{"id":9442,"date":"2025-02-26T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/?p=9442"},"modified":"2026-02-26T17:32:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:32:33","slug":"neon-drenched-demon-possessed-and-emotionally-raw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/neon-drenched-demon-possessed-and-emotionally-raw\/","title":{"rendered":"Neon Drenched, Demon Possessed, and Emotionally Raw"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 13 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

MOVIE REVIEW
\nThe Serpent’s Skin<\/strong>
\n\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Genre: <\/strong>Horror, Supernatural Romance
\nYear Released: <\/strong>2025
\nRuntime: <\/strong>1h 23m
\nDirector(s): <\/strong>Alice Maio Mackay
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Alice Maio Mackay
\nCast: <\/strong>Alexandra McVicker, Avalon Fast, Jordan Dulieu, Charlotte Chimes, Scott Major, Lewi Dawson, Alyssa Peters
\nWhere to Watch:<\/strong> opening in New York on March 27, 2026, and Los Angeles on April 3, shown at the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival<\/p>\n

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RAVING REVIEW:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Some horror films scream; this one snarls. THE SERPENT\u2019S SKIN might clock in at just over 80 minutes, but it packs in enough fury, vulnerability, and rebellion to fill an entire franchise. Alice Maio Mackay\u2019s sixth feature is her most assured and emotionally volatile work yet (and that\u2019s saying something because she has one hell of a filmography)\u2014a supernatural queer horror tale that wields witchcraft, body horror, and heartbreak with equal urgency. It\u2019s brutal, funny, and unmistakably punk in spirit, refusing to flatten its characters into metaphors or reduce their trauma to exposition.<\/p>\n

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Alexandra McVicker stars as Anna, a trans twentysomething who finally escapes her oppressive hometown, landing in a new space that should offer freedom, but instead serves up a fresh dose of supernatural chaos. She quickly falls into a relationship with Gen (played with caustic charm by Avalon Fast), a goth tattoo artist whose ritualistic ink session on a mutual friend accidentally unleashes a demon. As bodies drop and relationships unravel, Anna and Gen must embrace their power, not just as witches, but as queer women navigating the complexities of rage, shame, and survival.<\/p>\n

Mackay returns here not just with her signature neon-soaked visuals and grunge-infused soundscape, but with a matured narrative voice. There\u2019s a clear evolution from her earlier work, like CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS and SO VAM. THE SERPENT\u2019S SKIN retains her defiant edge while digging deeper into the fallout of transphobia, desire, and self-loathing. Rather than explaining queerness through a lens for cisgender viewers, the film leans hard into its queerness\u2014thorny, messy, defiant, and radiant.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s aesthetic is an aggressive love letter to 2000s teen horror. Think THE CRAFT, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, and even CHARMED\u2014but through the lens of the queer kids those shows didn\u2019t know how to write. Yet THE SERPENT\u2019S SKIN never coasts on nostalgia. Its reverence for those inspirations becomes a launching pad for something that feels entirely of the moment, where gender isn\u2019t just a theme, but a battleground.<\/p>\n

Editor Vera Drew (THE PEOPLE\u2019S JOKER) brings a raw energy to the film\u2019s flow, often heightening the unease through jagged cuts and dreamlike montages. Her work amplifies the film\u2019s disjointed emotional state, where relationships shift from tender to terrifying in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

What also sets THE SERPENT’S SKIN apart is its willingness to blur genre boundaries without losing focus. While it’s steeped in horror aesthetics, Mackay\u2019s film also functions as a deeply felt queer love story, one that explores intimacy between trans women without sensationalism or restraint. The demon may be the external threat, but the emotional stakes come from the vulnerability required to trust someone after a lifetime of betrayal. Mackay understands that real terror doesn\u2019t always come with claws\u2014it comes with letting your guard down.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Mackay\u2019s writing that hits the hardest. The dialogue walks a razor-thin line between scathing and intimate. Characters lash out, connect, push each other away, and claw their way back. It\u2019s not just about defeating a monster\u2014it\u2019s about what it means to let someone love you when you\u2019ve spent your whole life being told you\u2019re unlovable.<\/p>\n

McVicker delivers a breakout performance as Anna, grounding the film\u2019s high-concept horror with a performance that\u2019s aching and angry in equal measure. Her chemistry with Fast is electric, shifting from flirtation to grief to defiance without ever feeling forced. Jordan Dulieu gives a uniquely uncomfortable turn as Danny, the sensitive musician who becomes an unwilling host for the film\u2019s parasite. Scott Major and Charlotte Chimes round out a supporting cast that leans into the film\u2019s extremes\u2014sometimes absurd, often sharp, never hollow.<\/p>\n

The horror elements are visceral without feeling gratuitous. THE SERPENT\u2019S SKIN doesn\u2019t rely on jump scares or gore for shock\u2014it prefers a slow rot, a creeping dread that builds as Anna and Gen realize that their enemy might not be a beast at all, but something much harder to exorcise: the internalized pain of growing up in a world that feared and rejected them.<\/p>\n

Mackay continues her streak of building films with and for a trans audience\u2014not through glossy representation, but through authentic, unapologetic storytelling. She collaborates with a team of queer artists whose fingerprints are all over this project, from Louise Weard\u2019s producing to Vera Drew\u2019s editing. The result is a film that feels lived-in and unfiltered, as if it were made not just by people who have seen the darkness, but by those who have been shaped by it. Some films ask you to come along for the ride. This one dares you to jump into the fire.<\/p>\n

Please visit https:\/\/linktr.ee\/overlyhonestr for more reviews.<\/p>\n

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. My social media accounts can also be found on most platforms by searching for ‘Overly Honest Reviews. ‘<\/p>\n

I\u2019m always happy to hear from my readers; please don’t hesitate to say hello or send me any questions about movies.<\/p>\n

[photo courtesy of DARKSTAR PICTURES]<\/em><\/p>\n

DISCLAIMER:<\/strong>
\nAt Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you that these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to providing unbiased and sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.<\/p>\n

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MOVIE REVIEW The Serpent’s Skin \u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Genre: Horror, Supernatural Romance Year Released: 2025 Runtime: 1h 23m Director(s): Alice Maio Mackay Writer(s): Alice Maio Mackay Cast: Alexandra McVicker, Avalon Fast, Jordan Dulieu, Charlotte Chimes, Scott Major, Lewi Dawson, Alyssa Peters Where to Watch: opening in New York on March 27, 2026, and Los Angeles on April […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fantasia","category-film-festival","category-in-theaters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9442"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11189,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442\/revisions\/11189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mailnewsgroup.com\/ohmr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}