Produced by Louise Weard (Castration Movie) and edited by Vera Drew (The People’s Joker, MGFF24), prolific Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay’s (Carnage for Christmas, MGFF25) dreamlike sixth feature is infused with DIY punk urgency.

After escaping her transphobic hometown, twentysomething Anna arrives in the city determined to start over. She soon falls for Gen, a goth tattoo artist, and the pair discover they share mysterious supernatural abilities. But their fragile new beginning spirals into chaos when a tattoo session with Anna’s sensitive musician neighbour Danny goes awry, unleashing a demonic force. As something inside him begins to feed on those around them, Anna and Gen must harness their powers to protect their found family before it’s consumed entirely.

Witchy, ferocious and defiantly trans, The Serpent’s Skin fuses occult horror with coming-of-age vulnerability, channelling cult teen genre energy through a fiercely contemporary lens – the kind of film you wish you’d had growing up.

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