Sean Byrne’s survival horror Dangerous Animals has made a sinister splash at Cannes, with critics largely positive about the film’s contribution to the serial killer genre.
The Hobart director’s third feature had its world premiere in the Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight over the weekend, as the first Australian film to screen as part of the sidebar in more than a decade.
Filmed in the Gold Coast last year, Dangerous Animals stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a savvy and free-spirited surfer who is abducted by shark-obsessed serial killer Bruce Tucker (Jai Courtney), leading to a cat and mouse game between the two, where Hassie must figure out how to escape before the killer carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. It’s a web that soon entangles her new love interest, Moses (Josh Heuston), after he goes looking for her.
Nick Lepard wrote the script, with Brouhaha Entertainments’s Troy Lum and Andrew Mason producing alongside LD Entertainment’s Pete Shilaimon and Mickey Liddell for LD Entertainment, Oddfellows Entertainment’s Chris Ferguson, and Range Media Partners’ Brian Kavanaugh Jones.
In their reviews, critics noted that horror/thriller’s blend of Ozploitation and Sharksploitation gave it a unique place in the Director’s Fortnight, a showcase of contemporary cinema that runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival.
Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney described the selection as “curious” but commended Byrne for ensuring “carnage around the boat is matched up on deck”.
“Neither the best nor the worst of the inexhaustible sub-genre birthed by Steven Spielberg’s unsurpassed classic, Jaws, Byrne’s good-looking film at least has the distinction of being one of the nastiest entries in a while,” he said.
After describing the film as Jaws if you “throw in a bit of Saw, add some Room and The Silence of the Lambs, a little Point Break, plus a touch of Gidget“, Deadline‘s Pete Hammond said the thriller was “not the kind of fare you expect to see in a more arty Cannes Competition”.
“It just goes to show festivals can dig exploitation movies too,” he wrote.
“This one from director Sean Byrne (Devil’s Candy) and writer Nick Lepard is tailor-made for summer moviegoing.”
There was also consensus in praise of Harrison, who Rooney and Variety‘s Peter Debruge both likened to Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence.
“Harrison (Yellowstone) is a real asset here,” wrote Rooney.
“It’s at first mildly distracting that she looks and sounds so uncannily like Jennifer Lawrence that they should be cast as sisters. But that takes nothing away from the sharp survival instincts, tenacity and resourcefulness baked into her character, which she plays with the bruised resilience of a woman who grew up in foster homes and couldn’t get away fast enough.”
Debruge said the character of Zephyr, “”ferociously” played by Harrison, not only bared a striking similarity to Lawrence, but packed “much of the same underestimate-her-at-your-own-risk energy we associate with the “Hunger Games” star”, adding that “not for one second does Lepard’s script reduce Zephyr to a mere damsel in distress”.
For Hammond, Harrison and Courtney’s characters are worthy adversaries within a scenic battleground.
“Courtney, the fine Australian actor, gets a juicy lead role here and runs with it, about as evil as it can get,” he wrote.
“He is one sick pup. Harrison is perfect casting, a scrappy surfer girl with more moxie than 10 guys on boards. The Great Barrier Reef scenery is to die for, and that seems to be what the plan is for these characters. Cinematographer Shelly Farthing-Dewe captures it all in style.”
Dangerous Animals will be released in Australian cinemas on June 12 via Kismet.