Dangerous Animals isn’t here to waste time. It hits the ground running and doesn’t let up, delivering a brutal, blood-soaked ride that blends slasher tension with creature-feature thrills in all the best ways. Equal parts Jaws and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this lean and mean genre mash-up sinks its teeth in early—and by the time the credits roll, it’ll have you catching your breath.
The base premise is actually stereotypical: a character from another country ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. What starts as survival horror quickly escalates into something much more primal, bizarre, and violent. However, what elevates Dangerous Animals above your standard genre fare is how confidently it straddles the line between chaos and control. Sean Byrne, best known for The Loved Ones, once again proves himself to be a filmmaker with a wicked sense of humor and a knack for pushing his audience into uncomfortable territory.
This is a film that knows exactly what it is and who it’s made for. Every scream, every slash, and every moment of tension is tightly wound, often laced with dark, twisted comedy that sneaks up when you least expect it. It’s not afraid to go big—or weird—and it all somehow works. The movie is efficient in the way it unfolds, never pausing for unnecessary exposition and trusting its atmosphere, pacing, and cast to keep things moving.
Dangerous Animals throws you into the deep end and keeps you there. Painful, but worth it.
At the center of it all is Jai Courtney, who absolutely crushes it. Known more for his action roles, such as Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad or Jack McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard, Courtney surprises here with one of the most electrifying unhinged villain performances in recent memory. He’s terrifying, sure, but also charismatic in a way that makes the horror land even harder. There’s a confidence—and a touch of madness—in his portrayal that feels both grounded and completely psychotic.
The rest of the cast holds their own, too, especially given how much punishment the film dishes out. Byrne doesn’t just make his characters suffer—he makes the audience feel it, too. There’s an almost relentless quality to the way Dangerous Animals puts its heroes (and viewers) through the wringer. It’s raw, intense, and occasionally hard to watch—but that’s also what makes it effective. It’s a horror film that pulls no punches and doesn’t apologize for it.
Overall, Dangerous Animals is a gnarly little genre cocktail with teeth. It’s smart, sadistic, and unexpectedly fun in all the ways horror fans crave.
Rating: 3.5/5 atoms
Dangerous Animals hits theaters on June 6th.
