Cannes 2025: Sean Byrne's "Dangerous Animals," an underwater terror on the Croisette

FILMMAKERS' FORTNIGHT

Sometimes the Fortnight sets aside a small slot for letting off steam for the most codified genre cinema, which, amidst the serious chores of the Croisette, comes to play its role as a thrill ride. This year, the parallel selection was strong, fishing out a horror subcategory usually destined for the sale bins, namely the killer shark film, inaugurated with Steven Spielberg's seminal Jaws (1975).

Since then, the exploitation vein has largely degenerated into a flood of wild and nanardesque offshoots, close to parody, from Sharknado (2013-2018) to Sharktopus (2010-2015), via Cocaine Shark (2023), Zombie Shark (2015) or Sharkula (2022). How do you regenerate a figure (the shark) wrung out to the core by the pop washing machine? In this case, Dangerous Animals , the third feature film by the Australian Sean Byrne, a rising star, turns out to be an excellent surprise, in the way it revitalizes underwater terror.

You have 80.19% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.