Review: DANGEROUS ANIMALS

Tucker, solid wall of salt beef, shows tourists who take him up on his offer of cage dives that sharks are not the worst things in the water, or on it. After a demo of this, we meet young Zephyr who has come to the Gold Coast from the U.S. to escape bad family and surf it away on the big waves. A few chance encounters later, she's on Tucker's boat, waking up to the sight of another abductee. Things could be better.

From this point, as you might expect, this is a tale of action and survival, the only unknowns how far it's going to be taken. At the heart of comparable contests like The Shallows or Gerald's Game, we also need to follow a character's growth and developing strength.

Jai Courtney gives a Tucker whose only emotion is satisfaction from the torment of others. We see this in the prologue scene and we get nothing further. He needs to be most directly comparable to the sharks that his business promises. They are only making their living but Tucker has the choice that makes him worse. Courtney brings a brick shithouse's phsyical force and animal tirumph to render him easily intimidating even before his shows of violence. 

Hassie Harrison's Zephyr is young and damaged, just enough spark left to try and kick against her past through her skill and the freedom of the waves. She is in stark contrast to her fellow prisoner Heather whose trauma is still too recent to smooth over. She, as we, needs Zephyr's fight and in a dialogue of character reinforcement that gets away with sounding a little too written as it feels like the only spark of hope in a starkly bleak situation.

Director Sean Byrne gives us an extension on his action chops as the scene widens out from his previous work to the open water and Tucker's almost medieval torture devices and the threat of the sea itself. There is little point in revealing more plot detail in what is kept to a lean two-hander with support and a constant feed of deeds. This film works exactly as intended and declared which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of similar outings. Faint praise? Not if you see the movie.