Dangerous Animals (2025)

I suppose if you are called “Zephyr” then you’re likely to be a bit of a free spirit, so when we meet this one (Hassie Harrison) we ought not to be surprised that she does pretty much what she likes when she likes. That includes having a one night stand with the rather drippy but fit-looking realtor “Moses” (Josh Heuston) before she absconds before pancakes to ride the waves. Thing is, she’s got no fin key so has to borrow one from the friendly “Tucker” (Jai Courtney) whom we already know is a bit of a wrong ‘un. Next thing, she awakens tied to a bed on a boat next to “Heather” (Ella Newton) with both ready to star in the ultimate in horror flicks sustained only by Vegemite sandwiches (on stodgy white bread, too!). With him holding all the cards, things don’t look too good for these two women but luckily “Zephyr” is a gutsy and resourceful young woman and meantime the hapless and pining “Moses” is concerned that she has gone missing-in-action and is trying to find out where she’s gone. Can fate be thwarted? Can he track down his chum in time? Hmmm. Well, sadly there just isn’t anything about this that leaves any doubt about the conclusion, and the episodic, start/stop/start again nature of the storytelling just strings us along with a series of implausible scenarios that pad it out with all the certainty of the undoubted denouement. Aided by some impressive underwater photography, this could have been quite a fun half hour if Sean Byrne had had the courage of his original convictions and just let the initial impetus do the work, but once the thing starts to repeat itself it just becomes a bit preposterous as serendipity takes just too great and frequent a role. Pity, it had potential.