Australian horror director Sean Byrne questions who is really the prey or predator in his third feature, “Dangerous Animals.” A mix of the serial killer and “sharks-ploitation” tropes, the film centers on a murderer (Jai Courtney) who stalks a surfer on the open water…all with sharks circling his boat.
The official synopsis reads: “When Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a rebellious surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer and held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. She must outwit a predator more dangerous than the ocean itself — will she escape, or become the next offering to the deep?” Josh Heuston co-stars, while Nick Lepard wrote the script.
Byrne told Bloody Disgusting that real sharks were used onscreen for the underwater sequences. “The majority of the time, we’re actually using 4K footage of the water that the real sharks are in,” he said, adding that makos, bull sharks, tiger sharks, and gray nurses were shown. “We’re blending that with the real footage and making sure that the water matches in the grade. The only CG is the fins, which, originally was going to be real footage as well.”
Byrne previously directed “The Devil’s Candy” and “The Loved Ones,” a recent selection on IndieWire’s After Dark column. His latest, “Dangerous Animals,” will debut during Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. Additional Directors’ Fortnight premieres include Christian Petzold’s “Miroirs No. 3,” Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake,” Anne Émond’s “Peak Everything,” and Lloyd Lee Choi’s “Lucky Lu.” The program will close with a screening of Eva Victor’s Sundance hit “Sorry, Baby” from A24.
The newly rebranded Independent Film Company (IFC) will release “Dangerous Animals” in theaters on Friday, June 6. Check out the trailer below.
