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My Animal film image

An outcast hockey player, Heather (Bobbi Salvor Menuez) is saddled with baggage heavier than her goalie pads: not only is she a closeted lesbian living with her alcoholic mom, but she’s also inherited a familial curse that transforms her into a bloodthirsty lycanthrope. Falling for Jonny (Amandla Stenberg), a figure skater nursing her own emotional wounds, Heather invites further persecution from the prejudiced townsfolk. But turn around is feral play, and there’s a full moon rising.

From its transfixing opening transformation sequence, Jacqueline Castel’s My Animal is a full-blooded creature feature that weds the classic werewolf mythos with its own sapphic sensibility. Likewise, it leans into some genre tropes (including a synth score in the key of Carpenter), while exploring new avenues of the uncanny (let it be said: LSD and lycanthropy don’t mix). Ultimately, it’s an anthem of self-actualization and an ode to outcasts, whatever form they take.

 

September 30 & October 2: Q&A with director Jacqueline Castel & crew

 

Series Media Partner

  

Director
Cast

Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Amandla Stenberg, Stephen McHattie, Heidi von Palleske, Cory Lipman, Scott Thompson

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Language

English

Content Warning

Sexual Discrimination

18+
103 min
Action & Suspense Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

Book Tickets

Saturday September 30

6:15 pm
Closed Captioning Guests/Q&As Hearing Assistance
International Village 9
Book Now

Monday October 02

3:30 pm
Closed Captioning Guests/Q&As Hearing Assistance
International Village 9
Book Now

Credits

Producer

Andrew Bronfman, Michael Solomon

Screenwriter

Jae Matthews

Cinematography

Bryn McCashin

Editor

Marc Boucrot & Jacqueline Castel

Production Design

Emma Doyle

Original Music

Pier Harrison

Director

Jacqueline Castel headshot

Jacqueline Castel

Jacqueline Castel is an internationally award-winning director, screenwriter, and curator based in NYC. Her short film work has been featured at more than fifty festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFest, Sitges, and Fantasia. She has written for and directed cult auteurs John Carpenter and Jim Jarmusch, and collaborated on a film with David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption in 2018. Castel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The BBC, Dazed, VICE, Italian Vogue, Interview Magazine, and on AMC’s Shudder. She earned her BFA with honors at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. My Animal is her feature film debut.

Altered States

See more films in this series:

The Animal Kingdom
The Animal Kingdom film image

The Animal Kingdom

Action & Suspense Drama Horror & Sci-Fi

In a world where mysterious mutations are gradually evolving humans into animal hybrids in an unpredictable and frightening way, a father tries to protect his 16-year-old son who is starting to acquire beastly characteristics.

The Rio Theatre

Tiger Stripes

Action & Suspense Award Winners Drama Women Directors

Winner of Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prix, Tiger Stripes is a coming-of-age body horror film set in a Malaysian girls' school. 12-year-old Zaffan’s body starts to change before everyone else’s, and she becomes convinced she's turning into a monster.

The Rio Theatre
Restore Point
Restore Point film image

Restore Point

Drama Horror & Sci-Fi

Central Europe, 2041. Citizens have the right to be revived from unnatural deaths. When a scientist is murdered and revived through an unstable, outdated backup detective Em Trochinowska pursues her prime suspect, a hacker tied to a Luddite terror cell.

The Rio Theatre

White Plastic Sky

Action & Suspense Animation Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

2123: When Stefan's wife consents to a macabre metamorphosis before her appointed time, he races across a devastated landscape to save her. This richly detailed rotoscoped dystopia is a spectacle to behold, and a warning to be heeded.

The Rio Theatre

My Animal

Action & Suspense Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

Outcast teen hockey goalie Heather has it rough: she's a closeted lesbian with an alcoholic mum and something far worse than the usual menstrual cycle. This full-blooded creature feature weds the classic werewolf mythos with its own sapphic sensibility.

International Village 9

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Comedy Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

Meet Sasha, the world’s most compassionate young vampire. Her family is at their wits' end with her refusal to embrace their lethal traditions and threaten to cut her off -- until she meets a brooding boy hoping to end his life, and strikes a unique deal.

The Rio Theatre International Village 9

Animalia

Action & Suspense Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

An unexpected meteorological phenomenon means that a heavily pregnant young Moroccan woman, Itto, is forced to flee from her comfortable home alone and brave an increasingly otherworldly and apocalyptic milieu. A singular, hard-to-classify debut feature.

The Rio Theatre International Village 8
The Sacrifice Game
The Sacrifice Game film image

The Sacrifice Game

Action & Suspense Horror & Sci-Fi

1971. Sam and Clara are stuck at their elite boarding school for the Christmas holidays, along with a teacher, her boyfriend, and, soon enough, a murderous gang of occult killers, led by Mena Massoud (Aladdin), who mean to call up a long-dormant demon...

The Rio Theatre
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint film image

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint

Comedy Drama

Boasting absurdist humour and one of the most audacious storytelling gambits you'll see on screen this year, this is the story of Rita, a devout senior with an ill-advised scheme to stage a miracle and thus enshrine her reputation as a living saint.

The Cinematheque
The Wait
The Wait film image

The Wait

Action & Suspense Drama

On the brink of destitution, a gamekeeper on a remote ranch in southern Spain takes a bribe from a hunting party. When (inevitably) this leads to tragedy, Eladio's world falls apart, as unnatural forces extract a terrible price.

International Village 10 The Rio Theatre