#nick lepard

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Movies watched in 2025

Dangerous Animals (2025, USA/Australia)

Director: Sean Byrne

Writer: Nick Lepard

Mini-review:

I was surprised to see how underused the shark trope was and couldn't make sense of it, but I think it may have been intentional. Not only are sharks portrayed as wild animals as opposed to horror movie monsters because they're not the "dangerous animals" the movie is referring to, but some of Tucker's lines suggest he might not be the subject of the title either.

"You're just like me", he says to Zephyr. "You think you don't wanna watch, but you do", he tells Moses. It's as if some of these comments are addressed directly to the audience.

Tucker is a very unredeeming character who kills women (and men) in horrible ways and it's safe to say most of the audience would regard him as a lowlife. We all want to say it with Zephyr - "I'm nothing like you".

But in reality, it's the audience who paid to flock around a movie screen lured by the prospect of bloodshed, almost feeling let down by the lack of shark deaths and visible gore. When Tucker watches the VHS tape, he is esentially being placed in the same position as the audience watching this entire monstrous story (yet we still think he's sick for it).

Tucker goes on about how men don't know what lights them up until they've tried it and can no longer hide it once it's out, and throughout history it's been evident that masses love blood.

It's not people like Tucker - or the sharks - it's us. And the divided response this movie received makes it even better. While many are cheering, satisfied by the amount of suspense and gore they've been fed, others expecting more are ripping into the movie without looking back.