Alice Maio Mackay’s beguiling horror film, “The Serpent’s Skin,” has the trans Anna (Alexandra McVicker) leaving her hometown to go live with her sister Dakota (Charlotte Chimes) in the big city. She quickly meets (and sleeps with) Danny (Jordan Dulieu) but has “day-mares” — visions that haunt her. When Anna discovers she has a supernatural ability that can cause others to bleed from their eyes or possibly go brain dead, the similarly gifted Gen (Avalon Fast), a tattoo artist, helps Anna learn how to control her powers. Gen and Anna soon fall in love. However, after one of Gen’s tattoos causes its bearer to make others catatonic, they have to find a way to stop the horror.
In a recent interview, Mackay chatted about her modest, low-budget thriller that has affection for its characters and the genre as well as nifty supernatural action and special effects.
You have a title card in the opening credits that reads, “A transgender film by Alice Maio Mackay.” Can you talk about that and establishing cinematic output by, for, starring, and about trans people?
I was seeing horror films that had inclusion of trans characters — it was great seeing those characters and that representation — but it wasn’t always from a trans person or an authentic place. It’s OK for cis people to tell trans stories if they do it in the right way. For me, it was important to be making a film from a trans perspective, and casting trans people, and putting the safety of queer people at the forefront when I am creating these stories.
What inspired “The Serpent’s Skin”?
I wanted to tackle something darker than my previous films. It’s still light and campy, and obviously it has the aesthetic of a “Charmed” or “Buffy” episode. I wanted that element to come through, but I also wanted to focus less on the politics and more on a trans woman who is assured of herself — but yes, she has problems. It is about the connection she has with another queer person and their love is literally like magic.
Can you talk about leaning into or away from the tropes of the horror genre, and your penchant for gore, the supernatural, and special effects?
The horror genre has allowed me to include a catharsis for these characters and hopefully for an audience. I love the hangout element, and I don’t write my films to be scary, but at the same time, if it was just a hangout film, it would be dour and depressing. There wouldn’t be this “fight back” in a literal sense. The horror genre has allowed me to go further with the stories I want to tell and push the dramatic elements to the next level. With the gore, I love horror, but I am not a gore hound. I can’t make “Terrifier.” I am inspired by shows I grew up on, and the VFX [visual effects] in “The Serpent’s Skin” is in keeping with the old digital days like “Charmed,” where the visuals are janky and a little retro, so it feels more like you are watching a queer film made now through the lens of the TV shows that inspired me as a kid.
What decisions did you make about the film’s tone and visual style?
I grew up watching Gregg Araki. “Now Apocalypse” came out when I was a teen, and “Kaboom” was a big inspiration — as was Francis Ford Coppola’s “Twixt,” which felt surreal and dreamlike but also grounded in the real world by its visual effects and the way it looks. With my low/no-budget, creating these heightened senses of the world gives it more of a fairy tale feel that I wanted.
Why a fairy-tale feel for a horror film?
I wanted the love to feel out of this world, and looking at supernatural romances — like “Twilight,” “True Blood,” and “Beautiful Creatures,” where love is like greater than the real world. Their love feels almost like reading a Brothers Grimm book.
The plot revolves around a tattoo that conjures a demon. Can you talk about creating the nature of evil in the film?
A traditional film would have the villain be less nuanced. This film, I wanted to show a different kind of male energy that could be evil. He’s not a bad guy from the beginning. Gem’s trauma is passed onto him, and it causes his dark energy to burst through. I wanted to take white guys who seem super progressive but have a dark sometimes dangerous edge to them and a bad history.
Do you believe in symbols and demons? Do you put meaning into these things?
I am a spiritual person. I am very superstitious as well. I believe in those kinds of things.
This is also one of the sexier films you’ve made. You have a credit for an intimacy coordinator. What can you say about depicting sex in general and trans sex in particular in your film?
I feel like a lot of trans representation I see is very palatable to cis audiences and a lot of films cut away before the sex — not that this is an explicit film; I just wanted to show, especially with Danny and Anna, a beautiful moment between a cis man and trans woman that I have not seen depicted a lot. The trans sex in this film happens naturally. It is not a big deal or a jaw dropping moment for either partner. It is just incorporated into the rest of the film’s romantic elements.
There is a bond Anna and Gen share being “different.” Can you talk about that theme and ideas of belonging or found family, which appears in so much of your work?
It takes place in a different way in this film, but there is trauma-bonding and feeling isolated through the witchy powers. It brings Anna and Gem together and draws them closer. You see them both self-harming throughout the film, and it’s a visual representation of their trauma bonding them together and them feeling closer, whether that is toxic or not.
You continue to make low-budget indie films. Do you aspire to make a big budget movie?
I have one more film in post-production that is no-budget but then I want to move on to a bigger film. I have enjoyed the freedom of being able to tell stories with the people I have, but at the same time, I would like to work with bigger budgets.
“The Serpent’s Skin” | Directed by Alice Maio Mackay | Opening March 27 at the Alamo Drafthouse, Brooklyn | Distributed by Dark Star Pictures.
