My Animal

Trying to live with a deadly secret, a teenage girl struggling with her sexuality and the monstrous secret within her tries to strike up a romance with a new girl in town that shares her interests, but as the dark secret threatens to put everything in danger forcing her to fight for what she wants.

This was a fairly enjoyable if somewhat difficult to label as a genre outing. The main focus here is on the stellar coming-of-age storyline, managing to balance a fantastic setup involving the series of issues presented to her as a series of obstacles to overcome. With the build-up here involving the struggles of being a loner teenager in a small town such as this, growing up in that type of conservative environment while balancing the growing realization of her feelings for her neighbor with the usual trial and tribulations of growing up, and doing all that while trying to keep as dark a secret as her lycanthropic origins come to the forefront is a massively engaging way to go about this. Combining it all with the other family dynamics utilized here generates the kind of immersive drama that gives this a stand-out storyline to start with. On top of that, there's also a lot to like with the influx of artfully-accomplished scenes that focus on the inner nature of the werewolf within her. Taking place in neon-soaked sequences in a blank, black space where her carnal desires and experiences are presented, the hallucinatory approach taken here is masterfully accomplished. This ends up creating a genuinely enthralling series of setpieces that bring about a more erotic tone than expected even if they bring about the main issue with the film in that it's hard to call this a genuine genre effort. The dramatic approach and lack of traditional genre thrills for such an unwieldy running time cause this to drag on way too much rather than focus on the desired carnage and bloodletting most would desire. It's entirely the wrong attitude since it has different aspirations in mind but that should still be mentioned here.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Nudity, sexual scenes, and Violence.

Firstly, I appreciate the strong atmosphere and creative take on the horror romance genre as director Jacqueline Castlel does offer strong sense of direction on creating the atmosphere, characters, and narrative. Castel proves she has talents on film directing after creating various music videos for various artists like Zola Jesus, Moon Duo and Jim Jarmusch. Premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight Selection, while ambitious, it was a decent slice-of-life romance horror movie.

Throughout, the production is solid and the camerawork is pretty good on capturing the Canadian landscapes and snowy atmosphere setting. There are some amazing visual presentations as the visuals felt dream-like, strange and colorful which reminded a lot of 80s and giallo horror visuals. Most of the performances were solid as the main leads are pretty good with some decent chemistry between one another.

The narrative and concept about queer lovers and werewolves is pretty awesome as not often LGBTQ themed concepts in horror genres are explored. However, while the narrative does offer some good ideas, the narrative doesn't feel as strong as it was hoping for. Many concepts that could have been explored wasn't really fully utilized which made the characters not fully interesting nor connectable.

There are good themes explored about sexuality, identity and societal expectations as the themes were explored but some themes could have used a little work on fully developing the characters. The musical soundtrack is pretty good which brought a good 80s vibe to it. The dialogue is solid while there were a few dialogue moments that felt kind of rough.

Overall, it's clear the movie has ambition and there are strong direction and good metaphors are explored, yet, needed some improvements. Decent Midnight Flick.

Life in rural Northern Ontario is a bore.

Especially when you are a young woman, who is coming of age as both a werewolf and a lesbian.

Emma Cooper likes to play hockey; drink with her friends; and is trying to woo her closest mate.

But she has to be careful- particularly around a full moon- because she's liable to turn.

And do something her whole family would regret.

Because she's not the only werewolf in the family.

She inherited the gene from her father.

Who also happens to be her closest confidant.

So...when he dies unexpectedly...everything starts to fall apart for her.

Her family no longer has the glue that kept it together.

Leaving her to deal with her jer brothers, and alcoholic mother.

At the same time her best friend is being pressured to keep distance from her.

Making it even harder for her to show the restraint she was trained to exhibit.

When all is said and done, My Animal is a solid little indie horror effort from director...

And probably the best werewolf film to come out of Canada since Ginger Snaps.

A perfect example of a modern canuxploitation classic!

Even if it is more drama based, and a bit paltry on the action side.

5 out of 10.

Worth watching. Very 80s vibes. Incredible visuals and camera shots. Indie arthouse themes drive this horror story. Some light x-rated scenes. Actors did a great job. Story is decent. You will be transported back to 1988. I loved most of it.

The action or werewolf sequences are not special effect heavy. Nor need be. The emphasis here is on the characters. Each figuring themselves out in a cold cold world. Cold weather and cold people. Cold family members and cold friends. Many relatable moments. Especially looking back in time from our current acceptances in societies. The suspense builds slowly with each passing full moon.

Only suggestion would be to cut it a bit shorter. I am glad I watched it and really enjoyed it. Very impressed.

This film was only an hour and forty-three minutes but it felt like three hours. As someone who has been a youth in rural Canada I deeply resonated with the depiction of the bleakness and dullness of life in small northern town. It was hopeless and boring as a youth, and it didn't make for a very entertaining film.

The acting was great, but too many long drawn out fantasy sequences that didn't really add to the film. It looked good. I liked the lighting and the setting, but...nothing happens. It needed more story and fewer music videos.

It was tagged as horror and romance, but it did not have enough of either. It had barely any of either really.

Finally, why is Canada only allowed to make werewolf movies now?