, frankly, a pretty generic thriller with unlikable characters, a stupid romance side-plot, bad writing, and a whole bunch of plot holes.
Extremely Generic
Dangerous Animals features a tried and tested formula of rinse and repeat “escape-chase-fight-capture” sequences that feel 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.
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.
Outside of Courtney’s fantastic antagonist, everything else has a paint-by-numbers feeling to it. This isn’t, necessarily, a bad thing. 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 and undaring.
A Bunch of Issues
There are a bunch of issues here but most of them are related to the 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. For example, one character apologises to another for the smell from the shit-bucket on the floor as if that would be your biggest concern when kidnapped.
The story features a horribly shoe-horned in love side-plot, as well. It feels massively unnecessary, incredibly old-fashioned, and completely unbelievable given the circumstance. Protagonist Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) is very unlikable.
I don’t know where this trend of obnoxious protagonists in horror comes from but it is getting very annoying. We really need to address the fact that men simply can’t write believable women so they write them to be bitchy and annoying, instead.
There’s a lot of plot holes, stuff that doesn’t make any sense, and unbelievable character actions that will probably frustrate you. That’s par for the course with these types of movies, though. There’s minimal jump scares and minimal gore, really. Though one scene 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, I guess. Pacing is okay, 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 great.
Should You Watch Dangerous Animals?
If you enjoy cat and mouse thriller movies with a difference then you should definitely watch Dangerous Animals. Jai Courtney is fantastic and elevates the movie above being just a forgettable shark laden horror romp. It’s not all that daring and doesn’t break any new ground but Dangerous Animals is enjoyable, tense, and action packed enough to recommend.
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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