“The Serpent’s Skin” (2025) follows Anna (Alexandra McVicker) who leaves home to live with her big sister, Dakota (Charlotte Chimes), in the expensive, alluring city with plenty of dangers, which includes Anna if you cross her. Anna has powers that she does not understand, but those abilities connect her to Gen (Avalon Fast). Gen knows more but discovers that her own powers are just as mysterious and affect a customer, Danny (Jordan Dulieu), whom she drew an ouroboros tattoo on. If they do not have any guidance or texts to refer to, how will they stop this soul sucking evil? Though there is more substance than meets the eye in this slight movie, director and cowriter Alice Maio Mackay and cowriter Benjamin Pahl Robinson are leaving money on the table when they prioritize vibes instead of fully fleshing out the world in areas that they can without slackening the message of their underlying statement.
Think of Anna as a lowkey, chill and soft-spoken Firestarter meets Carrie without masses of people hunting her down or super physically and psychologically abusive family in her life if “Girls” had a slot open. Anna would drive them crazy because of how she got all the love interests in two seconds flat. Anna’s love interests define Anna, who is a bit underdeveloped, but considering that Mackay is in her twenties, love interests may be the priority for her and her audience, so it is just an observation, not a criticism. Immediately upon arrival at her sister’s apartment, Anna initially hooks up with the building hottie, Danny, before looking for a job at a usually empty record store that Buzz (Scott Major) owns. Then Gen, whom she knows before physically meeting because of their psychic connection, seeks her out, and the attraction is mutual. Probably from visiting the local bar/club, she befriends minimalist characters, Helly (Lewi Dawson) and Jade (Alyssa Peters). If “The Serpent’s Skin” has a problem, it benefits from having actors who fully flesh out underwritten characters who only exist as wallpaper in Anna’s life though they make strong impressions.
It is little things that don’t hurt “The Serpent’s Skin” overall, but make it feel slight. Anna gets a job but does not really seem to do anything except flirt with Gen under the implicitly loving and approving eye of Buzz, who probably hired her because no one comes in and buys anything, and he needs the company. There are only montages with music showing her having the best time so later when someone complains about their boss, and Anna commiserates, it is easy to want to throw something at Anna. Don’t disrespect Buzz like that! That man pays you to have fun and showcase your powers. Dakota gets relegated to the margins of the story and comes across as more of a passive aggressive, jealous frenemy than a supportive sister. The connection to their father, the archaeologist, falls to the wayside never to be addressed again after his initial mention. What happened to Anna’s broader career aspirations? Never revisited. What city or country are they in? No idea. Helly is heterosexual. Jade exists. No one looks at their cell phone, but they exist so it is contemporary with an analogue feel. If the movie was a pilot to a television series, it would be acceptable. Communicating mood more than anything else, the movie has a music video feel but it works because of the undeniable, inexplicable chemistry between Gen and Anna.
Mackay and editor Vera Drew, yes the Drew who made “The People’s Joker” (2022), make it work visually. Even though “The Serpent’s Skin” can be confusing, if movie goers can just go with it, everything becomes clear retroactively whether because of the visual cues or the clunky dialogue that explains what happened before. Perhaps Mackay and Robinson need to work on their narrative structure skills because if Drew is not available all the time, it will only come across as telling, not showing. Three or four scenes overlap and play simultaneously and depict how their powers work using imagery from different characters’ POV, places and visual metaphors for how the characters feel. If Mackay and Drew’s work proves anything, it is possible to work on a budget, not have a polished perfect film, have an underground film and look terrific. This music video aesthetic combined with underground film techniques convey everything essential about Gen and Anna without feeling cliché or tropey. Unlike “How Far Does the Dark Go?” (2025), the music does not overwhelm the story. The sexual situations are not about nudity or gynecological, but more about mood and ecstasy. There is a deeper story that should resonate with anyone who feels marginalized for any reason.
The message and meaning behind the horror and love story embedded in “The Serpent’s Skin” are solid. History erases women and LGBTQ+, especially trans people, from all spheres of knowledge, including science and history, to deliberately make them feel wrong and an aberration. Each generation must start from scratch and rebuild this knowledge while battling the societal message that gets under their skin that they are evil, wrong and a freak. As they discover more people like them, that knowledge gets rebuilt based on instinct and experience, but without guidance, which is further exacerbated considering that a lot of the wider population is also navigating life without a safety net or instructional manual from the prior generation. So they could unintentionally harm others, which reinforces society’s message and lead to destructive, suicidal thinking with extermination as the only way to eliminate harm when it is love, community and owning or eating your mistakes.
The horror hits though for horror connoisseurs, it will not be sufficient or merciless enough. “The Serpent’s Skin” is not about vengeance though they give a little here. The wrongs are completely unrelated to hate crimes, which are slightly feared and alluded to but when the phobes appear, they are a punchline afterthought in their impotence and irrelevance. It is more akin to Catwoman rescuing people, but without the rage. When Danny changes, the makeup and practical effects are reminiscent of the vampires from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” though he is not a vampiresin the original sense. It feels more like a succubus, but if you need firm mythology and answers, keep it pushing. There will be none. Also, the effect of his attacks is unclear. When does Danny meet Gen in the timeline? Does he have a power that attracts him to her? The dialogue says a week ago, but when uttered, the amount of time that Anna and Gen have been together is unclear.
“The Serpent’s Skin” is a great sketch of a film that will definitely make you curious about watching Mackay’s earlier films such as “So Vam” (2021) or “Satranic Panic” (2023), which I did not have time to watch though they crossed my path. She made plenty of others, but those two are on the top of my to do list. It would be great to see how her work matures and how the filming experience will affect her movies.
