Another night at Cineworld and another Secret Screaming that turned out to be a movie I was hoping for. Secret Screaming 7 turned out to be the thriller/horror film Dangerous Animals, starring Hassie Harrison and Jai Courtney.
The film opens up with what seems to be a normal day as a couple go on a trip on a boat to dive with the sharks, but what they don’t know is that they have picked a day to choose a boat that is owned by a serial killer who is obsessed with sharks. You could almost say that Tucker (Jai Courtney) worships the killing machines of the seas.
After a horrific moment for the pair, we are taken straight to the credits and to an introduction to Zephyr (Hassie Harrison) and Moses (Josh Heuston), who will have more than just a passing acquaintance thanks to Tucker.
Dangerous Animals isn’t just another shark movie, it is an unnerving and at times uncomfortable thriller that has several horrific moments that make you feel very unsettled while watching the film. Courtney’s portrayal of Tucker is both great to watch and also sends chills down your spine as he treats his victims as pieces of meat to feed his sick and twisted perversion of recording them as they are fed to the sharks as he watches with a sickening passion.
Despite Dangerous Animals being an uneasy watch, it is still one that kept me watching, maybe in the hope that at some point Tucker would falter and get a taste of his own medicine for all the atrocities that he has caused his female victims.
Hassie Harrison certainly brings some great moments in her role as Zephyr, and you do start rooting for her to get her revenge on Tucker, if she makes it through all the horrors that he is putting her through. Josh Heuston‘s portrayal of Moses comes across at first as a bit of a filler for the start of the film, but soon we get to see he is a bit more to the story and a key character for Zephnyr as the two fight to survive.
But I have to say that for me, Jai Courtney stood out with the way he made the character come across as a crazed psychopath, but also one that, due to an incident in his childhood, he had taken a route that shouldn’t have been an option.
Dangerous Animals looks great on the big screen in its widescreen format, but I have to say that I’m never going to listen to Baby Shark in the same way ever again after seeing this movie. The film is tense, unnerving and will have you feeling uneasy from time to time.
Dangerous Animals is in UK cinemas now courtesy of Vertigo Releasing