Werewolf Horror Film ANIMAL INSIDE Set For A September Release!
Werewolf Horror Film ANIMAL INSIDE Set For A September Release!
Wild Eye Releasing has announced the debut of the new werewolf film, ANIMAL INSIDE for September 13th on DVD and Digital platforms. The film is by Shawn Burkett (Don’t Fu*k In The Woods) and stars Kelci C. Magel. Watch the trailer and get more info on the film right here below.
From The Press Release
Wild Eye announces Sept. 13th for Shawn Burkett’s werewolf shocker ANIMAL INSIDE
From director…
wordcount: 2.8k
warnings: a little blood, that's it I think?
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“You turned, and went hunting. You have no control over your animal form, that’s why you don’t remember it. The deer was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It was true, he had been watching her ever since that day. He had run into her on her walk and felt her power. Usually he wouldn’t have thought too much about it, he did run into others among the humans every now and then, if it hadn’t been for the rage he also felt within her. A sure sign that she was about to turn against her will. He had followed her, keeping his distance, so to not raise any suspicions, but he had been too cautious and stayed too far behind it seemed, because he lost her. When he found her again the deer was already dead and she ran before he could stop her.
Since that day he spent his time lingering near her, not letting her out of his sight. On a few occasions he was close to stepping in but she had always managed to calm down in time thankfully. How would he have been able to explain appearing at her office? That was until last night, when the man threatened her friend. He had felt her anger and when he heard her growl he thought he was too late and she was going to rip the man apart. Luckily enough she had been so caught off guard by him that she forgot about her anger for a moment, which was enough for him to get the situation under control.
Fighting the human had been easy enough, he barely received a few scratches and that was only because he had gotten distracted by Riana and her friend leaving. Cursing he knocked the man out and followed them. He couldn’t let her get away this time, it was getting too dangerous and it was only a matter of time until she lost control again. When he stepped out of the bar he saw her waiting for a Taxi, but her friend was still with her. Sure, he could have said he wanted to check on them, wanted to make sure they got home safe, but how was he supposed to catch her alone? He disappeared into the alley where he had parked his motorbike. He had to get to her apartment before her at any cost.
Just barely did he manage to do so and now she was standing in front of him. Finally she had stopped eyeing the knife on the counter. Not that she could have actually harmed him, at least not as a human, but he wasn’t quite fond of being threatened. Now she was quiet, hadn’t said a word since he had told her what she was and his eyes were scanning her for any sign of a reaction. She seemed in shock, he couldn’t blame her. After all she had grown up among humans, probably had never even heard of shapeshifters existing until just now.
“I know this is a bit much”, he tried to calm her down. “A bit much?” it seemed as if she had finally found her voice again, “a bit much? This is absolutely crazy. Are you on drugs? I’m gonna call the police now.” She moved to grab her phone from her purse, not letting him out of her sight, and yet he was much too fast for her to react when he stepped closer and grabbed her arm that was reaching for the bag. A quick glance to the side told her she had lost now, he had placed himself between her and her knife. But seeing how fast he had reacted and stopped her she wasn’t sure she would have had a chance in the first place, even with the knife. “Who the hell are you?” He was way too close for her liking now, he was towering over her and she hated having to look up to a man. His dark eyes were searching her face, she wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Maybe fear? She wasn’t going to give him that kind of pleasure, not after the things that had been happening to her lately.
“My name is Samei. As you might have figured out by now, I’m a shapeshifter too. So will you listen to me now?”
She gave him a sceptic look. “Prove it”. He looked at her and scoffed. “I’m pretty sure you’d prefer not having a grown predator in your home.” “So, what then? I’m supposed to believe you, just like that?” “Listen, I’m not the most patient to begin with and your attitude isn’t helping. I know this is confusing and it might sound crazy to you”, he had let go of her arm when he started talking and she had quickly taken a few steps back, getting as much distance between them as possible. If she couldn’t get to her knife, she at least wanted the option to escape. He watched her closely. As much as she tried to hide her fear, while it might have worked on humans, it was obvious to him. Her eyes were darting across the room, searching for the safest way to get away from him, every now and then stopping at the knife that seemed hopelessly far away now. Running a hand through his dark, messy hair he sighed, forcing himself to sound as calm as possible. “And I know you’re scared. But I really don’t mean to hurt you. You need someone to teach you how to control this. I can help you, but you’ll need to at least try and trust me.” “But… I don’t even know you. How am I supposed to trust the stranger who broke into my home?” “That really wasn’t my best idea, was it? I don’t expect you to trust me right away, or come with me without a question. Hell, you being so naïve would probably be more annoying than putting up such a fight. But the longer you wait, the more dangerous it’ll become, for both you, and those around you.” With that last warning, he turned to leave.
Riana was left alone the process the information she had just received. A shapeshifter? What was that supposed to mean? She looked at her hands, before her inner eye still seeing the blood from the deer. Weirdly enough, she had to admit, it made sense. After collecting her thoughts, she checked the door, and every window in the apartment. Everything was closed and undamaged. Just how had he gotten in here? Never before had she felt so unsafe in her own home.
For the rest of the weekend she refused to leave her apartment, too scared of what might happen if she did, but she couldn’t hide forever. Duty called. So Monday morning she was sitting in her office again, though her mind was completely elsewhere. She had trouble concentrating and getting anything done. Somehow she managed to make the day go by, she was just ready to go home, when her coworker stopped by her desk. “Leaving already?” “Uh, yeah. I always leave around this time?” “Oh, I just thought since we’d been so busy you’d stay a little longer too, like most of the others. You know, we work together when there’s trouble.” Sure, like we worked together when you stabbed me in the back last week. She bit her tongue, stopping herself from speaking her mind. Always easily irritated by the woman her current situation wasn’t helping. “You know what, Karen? I’m actually not feeling too well, I think I might still be a little sick from last week. I should leave now.” She grabbed her bag, and was already on her way out the door, thinking she’d seen the last of her coworker, at least for today, but luck wasn’t on her side. “Oh that’s just excuses now, because you don’t want to help us. You could just say you don’t have time.” Riana was so close to snapping and she could feel she was getting dangerously close to her anger getting the best of her. “What’s it to you? Just leave me alone!” She practically growled. She had to get out of here. Fast. Thankfully the other woman seemed to be speechless for once and before she could recover and say anything else Riana was already out the door.
It had really been about time she got out of the office. Sprinting down the street she could already feel herself slipping, she had to get out of the city as fast as possible. Barely reaching the forest in time, she fell on her knees and let out a pained scream that quickly turned into a vicious growl. A moment later, she was gone, only her purse left behind. She didn’t hear the motorbike behind her, or the man cursing as he followed her into the woods.
Samei cursed at he stopped his motorbike and watched the animal disappear between the trees. They were nowhere near a path, therefore he couldn’t follow her on his bike. He had kept watching her after the day he had appeared in her home, knowing it was only a matter of time until she turned again. This wasn’t how he had planned it though. He had meant to be by her side when it happened, to make sure she couldn’t be of any harm to anybody and that she wasn’t seen. But he hadn’t gotten to her in time, and now she was on the run. People tended to take walks often in the forest near the city, and she had absolutely no control over her animal form, so he had to act fast. The risk was too great. Throwing his leather jacket over the seat of his bike he took off after her. Before he disappeared between the trees, the man was already gone, a large predator taking his place. As such, it was easy to follow her trail.
He found her not much later in the bushes surrounding a small clearing, where some children were playing. They were unaware of the danger they were in, actually moving closer to the bushes while chasing each other, their innocent laughter echoing through the forest. Just as she was about to jump at them, he reached her, launching his own body towards her and knocking her over. Her first instinct was to attack him, he had been hoping for her to redirect her aggression towards him, and he took off once more, luring her away from the children. Once they had gotten far enough he stopped in his tracks, turning to face her. She jumped at him and though she put all her anger into her attack she didn’t stand a chance. She was young and clumsy, blindly letting her rage control her actions, while he was an experienced fighter. It wasn’t long until she was on the ground and once the animal within her realized it had lost she turned back into her human form.
He had gotten off her when he realized she was turning back, trying not to scare her too much, but she still let out a scream when she turned around and saw the large black cat in front of her. Changing back within seconds his hand was on her mouth, stopping her from screaming again. Her gaze wandered down, seeming like she wanted to make sure it wasn’t still a claw. “Relax. It’s only me. I’m going to let you go now, but you have to promise me not to scream again.” She nodded weakly, he wasn’t sure if it was from exhaustion or if she was just scared. Probably a bit of both. He could have cursed himself, he really didn’t mean to scare her, but he had had to stop her somehow. Slowly he removed his hand, carefully watching her reaction, but she did seem calm enough. For a while, she didn’t say a word. Confusion was written on her face and she most likely simply didn’t know where to start.
“What… what just happened?” “You turned again, after you left your office. Something at work must have irritated you. I followed you, to make sure nobody would get hurt.” “And was it necessary? You had to stop me, didn’t you?” The fear in her voice was obvious, but she wasn’t scared of him, but rather of what she could have done. “Don’t do this yourself” “Did I harm anybody? Tell me!” “No, I got to you in time. Nothing happened.” “But if you hadn’t been here…” He nodded. She was silent again but you could see her thoughts were going a million miles an hour. Something deep inside of him felt bad for her. He could have just told her that nothing had happened. But then again, maybe this made her realize that she did need help to learn to control her power.
“Come on, I’ll take you home. We can talk there.” Her only reaction was a nod. After she had put up such a fight the first time they spoke, he couldn’t believe how quiet she was now. But after all she had probably just feared for her life when she saw him. That he wasn’t going to turn into a wild beast in the middle of her apartment had only been an excuse, he simply hadn’t wanted to scare her. Knowing somebody was a shapeshifter and having somebody actually turn into an animal in front of you were two completely different things after all.
He grabbed her arm, to pull her up, when she flinched. At first he thought he had simply grabbed her a bit too tight, until he saw the blood on her arm, and the claw marks. They weren’t deep and probably didn’t hurt too much, yet he couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt. “Come on”, he spoke once more, this time softer, “let’s go. Then I’ll take care of your wound too.”
By the time they had gotten out of the forest it was already dark. Riana had underestimated just how far in the woods they had been. When she saw his bike she stopped in her tracks. “You don’t expect me to get on that, do you?” “What, you want to walk?” He gave her a questioning look, while handing her the purse she had lost when she had turned. But no, she really didn’t want to walk, so reluctantly she got on the bike. “Hold on tight, I’ll drive carefully.”
He didn’t. She had thought she had been scared when she saw him before, but now she actually feared for her life. It felt like forever until they reached the building her apartment was in and she felt like kissing the ground when they finally did.
As she unlocked her door she couldn’t help but still wonder how the hell he had gotten in the last time. She grabbed some bandages from the bathroom to patch up her arm, but before she could get started they were taken from her. “Let me do this.” “You better. It’s your fault after all.” He scoffed. “It’s just a few scratches, you could have ended up much worse.” Watching him as he bandaged her arm she couldn’t help but notice he was surprisingly gentle and seemed to know what he was doing quite well. They sat like this for a while, until she couldn’t bare the silence anymore.
“So, you spoke the truth. You really are a shapeshifter.” “Yes, what gave it away? Was it the panther at your throat?” “Oh you’re a real jester, aren’t you?” Had she just closed her eyes for a split second, she would have missed the slight twitch in the corner of his mouth. This was the biggest reaction she had gotten out of him so far. “You better get used to it. You need me.” Just how was she supposed to deal with this guy? Even if he was her only chance to learn how to control her shapeshifting abilities, he was absolutely unbearable and apparently quite arrogant too.
“Alright, all done.” She looked at the bandage on her arm, it was perfect, no doctor could have done it any better. “Do you do this a lot?” “What do you mean?” “Treat wounds. It looks like you have experience.” “I’ve been in a fight or two, you got to know how to take care of your injuries.” He simply shrugged it off, but Riana couldn’t deny the feeling that he was hiding something.
“So what now?” She wondered. “What now? Now you have to tell me if you’re still willing to risk your and other people’s life, or if you trust me enough to come with me and let me teach you.” She looked at her feet, she had never been so unsure of something in her life. But did she really have a choice? He hadn’t lied to her about what he was, so surely he could teach her how to keep her other side in check too, right? No way in hell could she risk losing control again. What if the next time he wasn’t near to stop her?
“Fine. I’m coming with you. Just give me a minute to grab some things.”
Everyone has an animal inside them. Some have become tame and docile, while others stir beneath the surface, threatening to break free of the bonds of human flesh. I feel mine every day. It strains against my will, pushing to surface. I fear the animal within me will conquer my mind and take over my body, driving me to madness. Every minute, I think about embracing it. Every hour, I feel like giving in. Every day, just a bit closer to the edge...
