A sexual awakening unlocks a supernatural curse in first-time filmmaker Jacqueline Castel’s “My Animal,” starring “Bodies Bodies Bodies” breakout Amandla Stenberg and “Euphoria” alum Bobbi Salvör Menuez.
“My Animal” premiered at 2023 Sundance and follows an adolescent queer romance between a mysterious outsider and a burnt-out figure skater. The film was written by Jae Matthews.
Per the official synopsis, tormented by a hidden family curse, Heather (Menuez) is forced to live a secluded life on the outskirts of a small town. When she falls for the rebellious Jonny (Stenberg), their connection threatens to unravel Heather’s suppressed desires, tempting her to unleash the animal within.
Heidi von Palleske, Cory Lipman, Charlie and Harrison Halpenny, Joe Apollonio, Scott Thompson, Dean McDermott, and Stephen McHattie round out the cast. The horror-romance is produced by Andrew Bronfman and Michael Solomon, and is a Paramount Global Content Distribution release.
Director Castel called the film a “modern fairy tale about what it means to transform yourself beyond inherited circumstances; but the transformation, as Heather’s journey reveals, is often solitary.” Castel compared the feature to “Beauty and the Beast,” with Menuez’s Heather learning to “embrace the traits that make her an outcast – or even the subject of scorn – to finally become who she truly is.”
The IndieWire review called the film a “grim coming-of-age fairy tale” story rooted in a “uniquely lesbian lycan” fable. “A knowing symmetry resides in Menuez and Stenberg’s performance. Menuez is visibly guarded, soft-spoken, and folded in, yet defiantly broad in their searching gaze,” the review read. “Stenberg further carves out a sense of loneliness amid the desolation landscape, which accomplishes the outline function, but occurs in an underwritten role.”
As for Castel’s cinematic vision, the review called her feature debut the mark of “an intelligent filmmaker” including odes to “Carrie.”
“[Castel] pokes and prods, stirring our curiosity to ecstatic bloodlust,” the review summarized. “If you’re coming to ‘My Animal’ solely for carnage and gore, however, Castel is unwilling to satiate that desire. The film isn’t out for revenge. It’s searching for understanding, for sovereignty, for a soothing love not in what it can’t be, but in its true nature. Castel, by nurturing ‘My Animal,’ provides an assured horror film guided by a radically empathetic, yet no less brutal touch.”
“My Animal” premieres in theaters September 8 and will be released on digital September 15. Check out the exclusive trailer below.
