While writing up the review for Kirdy Stevens's Taboo IV, I learned that the majority of the films he made were written and produced by his wife, Helen Terrie, so it was no surprise when I saw, during the opening credits, that The Animal in Me was written and produced by her, too. It turns out Taboo IV and The Animal in Me were released in the same year, although in terms of quality, they're worlds apart. Maybe the Taboo series had more clout, because Stevens got to shoot that one on film and was stuck with video for Animal. The former had a much more substantial cast (Karen Summer was in both, for what that's worth).
The Animal in Me stars Colleen Brennan as Maggie, a divorced romance novelist who has soured on the idea of romance, if she ever believed in it in the first place. Her daughter, Pepper (Summer), on the other hand, is still infatuated by the idea of infatuation. She's fully smitten with a new doctor at the hospital she works at - she's a nurse - Dr. Morgan (Jerry Butler).
Pepper has a rough go of it romantically. She has to contend with the unwelcome advances of her mother's boyfriend, Travis (played convincingly skeevily by Craig Roberts), then she's set up with Warren (Peter North), her friend Stacy's (Gina Valentino) boyfriend Bobby's (Tom Byron) visiting buddy, who doesn't bother to engage with her while the foursome are out in the park or hanging by a pool. When Pepper calls a cab to go home from Stacy's rather than get into Bobby's proposed "swingin' and swappin'" Warren complains that it looks like he struck out. A real "F" for effort, bud.
When she finally gets a chance to date Dr. Morgan, after creepily peeping on the young couple Maggie seduces him, ostensibly to prove to Maggie that knights in shining armor don't exist. 
Ultimately, the nail in the coffin of Pepper's belief in romance isn't finding out that Dr. Morgan got it on with her mother, but when Travis - initially tender and caring when Pepper discovers her mother's and Dr. Morgan's dirty deed - wears her down and has sex with her. 
The only thing that prevents it from being sexual assault is that she does technically consent: after repeated tearful "No"s, she finally says, "Okay, Travis. Give it to me, dammit, give it to me."
