“Dangerous Animals,” which is directed by Sean Byrne, portrays the perfect amount of thrill to keep you invested. The movie also has enough depth and development to make you care about the characters.
It pulls you in with an enticing girl named Zephier, who is a loner with a back story of living life on the edge. The odds of finding a good, alarming shark movie with a strong enough plot to hook you in are very unlikely. Now, you have a perfect yet strange mix of both. The movie is also ironic because people often fear something that is less harmful than mankind itself. Sharks are typically seen as dangerous animals. But the real villain is the serial killer, Bruce Tucker, who disguises himself as a tour guide who offers cage diving and swimming with sharks to pull his victims in. I’m sure most people are either scared of sharks or serial killers. If you fear both, you sure are in for a ride.
Zephier is introduced shortly after Tucker kidnaps Heather, who is the first victim we are capable of seeing. The movie follows Zephier when she gets kidnapped by Tucker, who video records his victims and watches them later on for his own voracious entertainment. One good and straightforward thing this movie has is an interesting plot with a good captivating storyline, especially when introducing Zephier and her soon-to-be or not-to-be love interest, which is a handsome man named Moses. Moses seems to be interested in Zephier after pursuing a one night stand. This is where it all begins, after Zephier mysteriously disappears into thin air. Now it is up to Heather, Zephier and Moses to make it out alive.
Another interesting factor to “Dangerous Animals” is how intense it is. It feels almost like you’re in the movie with the characters taking the risks of survival that Zephier takes.
“Dangerous Animals” also touches themes that are not only important but are interesting, especially if you can see past the thrill of survival and recognize the deeper meanings. One of them is men vs nature. It suggests that humans are just as capable of evil and cruel actions just as much as sharks – if not even more. Humans have a lot more temptation to act on their cruel thoughts because they don’t always tend to just disappear. This makes evil and cruel behavior more normalized than it should be. Just because something is done, doesn’t mean you have to act on it again.
Overall, this movie touches on survival of the fittest and hooks the audience with strong character development, causing you to have hope for that character’s chance of survival. It also touches on love in the darkest moments, portraying that anything is possible if you make it.
