There are plenty of coming-of-age stories, but there's something especially riveting and oftentimes beautiful about a horror coming-of-age story. In fact, queer horror coming of age stories might just be one of my top five genres. The Serpent's Skin, the sixth feature film from Australian filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay, is all of that and more, putting a deep, unending love at its very center against a hazy, neon backdrop that feels like early '90s Greg Araki meets 2016's Neon Demon.
The Serpent's Skin follows Anna (Alexandra McVicker), as she leaves her transphobic parents behind and goes off to live in the city with her sister. It's there that she gets a cool job at a record store, hangs out with impossibly hot tattooed alt girls, and finds her soulmate Gen (Avalon Fast)... all while learning she has eye-ball popping powers akin to Cronenberg's Scanners (that her new lady has, too).
