Interview With Sean Byrne, Director Of ‘Dangerous Animals’

Shark movies are a dime a dozen these days so it’s really important that this one is better than the last one. Dangerous Animals is that movie. Written by Nick Lepard (This is like his first movie. Color me impressed!) and directed by Australian filmmaker Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones; The Devil’s Candy), Dangerous Animals stars Hassie Harrison as Zephyr, a surfer who finds herself kidnapped and held captive on a boat by serial killer Tucker (Jai Courtney) and must figure out a way to escape before being fed to the sharks.

What I really loved about this movie is that it used almost zero CGI. That’s not something you usually find in a modern-day shark movie. To celebrate the release of Dangerous Animals, I chatted with Sean about what makes this shark movie different, why the sharks look so real, horror movies, and more!

PopHorror: Dangerous Animals made my anxiety level skyrocket, and I like that.

Sean Byrne: That’s great to hear, thank you!

PopHorror: What intrigued you about the script and made you want to be a part of the project?

Sean Byrne: The fact that it was a shark film meets serial killer film was the hook that immediately got my attention because it was such a brilliant high concept. On top of that, this type of shark conservation angle that the shark’s not the monster, man is the true monster, and I just felt like I had never seen that before. This was the new shark film that we’ve all been waiting for because pretty much every other shark film, sharks are indiscriminate killers, so I was excited to crack that kind of misconception and show you the real problem is with us.

PopHorror: I appreciate this one because there’s been a lot of shark movies lately and they haven’t all been very good. But this one has a completely different take with the serial killer side of it and I think it’s going to – pun intended – blow everyone out of the water. I think people are really going to enjoy this.

Sean Byrne: Thanks, I hope so!

PopHorror: I also really appreciate the variety of sharks featured in the film. Can you tell us about the sharks and how it was achieved to look so real?

Sean Byrne: Back in the early script stage, when we pared it down somewhat, we wanted a variety of sharks that were true to that area that we were shooting in because the Great White, it just gets featured so often. But also, we wanted the sharks to feel real and to have scars the same way that humans have scars and that’s a part of our personality. We wanted to show Makos that move at 70 miles an hour, but the other sharks don’t move that quickly, so 80% of the sharks that you see in the film are real, but it’s achieved through 4k footage. We had a shark researcher that just provided us with a lot of footage that I went through to match the storyboards I had so we have a very clear plan of attack, and we knew exactly what we were looking for and photographic references. And then it was a matter of finding it, so when you see sharks in the film and they’re underwater, they’re real and we blend the water in the grey to make sure they match with the actors. The fins above water, that’s the only CGI that’s used.

PopHorror: Wow! I love that. One last question for you. What is your favorite scary movie?

Sean Byrne: Oh, that’s really hard. Can I say two? The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because of how genuinely unhinged it is, and it’s got a great situational absurdist humor. That’s the film I think, that’s made in my own style, even though my style is kind of slicker than that gritty 16 mill look. I also love The Exorcist because I’m a big believer that if you don’t care you don’t scare, and you could take the possession out of The Exorcist and it’s still just about a mother and her helplessness and not being able to fix what’s wrong with her daughter. It could be any kind of illness. That film is a great kind of education. I think it’s a film school unto itself. It has to work in a character sense. The emotional foundation has to be strong, otherwise the horror can’t work.

 

 

Thank you so much to Sean for taking the time to chat with us. Dangerous Animals is in theaters June 6, 2025!