With her sixth feature, The Serpent’s Skin, Alice Maio Mackay not only proves she’s not slowing down, but that she’s also moving into a darker, sexier era of filmmaking. Her most recent film, which had its Canadian premiere at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival, is her most confident film yet, showcasing her ever-growing talents as a filmmaker as well as her shifting attentions from action-packed horror to darker, moodier musings on life and love.
Anna (Alexandra McVicker) is a trans woman trying to survive a transphobic world. She flees her hateful hometown (and parents) to live with her sister and start a new life where she doesn’t have to hide. As she searches for a job, she meets the sexy, goth boy-next-door, and they have a brief but enjoyable one-night stand. But, during their hook-up, Anna sees someone else, a vision of another woman, somehow connected to her.
Enter Gen (Avalon Fast), a local tattoo artist who finds Anna and explains that they both have special powers that essentially make them modern-day witches. With their powers, they can stop bad dudes and protect their loved ones (and maybe get some free drinks along the way). As Gen teaches Anna about her powers and how to control them, the two outsiders fall in love and, for the first time, find genuine connection. But when they accidentally unleash a demon onto their community, the two must band together to save their friends and realize that they both are deserving of genuine love.
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There are threads of a typical Mackay film here as queer friends hang out, party, drink too much, and get themselves into trouble. But with The Serpent’s Skin, there’s way more melancholy coursing under the colorful bar lights and bright, intoxicated smiles. Perhaps it’s McVicker’s ethereal line delivery, or maybe it’s just a script that’s really tapping into the ennui of your early 20s and trying to find a place to call your own, especially when your blood family is no longer a place of love or safety.
The Serpent’s Skin feels like an erotic, gothic dream, hazy and soft but unafraid to draw blood. Everything about the film feels more adult without losing that punk rock vibe crucial to Mackay’s films. While the story could be expanded and the world more realized, Mackay chooses to focus on the heart-wrenching queer love story at the core of her latest film. This isn’t about watching girls kick ass (though it’s an added bonus). It’s about queer people finding love and actually accepting it, rather than seeing it as something to be afraid of.
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Grounding that romance are the performances from McVicker and Fast as our young couple who are each carrying their own baggage, believing themselves damaged goods. Together, they create a dynamic that could easily veer into toxicity, but Mackay keeps it beautiful, a place where they each can find joy, which each actor embodies beautifully.
The Serpent’s Skin is a dark love story sprinkled with monsters, like an edgier episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring cool, young, queer women who fuck, drink, do drugs, and fight monsters in their spare time. It’s a life I wouldn’t mind living myself, and Mackay captures every glorious (and chaotic) moment of such a life. The Serpent’s Skin is a modern, gothic fantasy that’ll speak across generations, whether you’re pining for your clubbing days or you’re still in the thick of partying until 3 AM on a Tuesday.
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