The Melbourne Queer Film Festival and a history of queer horror

The opening credits of The Serpent’s Skin are unusually specific: we are told that we are watching “A transgender film by Alice Maio Mackay”.

“Historically, horror has always been queer, whether that’s been explicit or more subtle,” Maio Mackay tells Crikey. The foreground of trans identity in the credits was “to indicate to the audience from the get-go, that this was a trans film made by a trans artist”.

A dark yet humane gothic romance, The Serpent’s Skin is one of several horror films playing at this year’s Melbourne Queer Film Festival (MQFF).