Jaws did nothing to help the public perception of sharks. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film portrayed them as aggressive predators, instilling widespread terror. Its sequels doubled down on that idea, including Jaws: The Revenge, with its bizarre plot about a vendetta-harbouring great white stalking a family to the Bahamas.
Sean Byrne, the cult Australian film-maker behind the new shark-heavy thriller Dangerous Animals, is aware of the negative impact. “As much as I adored Jaws – and it’s one of my favourite films – it does a great disservice to the sharks,” he says. “Ever since then they’ve been hunted in greater numbers.”
Indeed, a surge in fear-driven shark hunting has contributed to a 70 per cent decline in global oceanic shark and ray populations since 1970.
“You can’t get a shark documentary off the ground unless you show a shark breaching the water, which perpetuates this lie that sharks just indiscriminately hunt humans. It’s not true. There are fewer than 10 shark deaths a year, and they’re usually accidents where the shark thinks the human is a seal. They are not indiscriminate killers.”
The director had no interest in adding to a collection of films more concerned with survival horror than oceanic adventure, not to mention the campy yet murderous absurdity of the abysmal Sharknado and its endless sequels, until he read Nick Lepard’s killer script – that’s surely the right word – for Dangerous Animals.
“I read several years ago on the internet that the shark subgenre was the only type of horror film that has never lost money,” Byrne says. “And, of course, the internet doesn’t lie. That was in the back of my mind when Nick’s script crossed my desk.
“That combination of shark film and serial-killer film rolled into one was the first selling point. It’s capturing two popular subgenres. It’s so high-concept you could write it on a napkin. And I couldn’t resist the fact that the sharks weren’t the monsters.”
In fact Dangerous Animals’ tagline is “You’re safer in the water.”
The film, which pits the oceans’ apex predators against human savagery, features Hassie Harrison, the Yellowstone star, as Zephyr, a plucky surfer making her way along Australia’s east coast.
Her free-spirited vibe sours when she’s abducted by Tucker (Jai Courtney), a shark-obsessed serial killer who throws his victims into fishy feeding waters. He even sings a growling version of Baby Shark. Held captive on his drifting vessel, Zephyr must outwit her deranged captor and the circling predators. Back on land, Moses (Josh Heuston), a fellow surfer and recent romantic hook-up, embarks on a perilous quest to find out what has become of her.
The director deftly marries muscular performances, gore, suspense and real sharks to keep the fearful viewer hooked.
“We had a shark historian,” he says. “We didn’t want to just feature the great white, because it has had its moment in the spotlight. We knew we wanted the sharks to have scars. The same way that humans have imperfections, they have scars from being hunted or from lovemaking.”
You can believe what you see in Dangerous Animals.
“Everything that you’re seeing underwater is a real shark,” Byrne says. “Above water, when you’re seeing the fins, we used CGI. Future Associate was the company, and they did an incredible job. In a lot of shark films they’re almost animated to look like humans; they’ll get an angry look on their face. We stayed close to nature documentaries. I watched a lot of the Discovery Channel.”
Dangerous Animals has just delighted audiences at Cannes, where it premiered at Directors’ Fortnight. Its selection by the film festival was a surprise for Byrne.
“We didn’t submit it,” he says. “It was the French distributors that submitted it, because they recognised that it’s not a typical shark film. I think the subgenre had been crying out for a different take. I’m guessing that’s why it got in.
“It subverts the form to a certain extent while also still being an extremely entertaining ride. We were trying to make this commercial, glossy Bruckheimer-influenced horror film but with a f**ked-up dark heart.”
The son of an Tasmania-based Irish film critic, Byrne grew up watching press screenings and ploughing through armfuls of VHS tapes. His journey into film-making was haphazard. After completing a law degree he realised that he had taken a wrong turn.
Driven by a passion for cinema, he returned to school at 25, enrolling alongside much younger students on a media-production course where he created several no-budget short films featuring friends and family.
That portfolio led to his acceptance into the Australian Film Television and Radio School, the prestigious Sydney alma mater of directors such as Cate Shortland, Warwick Thornton and Gillian Armstrong.
“Towards the end of my degree I saw Pulp Fiction, and I loved how it broke every rule,” Byrne says. “It literally never cuts to the chase. John Travolta and Samuel Jackson will get out of the car and we’ll follow their conversation all the way up into the elevator down the hall.
“I started thinking about the structure. I recognised all the elements, but it made everything old new again. That set something off in my brain. Wow. You can take the sum of your influences and start to subvert them. So I started to write. I went to Rosny College, which was the only school in Tasmania that offered a video-camera course.”
There’s a great history of well-respected film-makers – Sam Raimi, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron – emerging from horror. Theoretically, it’s far more intense than any other genre
— Sean Byrne
He laughs. “One of the teachers gave me feedback that said, ‘Sean is 25 going on 15.’ And I’m not sure anything changed.”
Byrne’s feature films aim to remind viewers why they fell in love with horror in the first place. His festival favourite The Loved Ones, from 2009, mashed up Brian De Palma’s Carrie and Ozploitation flicks to create a twisted high-school prom horror. The Devil’s Candy, from 2015, channelled The Shining, heavy metal and Byrne’s personal anxieties about parenthood into a wild supernatural battle.
“I had written some wannabe David Lynch scripts,” he says. “My agent liked them. But they had no traction. I almost quit until I realised I should make a contained, low-budget horror. Something like The Evil Dead. Something I could make on a credit card.
“I was very influenced by Peter Jackson and what he’d done with Bad Taste. There’s a great history of well-respected film-makers – Sam Raimi, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron – emerging from horror. Theoretically, it’s far more intense than any other genre.”
Byrne won’t say who has come a-courting, but he has had bigger, shinier, commercial offers. He has turned them down, preferring to plough his own furrow.
“Life’s too short,” he says. “I’ve got kids, and I’d rather go back and make ads than spend two years on something I don’t 100 per cent believe in. I think that’s really unfair on the crew, the producers and the financiers.
“I do have the courage to pass on things that I don’t feel are the right fit, because I’m terrified of failure. The best way to not fail is to be completely obsessed with something. You can’t do that if you’re not passionate about the project.”
Dangerous Animals is in cinemas from Friday, June 6th
