My Animal trailer: Amandla Stenberg horror movie reaches theatres and digital next month

The horror romance My Animal – which stars Amandla Stenberg of Bodies Bodies Bodies (read our review of that one HERE) and Bobbi Salvör Menuez of Nocturnal Animals (which we reviewed at THIS LINK) – has been getting positive reviews and strong word of mouth from its festival screenings, and a wider audience will soon have the chance to see it. The movie will be receiving a limited theatrical release on September 8th, with a digital release following on September 15th. And with those dates drawing near, a trailer for My Animal has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.

My Animal is coming our way from Paramount Global Content Distribution. The feature directorial debut of Jacqueline Castel, who was working from a screenplay by first-time feature writer Jae Matthews, the film is set in a small northern town and tells the story of Heather, an outcast teenage hockey goalie (Menuez), who falls for the town’s newcomer (Stenberg), an alluring but tormented figure skater. As their relationship deepens, Heather’s growing desires clash with her darkest secret, forcing her to control the animal within.

Those who have had the chance to watch My Animal already have confirmed that this is a werewolf story. So has director Castel, who provided the following statement: “My Animal is a story about inheritance: of what gets passed through our lineage and how that defines us as individuals. It is also a story about first love and how that can serve as a catalyst for radical change, revealing what we most need and what most needs healing within us.

Like Heather, I understand the quiet despair and isolation of being an outsider in a small town, and of rebelling against it in youth only to discover that the most treasured and distinctive aspects of my selfhood derive from the very things I attempted to reject. What made me different also defined and ultimately transformed me.

In Jae Matthew’s screenwriting, I found the pain and joy of our mirrored adolescent struggles, our complex family relations, and the difficulty of navigating our earliest and most formative relationships. The real battle we each waged in youth, and the one Heather’s character must also face, is finding the courage of self-acceptance and self-expression. Through the struggles of these characters we encounter what works and what does not in the quest for identity, authenticity, and self-actualization, and the courage we must summon in the face of personal crisis and discrimination. This classical, outsider framework translates beautifully to the mythology of the werewolf.

In My Animal, I invite the viewer to get lost in the otherness of Heather Anderson. In so doing, I not only compel the audience to feel connected to a character who at first may appear to have little in common with them, but also to learn the same lessons that she does: only by embracing the traits that make us outcasts, and even subject to scorn, do we learn to become fully ourselves.“

My Animal was produced by Andrew Bronfman and Michael Solomon, with Stenberg and Menuez serving as executive producers.

Screenwriter Jae Matthews happens to be one half of the electronic music band Boy Harsher, which recently had songs on the soundtracks for the horror movies Terrifier 2 and Halloween Ends. Augustus Muller, the other half of the Boy Harsher duo, has composed the score for the film.

What did you think of the trailer for My Animal? Will you be watching this movie next month? Let us know by leaving a comment below.