LGBTQ werewolf romance 'My Animal' coming in September

Amandla Stenberg stars in "My Animal." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
Amandla Stenberg stars in "My Animal." File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Paramount Global Content Distribution announced the premiere date for My Animal on Monday. The film will play in theaters Sept. 8 and come to video-on-demand one week later.

My Animal premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January where UPI reviewed it, noting that it used werewolves as a metaphor for two young girls in love.

Bobbi Salvör Menuez plays Heather, a werewolf whose family manages her transformations every midnight of a full moon. Heather falls for Jonine (Amandla Stenberg), who tries to make their relationship work despite the danger.

My Animal is the first film written by Jae Matthews and directed by Jacqueline Castel. Castel said she related to Matthews' script.

"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," Castel wrote in a statement.

Amandla Stenberg (L) and Bobbi Salvör Menuez star in "My Animal." Photo courtesy of Paramount
Amandla Stenberg (L) and Bobbi Salvör Menuez star in "My Animal." Photo courtesy of Paramount

Heidi von Palleske, Cory Lipman, Charlie & Harrison Halpenny, Joe Apollonio, Scott Thompson, Dean McDermott and Stephen McHattie also star.