The great American philosopher Tracy Jordan once urged us to “live every week like it’s Shark Week.” It’s never been exactly clear what he meant, but it’s unlikely he had in mind what happens in the new horror-thrillerDangerous Animals.
The film may be getting a little critical bump, being one of the movies to close out this year’s Cannes Film Festival, as festival goers may have been predisposed to look kindly on a bit of schlock after a couple weeks of highbrow fare. That said, it is still some pretty good, nasty fun.
The movie gets right down to business in both story and style, as a young man and woman hire a boat in Australia to go out and swim with the sharks. We can tell instantly that the boat captain is just slightly too eager to take them, and some uneasy closeups tell us even more that things aren’t quite right. And boy are they not, as this guy turns out to be a crazed murderer who really, really likes sharks. Soon enough, we meet Zephyr, a young American surfer who likes to keep to herself, and she gets tangled up in this whole thing, leading to a series of attempts to escape from the shark-loving maniac.
There’s a point late in the movie when our villain describes the whole situation as what it’s like to reel in a particularly difficult fish, and while it’s maybe not necessary to be so explicit about what we’ve been watching, it does also lay out the movie fairly well. The fun in Dangerous Animals is in watching Zephyr persist in the face of this horror, as she gets a little closer and a little closer to freedom, only to be pulled back in. The movie knows how goofy it is, and it knows we know, but it plays the entire thing completely straight, which isn’t the easiest balancing act. It might go a little too far with that in the last few minutes, with a couple developments that actually are eye-rolling, but what can you do. As far as it all goes, having a murdery shark guy is a pretty good idea, and Dangerous Animals proves that well enough for 90 minutes.
Dangerous Animals is in theaters June 6th.
