The Great Barrier Reef has rarely looked more beautiful—or more ominous—than in Sean Byrne’s Australian shark horror flick Dangerous Animals, which premiered in Cannes on Saturday night.

Stunning aerial shots of Gold Coast beaches and high-rises surely will entice visitors, hopefully well aware that they will not experience the horrors of the movie’s characters. Still, at those moments in the Cannes theatre, some viewers were caught up in the action, with one woman screaming – alot.

Tasmania-born Byrne, who had previously pleased horror fans with the critically acclaimed The Loved Ones (2009) and The Devil’s Candy (2015) stood on the stage before the screening, along with his actors and writer Nick Lepard, as Cannes Directors’ Fortnight’s head Julien Rejl explained how he had chosen the film, noting it’s the first killer shark film to screen at Cannes. In fact, it’s the only Australian feature in this year’s Cannes program.

“We’re very happy to have a horror film here,” announced Rejl. “In 1975 Texas Chainsaw Massacre had its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight and now we’re very happy to have Sean Byrne, who has already made two films with great panache. He’s proof that you can have a sense of style and a strong sense of directing.

“It’s a happy coincidence that we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of (Steven Spielberg’s) Jaws, with a new print around the time of the French release of Dangerous Animals in July.”

The lovably down-dressed Byrne, sporting tousled hair and wearing faded jeans, told the crowd how on behalf of himself and the producers he felt grateful and honoured.

“When we set out to make this film over a year ago, never in our wildest imagination did we think that we’d end up here at the home of cinema,” said Byrne. “When I think of Cannes, I don’t typically think of shark films, but this isn’t a typical shark film, so I want to thank the selection committee for recognising that. Thank you so much for kindly inviting us to the party.”

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Addressing the audience he added: “I hope you enjoy the film and if you do, tell your friends. If you don’t, don’t tell anyone.”

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The idea for Dangerous Animals came about when the Canadian writer Lepard was living in California and spending a lot of time surfing. He came up with the Tucker character (played by Jai Courtney), a twisted reflection of the public’s fascination with shark attacks.  “He both feeds the obsession and advocates for the protection of sharks,” said Lepard.

Then the story grew darker. Lepard envisaged a female antagonist, Zephyr (Yellowstone’s Hassie Harrison), who seems to be “living life to the fullest, travelling, surfing all day”. But she is stuck in an internal prison. She packs up and leaves whenever she feels threatened. When Tucker abducts her, she must finally face what she has been running from to be truly free.

Tucker and Zephyr might seem like polar opposites, but they have something in common–they are both ocean lovers who are mistreated and solitary, like sharks.

As soon as Byrne read the script, its elevated concept – shark flick meets serial killer film – saw him sign on. This “ultimate film”, which was also shot on Stradbroke Island, follows Tucker, a Surfer’s Paradise tour boat operator and serial killer who uses sharks as his weapon of choice.

His aim is to film his victims on VHS as he dangles them above open water and feeds them to sharks

We first see Tucker with young backpackers, Canadian Greg and British Heather, who have just met for an outing to view sharks in an underwater cage.

“Nobody knows you’re here,” Tucker prompts with glee, ready to set his usual routine into action. His aim is to film his victims on VHS as he dangles them above open water and feeds them to sharks. He has amassed a considerable snuff film library of past victims. He re-watches his videos over a glass of wine and dinner.  “Isn’t this the greatest show on earth?” he announces gleefully.

Tucker meets his match, however, when he abducts the feisty American surfer Zephyr after she ventures to a remote area for some night surfing. Unbeknown to Tucker, the commitment-shy Zephyr had just fled a one-night stand with Volvo-driving real estate agent Moses – Aussie rising star and 2022 GQ Man of the Year Josh Heuston, who broke out in the Netflix series Heartbreak High and appeared in HBO’s Dune: Prophecy – who comes looking for her and gets caught up in Tucker’s scheme.

Tucker feeds his captives Vegemite sandwiches in a film backdropped by a soundtrack that includes Russell Morris’s The Real Thing and Crowded House’s Mean to Me. Tucker dances drunkenly in underwear and a bath robe to Stevie Wright’s 1974 classic Evie.

Deadline critic Pete Hammond wholly approved of the film in his Cannes review: “Take Jaws, throw in a bit of Saw, add some Room and The Silence of the Lambs, a little Point Break, plus a touch of Gidget, and voila! You have the recipe for Dangerous Animals, a deviously demented combination of shark and serial killer genre movies.”

Hammond notes how Courtney gives one of his best performances: “From the opening scene, he walks the fine line between charismatic and menacing, dryly funny and chilling.”

The Hollywood Reporter’s Australian critic David Rooney draws a strong comparison with Wolf Creek: “Both these sadistic Australian B-movies revolve around a psychotic serial killer preying on travellers and both serve up blood, guts and torture porn, which should provide gnarly amusement for genre fans.”

Rooney singles out Harrison for praise in depicting Zephyr’s “sharp survival instincts, tenacity and resourcefulness” and “the bruised resilience of a woman who grew up in foster homes and couldn’t get away fast enough. Surfing for Zephyr represents the ultimate escape.”

Variety calls the film “a great white-knuckle horror movie” that’s “more Saw than Jaws – defined largely by the sadistic streak of its very human monster”.

Interestingly, The Surfer, which premiered last year in Cannes, is also coming to Australian cinemas.  Bernard Bories, the director of the Saint Tropez festival of Australian and New Zealand cinema – Rencontres Internationales du Cinema des Antipodes – was also at the Dangerous Animals screening.

Bories says the film is “a full-on commercial movie with horror tropes”, while The Surfer, starring Nicolas Cage and shot in Western Australia, is an arthouse film.

We concurred that Dangerous Animals is the better film and the Cannes audience was certainly in raptures.

“In France, horror movies do well in the summer, so July is a good time to release,” says Bories.

Dangerous Animals releases in Australia on June 12 after screening at the Sydney Film Festival.