If, by chance, you’ve never heard of Australian genre director Sean Byrne, you need to remedy that fact right away. While far from a household name, Byrne directed two of the best horror movies of the last twenty years – The Loved Ones in 2009 and The Devil’s Candy in 2015. The Loved Ones, in particular, is a gem, with star Robin McLeavy’s performance as high school stalker Lola, being one of the most memorable horror baddies in recent memory.

And now, it looks like Byrne is finally directing another film, with Variety revealing that he’s set to direct the horror flick Dangerous Animals, which stars Hassie Harrison (the Yellowstone girl who caused a major bunkhouse feud a few seasons back), Jai Courtney, and Josh Heuston. 

Here’s what Variety has to say about the project:

Written by Nick Lepard, “Dangerous Animals” exhibits the same play with genre tropes of “The Devil’s Candy,” a classic horror thrill ride which unspools to the sounds of heavy metal. In “Dangerous Animals,” Zephyr (Harrison), described as a savvy and free-spirited surfer, is abducted by a shark-obsessed serial killer (Courtney). “Held captive on his boat, she must figure out how to escape before he carries out a ritualistic feeding to the sharks below. The only person who realizes she is missing is new love interest Moses (Hueston), who goes looking for Zephyr, only to be caught by the deranged murderer as well.” 

This sounds like a pretty radical film, with a standout quote in the piece coming from producer David Garrett, whose company Mister Smith, is financing the film. He says, “in a clever melding of the serial killer and shark movie genres, it makes the shark look like the nice guy.” 

That’s music to my ears, because if Byrne’s known for anything, it’s his diabolical villains. Jai Courtney got a lot of flack in his early Hollywood days when he was typecast as a wooden leading man in movies like A Good Day to Die Hard and Terminator Genisys. Yet, he was pretty great as Captain Boomerang in Suicide Squad, so I could easily imagine him nailing a role like this.

Are you excited Sean Byrne’s making a new movie? Let us know in the comments!

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