Review: 'Dangerous Animals' is a grindhouse movie with flair, topped by a devilish Jai Courtney, a strong turn by Hassie Harrison, and lots of sharks

I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing a well-made grindhouse movie — a B-movie horror movie with finely crafted twists — until director Sean Byrne threw one in my lap with “Dangerous Animals.”

Byrne, an Australian filmmaker directing his third film after “The Loved Ones” (2009) and “The Devil’s Candy” (2015), seems to understand that the most important elements to an effective psycho-killer movie is an appropriately nasty killer with a solid m.o. and a smart hero or heroine using their wits and courage to survive the carnage. 

The killer here is Tucker, played by the Australian actor Jai Courtney. He’s a burly guy running a tour boat out of Gold Coast, Queensland, taking the tourists out to see the sharks circling. What those tourists don’t know, until it’s too late, is that his kink is killing those tourists by feeding them to those sharks. There are more details to his pattern, but it’s better not to know too much ahead of time.

Tucker’s would-be victim is Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), an American surfer living out of her van. We learn early on that she’s had a rough life — an orphan who lived in a series of foster homes — and has a touch of the con artist. Zephyr doesn’t trust easily, which is why she surprises herself when she meets a nice guy, Moses (Josh Heuston), and they almost immediately make love in the back of her van.

Zephyr leaves Moses behind to catch the waves before dawn, which is when Tucker kidnaps her and holds her captive, handcuffed to a metal cot in a lower deck of his boat — alongside Heather (Ella Newton), a future victim Byrne and rookie screenwriter Nick Lepard introduced in the movie’s prologue.

The bulk of this tight thriller happens on Tucker’s boat, as Zephyr tries to outwit him, exploit the holes in his murderous process and stay alive long enough to see it through. It’s always surprising, sometimes unsettling and ultimately rewarding.

The extra strength of “Dangerous Animals” is the back-and-forth between its stars. Harrison, who played the ranch hand Laramie on three seasons of “Yellowstone,” is a Final Girl for the ages, making Zephyr’s fear and resolve feel entirely earned. Courtney has always been one of those guys who never quite jelled as an action hero — his misfires include “Suicide Squad,” “A Good Day to Die Hard” and “Terminator Genisys” — but is shockingly good as a full-out maniac.  

Oh, and yes, the sharks — whether real, mechanical or computer-generated — are really cool. What more could you want in a shark-driven serial-killer movie?

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‘Dangerous Animals”

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, June 6, in theaters. Rated R for strong bloody violent content/grisly images, sexuality, language and brief drug use. Running time: 98 minutes.