50 years on, new shark horror movie Dangerous Animals puts to rights many of the mistakes Steven Spielberg confessed to making in his epic Jaws

On Friday, June 20, Steven Spielberg’s oceanic epic Jaws will turn 50 years old. As the anniversary rolls around, we as an audience are reminded of our very human obsession with sharks – an obsession that is explored in new horror movie Dangerous Animals. But unlike the 1975 movie, Dangerous Animals shows that the monster of the sea is the least of our worries when the real villain rears its ugly head: man.

There’s no denying that shark movies play a pivotal role in pop culture. The Jaws franchise has changed the way we see the ocean. I mean, have you ever swam out into open water just to quickly paddle back in because you can just imagine a 300-toothed beast sitting beneath you, just like in that iconic Jaws poster? It’s a thought that’s hard to shake.

However, in recent years, shark movies have been lacking in substance. Films such as Under Paris and The Meg paint an unfair portrayal of the gilled beasts, and often add to the idea that sharks are merely mindless killing machines. That’s where Dangerous Animals differs. Directed by The Loved Ones and Devil’s Candy helmer Sean Byrne, the new movie is all about sharks, but its villain is actually man.

A new kind of sea monster

When thinking of the scariest creatures on earth, many people rank sharks pretty high up. We as a society are obsessed with them. But it is a fact that we are much more likely to be killed by a person than an animal. If you were to book a cage diving trip in shark-infested waters, would you be more scared of the fins that lie below, or the instructor?

Set in Australia’s sunny Gold Coast, Dangerous Animals follows an American nomadic surfer named Zephyr who looks to escape her troubled past in the ripples of the ocean. But before she can hit the waves one morning, she gets abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer, played by Suicide Squad’s Jai Courtney, who enjoys feeding his victims to the ravenous animals below.

There is no doubt that sharks do kill people. But sharks don’t often kill for fun; it’s for survival. They certainly don’t tend to play with their food. Not like Dangerous Animal’s villain Tucker, who uses charisma to lure victims onto his boat, and takes great time, care, and enjoyment in the art of the kill. This plunges Zephyr into survival mode in a fight to the death that would be over much quicker if it were a shark after her. I know what I would choose.

Misunderstood creatures

Rather than making a killer great white its villain, Dangerous Animals pays tribute to Jaws in another way, by righting one of Spielberg’s biggest mistakes. Despite being one of his biggest movies, Spielberg has made it known that he has regrets about vilifying sharks. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, the director admitted he fears sharks are "mad" at him for "the feeding frenzy of crazy sword fishermen that happened after 1975."

It has been suggested that, following the release of Jaws and its harrowing depiction of shark attacks, shark populations in the US were impacted – which is something "I truly and to this day regret," said Spielberg. The creatures still aren't safe in the water: according to Science.org, fishing-related shark deaths reached over one hundred million per year in 2019.

But this is where Dangerous Animals comes in. By shifting the focus onto a more malicious villain, the film looks to change our perception of sharks. “I was excited to finally make a shark film that didn’t vilify the shark,” said director Sean Byrne via Dangerous Animals press material.

This all started with writer Nick Lepard stumbling upon an open letter from scientists who were worried that the horror genre’s depiction of sharks as vicious killers would cause further harm to the species. “The serial killer Tucker was born from this,” said Lepard. Tucker is the direct result of the public’s twisted fascination with shark attacks.

The death of the CGI shark

Another reason to celebrate Dangerous Animals during this jawsome month is simply because it looks better than most shark horror movies. Over the past decade, I have seen more CGI sharks on screen than any other animal. But it looks bad. I don’t want to see any more flying or three-headed sharks ever again!

The entire creative team on Dangerous Animals agreed pretty early on that there would be no mechanical sharks. Instead, archive researcher Lisa Savage found footage of real sharks that would later be blended with the live-action portion of the film. When it came to the movie’s few shark attacks, the team opted for VFX, but ensured the sharks maintained their natural features. The shark footage and ocean shots included in the movie just show how the Dangerous Animals team was able to carefully present these beasts with respect.

Naturally, in the lead up to the grand half-century anniversary of Jaws, you’ll want to dive into as many shark movies as possible to celebrate the occasion. But what better way to pay tribute to the iconic horror pic than going to see the brand new Australian fin-tastic slasher? Although nothing can ever replace that legendary feature, Dangerous Animals certainly flips the sub-genre on its head, reminding us who the real monsters are.

Dangerous Animals is out now. For more on what to watch, keep up with other upcoming horror movies, and check out the rest of our Big Screen Spotlight series.