Vampires. Supernatural serial killers. Ancient body-snatching worms. Demon-slaying road trips. Musicals. Christmas. Queer resistance. Frankly, that’s all I needed to hear to know that Alice Maio Mackay’s movies were going to be right up my alley.
I came for the worms, but what I found was much more powerful and just as fun.
The young Australian filmmaker has been on something of a hot streak, delivering fearless narratives of transgender and queer power in hyper-stylized horror fashion. Alice Maio Mackay works with predominantly trans, nonbinary, and queer cast and crew to tell stories that reflect the spectrum of their experiences — from the joy and kinship that springs from resilience, loving oneself, laughing together, and finding strength in your community, to the brutality, terror, and violence trans and queer people face every day just for existing.
Since 2018, Alice Maio Mackay has written, directed, and produced seven short films, including a segment in the drama anthology Boys Night, and five feature films. Her debut feature, So Vam (2021), became a Shudder exclusive in 2022. Mackay followed up this success with Bad Girl Boogey (2022) and T-Blockers (2023), both of which demonstrate an increasingly confident, funny, and vulnerable voice that has helped establish her as one of the most exciting talents among emerging horror filmmakers.
“You should know all about what hate does to people, especially before you become a blood sucker.”
Winner of the Salem Horror Fest Jury Award in 2021, So Vam (2021) tells the story of a bullied teen named Kurt (Xai) who dreams of becoming a famous drag queen. After falling victim to a vampire attack, Kurt finds empowerment with his newfound fangs and a group of queer vamps and social outcasts who take him under their (bat)wings. This movie, and all of her films, revels in camp, a quality that Mackay has mentioned being attracted to in the films she personally admires.
I believe camp and horror often deal in the greatest extremes of human emotion: Camp makes you keel over in giddy laughter, enjoying the transcendence of silliness, embracing a reverence for irreverence. Horror, on the other hand, makes you keel over in dread and fear. They are two sides of the same coin, and laughter is one response to fear.
Alice Maio Mackay knows this and balances the two well in So Vam. Garish lighting and costume design, some blood spatter here, a neck bite there, usually witty banter–these things provide visual and narrative levity to the acts of homophobic bigotry and sexual predation that Kurt encounters in the film. And when he finally reclaims his sense of self, neither Kurt the Vamp nor Fancy F*ckerrr the drag queen can be stopped.
Bad Girl Boogey (2022)
As Mackay’s career has progressed, she’s become even more skillful at interweaving elements of camp and horror with strong characterization and human drama.
Bad Girl Boogey once again tackles the theme of queer isolation, this time through the story of a serial killer fueled by homophobia and black magic. After losing her mother, Angel (Lisa Fanto) and her friend Dario (Iris Mcerlean) embark on a mission to solve the murders and put an end to the violence taking their friends.
Lisa Fanto and Iris Mcerlean work with Alice Maio Mackay frequently, and both deliver electrifying individual performances; in addition, their chemistry enhances the emotional depth of the story. Fanto brings the intensity and Mcerlean slings charm like it’s their job (I guess it is!); both of these actors play wildly different characters in Mackay’s other films, which highlights their versatility and range.
T-Blockers and chosen family
Queer families are very often chosen family. This latter concept seems to play out thematically in Mackay’s stories and also in her many creative partnerships. Reading through the credits of one of her movies, you’re likely to find the names of co-writer Benjamin Pahl Robinson, composer Alexander Taylor, drag queen Etcetera Etcetera, actor Chris Asimos, whose villainous characters ooze over-the-top evil, and loads of others.
These partnerships are essential in crafting the synesthesia of sound, light, character, costume design, practical FX, and theme that make watching an Alice Maio Mackay movie such a visceral experience.
And a trans filmmaker bringing together queer artists to tell their own stories is a wonderful model of how community can be nurtured and assembled. My personal favorite of hers, T-Blockers, shows the power of this community when it comes time to resist.
T-Blockers follows Sophie, a young filmmaker navigating the world of dead-end jobs and bad dates while she and her friends suffer targeted harassment over their gender identities. One day, an earthquake unleashes a horde of parasitic worms upon their world, snatching up bodies and turning them into sludge-swollen, bigoted zombies.
Of course, this is a totally absurd concept, which is 100% why I love it. Once more, Mackay underscores the very real violence of queerphobic bigotry by placing it in relief against outlandish events, humorous lines, or total subversion of the status quo ala the bashing of bigoted skulls.
In an interview about T-Blockers, Mackay says that she enjoys filming intimate moments between characters, which are the moments in her movies that I believe have the greatest power; she also says she likes to use “color as a character,” which you see and feel when watching her movies. Characters sit alone in bedrooms, with muted lighting and soft music compositions framing discussions of deepest vulnerability. Smash cut to: A scene of energetic violence painted in brightly contrasting reds and greens against which our group of Queervengers splash their righteous justice in the form of zombie worm guts.
It’s hard to avoid using the word “hardcore” after watching scenes of liberation from one’s oppressor, and it’s almost impossible to avoid when you have a Delilah Bon song playing over the closing credits.
So, I’ll say it. T-Blockers is hardcore.
What’s next for Alice Maio Mackay?
Satranic Panic (2023) played recently to strong reviews at the festival circuit, and she’s dipping her toes into Christmas horror with Carnage for Christmas (2024). Mackay describes Satranic Panic as a “super campy road trip demon film about two best friends . . . in my mind, it’s part Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Priscilla Queen of the Desert.” Like Priscilla, and that one episode of Buffy, it also happens to be a musical!
I’m super excited for this one to be released.
The plot for Carnage for Christmas also sounds promising: “When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again.” I saw Iris Mcerlean’s name in the credits, so I’m there.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Alice Maio Mackay has carved out a Divine-Meets-David Lynch-sized space in this new wave of queer independent horror, and I’m so stoked to see what she does next.
You can follow Alice Maio Mackay on X and Instagram as well as her production company, One Manner Productions, on YouTube or Facebook.
Film images/posters used in this review were purchased via CineMaterial. Video via the HorrorFam.com YouTube channel with art created by Lauren Spear.
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