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horror, Reviews

Cinema Review: Dangerous Animals (2025) sprays ‘Jaws’-dropping and bloody thrills!

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Cinema Review: Dangerous Animals (2025)

Directed by Sean Byrne

Written by Nick Lepard

Produced by Troy Lum, Andrew Mason, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell, Chris Ferguson & Brian Kavanaugh-Jones

Main Cast: Hassie Harrison, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton, Ella Newton, Liam Greinke, Jai Courtney etc.

Cinematography by Shelley Farthing-Dawe

*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***

Set amidst the golden beaches and deep blue sea of the Gold Coast, Australia, the film begins with boat captain, Tucker (Jai Courtney) springing a shocking and literal tourist trap. The film then moves onto establishing a fledgling romance between surf drifter, Zephr (Hassie Harrison) and local office clerk, Moses, (Josh Heuston). What then follows is a brutal and gory thriller which had me on the edge-of-my-popcorn throughout. It also once again proves that human beings are more of a threat than the actual big fish in the sea.

Dangerous Animals (2025) consistently delivers thrills thanks to Nick Lepard’s witty, nasty script and two standout performances. Hassie Harrison shines as a gutsy fighter who refuses to play the victim, while Jai Courtney both embodies and skewers the Aussie male stereotype in a scenery-chewing turn sharper than a shark’s jaws. His hulking frame, blunt verbals and piercing looks emulate a predatory fearfulness throughout creating one of the most memorable screen villains in recent years.

After watching the trippy Kafkaesque Nicolas Cage beach thriller not long ago, The Surfer (2024), I found Australian toxic masculinity once again raising its head with blood and bite in the Jaws-meets-Silence of the Lambs suspense thriller. Dangerous Animals (2025) isn’t without minor plot snags, but ultimately Lepard’s twisted script ensures we care about the leads, weaving a believable romance amid tense shark attacks and sea-sprayed suspense. Director, Sean Byrne, orchestrates the shark and human action brilliantly on a relatively low budget, ensuring the result is a lean, bloody, and entertaining ride that bites down hard and doesn’t let go.

Mark: 8 out of 11

Cinema, Comedy, horror

Cinema Review: The Monkey (2025) – a hilarious horror sketch-show with gore masking an inconsistent totemic tale!

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Cinema Review: The Monkey (2025)

Directed by Osgood Perkins

Written by Osgood Perkins

Based on “The Monkey” by Stephen King

Produced by James Wan, Dave Caplan, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Chris Ferguson, etc.

Main Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Christian Convery, Colin O’Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy, Adam Scott and Elijah Wood.

Cinematography by Nico Aguilar

Following the financial success of his 2024 psychological thriller Longlegs (2024), Osgood Perkins has recently embarked on adapting Stephen King’s short story, The Monkey, into a feature film. While I didn’t quite connect with it Longlegs (2024) it had many impressed with its strange, atmospheric tension as well as Nic Cage’s crazy look and performance. The Monkey (2025), differs in tone though as it this adaptation with a blends horror and dark comedy, allowing Perkins to showcase his versatility as a filmmaker.

The narrative of The Monkey (2025) centres on twin brothers, portrayed by Theo James, who encounter a cursed toy monkey linked to a series of gruesome deaths. Perkins expands upon King’s original short story, infusing it with themes of family, fatherhood, reconciliation and a litany of grisly sudden deaths. Having found the simian death totem as teenagers, Hal and Bill Shelburn find their lives and those around them impacted in the most bloody explosive of ways. Indeed, there is much thought and planning given to these Saw and Final Destination franchise influenced on-screen set-pieces. In fact, the exquisite surprise and laugh-out-loud hilarity which occur throughout somewhat overpowers any emotional connection with the thinly-written protagonists.

The film’s gore and relentless pace are undeniably its strongest assets — the kills are extreme, inventive, and staged with a gleeful disregard for realism, echoing the chaotic energy of ’80s horror comedies. Each death sequence feels like a miniature horror short, packed with practical effects and over-the-top carnage. Perkins crafts these moments with a twisted sense of humour, making the film feel like a sketch-show carousel of nightmarish vignettes, each more outrageous than the last.

However, despite the visceral fun, The Monkey (2025) struggles to leave a lasting impression. Unlike the original Saw (2004) by James Wan and Leigh Whannell — a film that balanced its brutal horror with sharp social commentary and tightly woven mythology — Perkins’ adaptation lacks a deeper foundation. The cursed toy monkey serves as a simple harbinger of death, but the film never establishes consistent rules for how the curse operates or why it escalates the way it does. Without clear internal logic or meaningful subtext, the horror loses weight, and the emotional stakes fizzle.

While The Monkey (2025) succeeds as a frenetic, blood-soaked thrill ride, it ultimately feels ephemeral. The film’s surface-level scares and comedic flair make for an entertaining watch, but the absence of narrative substance or thematic resonance leaves it as little more than a fleeting novelty — a film you enjoy in the moment, but rarely think about after the credits roll.

Mark: 6.5 out of 11