Special Report: The Serpent's Skin (2025)

Are you a film fan who loves the ultimate home video experience?

Look no further than the Disconnected.

Your host, Ryan Veryl, is your go-to source for the latest and most accurate information

on home video releases, exclusive interviews with industry insiders and filmmakers, and

has established a thriving community where every film and physical media enthusiast feels

welcome.

From hidden gems to blockbuster hits, the Disconnected brings you insider knowledge and a

welcoming space to share your love of cinema.

Watch every Thursday night at 930 Eastern, 630 Pacific for the live announcements show

and follow.

The Disconnected on social media to stay updated.

Subscribe to the Disconnected on YouTube or on the podcast provider of your choice and

dive into a world where every movie night is an adventure.

Subscribe to The Force 5 Podcast and you won't just be a listener, you'll be a list nerd.

The Force 5 Podcast, available wherever you're listening now.

Hello, this is Aaron West, I am the author of the A24 New Wave.

In this book, I look at A24's output and I make the argument that we are in a new wave

movement right now.

A24 plays a major role.

This book has a supplemental podcast where each episode is a brief conversation about an

A24 related topic, whether an actor, director, or even a genre.

As I continue research for the book and conduct interviews, I expect to record podcast

episodes with people involved with the company.

You can find the podcast at Synogenes.com or wherever you find podcasts and we are proud

to be members of these someone's favorite productions podcast network.

In no monsters, in the projection booth.

Everyone for 10 podcasting isn't boring.

I'm going to cut it off.

This is it.

We call the place The Bates Motel.

Hey Danny.

This is my little sister.

It's nice to have you here.

I saw this sign out in front of the job.

I saw what you did yesterday.

You popped them.

I came here looking for you.

I'll teach you about what we are.

You can teach me.

We're all still in hiding.

I'm still afraid to show ourselves.

As if the witch hunters are still on to us.

They are.

They've just changed their names.

I finally got you at War of Wars.

I did.

Yeah.

I felt something.

I finally found real love and something horrible inside of me starts to starve.

If I took some horrible hidden part of myself, put it in that tattoo.

I feel like this thing has been inside of me my whole life.

I feel like this thing has been inside of me.

I feel like this thing has been inside of me.

I feel like this thing has been inside of me.

I feel like this thing has been inside of me.

Come on, I know.

Come on, come on.

Come on.

Hey folks.

Welcome to a special episode of The Projects and Booth.

I'm your host Mike White.

On this episode, I'm talking with Alice Mayo McCay, all about her film, The Serpent's Skin.

The film opens in New York on March 27th in Los Angeles, April 3rd.

After that is expanding out to several theaters across the US.

Check your local listings and I hope you enjoy this interview.

Can you tell me a little bit more about you and how you got interested in filmmaking?

I guess I was like always interested in telling stories, just like writing.

And then I was like a voracious reader when I was younger.

And then I was like also involved in the theater.

Like I was like a little bit of a theater kid.

So I guess storytelling and like different forms was like always like part of my life.

But then I think I started like the stories I was writing.

I was like envisioning in like film.

And then I guess like pop culture was always just like very my life.

And like access to really like public library when I was younger.

So like a lot of the things I would see would be like not what like the kids I knew watching.

Like I watched Jerry Lewis and like Dean Martin like the mocks brothers.

A lot of British sitcoms like are you being soft and like keeping up appearances?

And then the month is like the Adams family.

And then like I seem kind of like discovered like horror adjacent like 90's soaps like Buffy and then or two one.

Charmed and I guess yeah I just became enveloped in like that world.

What motivated you to finally pick up a camera?

I think those actually like a silent film festival.

And I was like doing like Lego stop motion at that time.

Like just by myself like really like basic like shitty kind of stuff just because I was like.

I want to start projecting like what I'm seeing in my head to something.

That is like feasible and that you can like do by yourself with like nothing around.

You mentioned horror and I'm curious what attracts you to horror.

What do you like about that genre?

I grew up I wasn't like a big like horror fan like I love like horror adjacent things.

But I wasn't like intensely like into being scared.

I remember discovering like the screen TV show like on MTV.

And that was like the fast mall mature like 15 plus kind of thing that I watched.

And I was like I loved it. But I wasn't really watching it for the go.

And I found myself watching these like horror properties like for the characters or like for the relationships and the more like melodramatic elements.

So for me horror has been just like a way like a device to further the relationships between characters and take things to like the next level.

Like you think in my earlier work like it's a lot of trans final girl like bashing back at like vigilante and things like that.

And I think if it was just like a hangout film without the horror elements infused it would just be like sad and like dreary or as like having.

Being under like the guise of the genre allows me to like take it to like the next level and allow characters like to get Catholic and things like that.

And you tell me a little bit about some of the people that you've worked with over the years.

I've been like working with the same D.O.P. and like costume design if quite a long time.

Now I'm in an iris and I'm really grateful for them with Corona is like this hive mind together.

But then you know recently I come I lost two films I've walked with very good people's joke as an editor.

And she's just really amazing like I was a fan before I was a friend I remember we like both met the first time in person out fast.

We're shooting a scene for Louise Wade who produced this film.

I have like film and it's kind of like how we met.

It was really cool to work with someone you looked up with and she's just so incredible and like really helps reshape the film through like my vision.

And then Jesse Dunne Revenelli was like a great filmmaker as well. She did so pretty.

Which didn't bow in a few years ago.

She did like the color grade on this film. So it's like really cool.

Being like fans of a lot of people's work and then utilizing the like special elements to work together and on something.

With serpent skin is that kind of an updating to serpents nest that you did back in 2021.

The honestly they're only connection with the names similar.

But like maybe like the hot of it is a little same, but honestly it's a complete like.

Different Rob like you don't need to watch that film to watch this one when like vice versa.

I feel like that films kind of like doctrine is set in like the 70s.

It's like just taking like elements. I really just wanted to revisit like the witchiness and like the love story and like.

Co-dependence but like in a new kind of form.

Can you tell me about your co-writer on that and serpent skin Benjamin Paul Robinson.

We've been working together since since the very beginning like even before like so bad my first feature we were like doing.

Shorts together and we were just like introduced like I was doing work experience on this like TV show.

Where I lived and then he was like friends with the D.O.P.

Behid just moved out of the country so I never met him but like we both bonded over.

I love like Clive Barker and like 80s genre staff and like Doctor who and like all these cool things.

Yeah, we've just been working together ever since and like we've still never met to this day but.

We just have such a really good like working relationship.

Wow I thought for sure you would have met your co-writer.

I know yeah we haven't even spoken on zoom it's all just like long emails and like occasionally a voice message.

Tell me how did serpent skin come about.

I think I just wanted to do something that was like a departure from my other work like.

It still has the campy elements like some like times it's a little comedic but I knew that I wanted to double away from doing something so political like I think one of my films are about like trans people like.

Living in the world and like dealing with outside problems which is like I told the stories for now that I wanted to explore within that.

So I wanted to do something a little more akin to like I grew up in like the supernatural like romance boom like Twilight and like beautiful creatures like model instruments that was very big even like true blood.

I watched like way too young and read the books and I love that a lot so I think I just wanted to do something about.

Rather than be out of demons like your inner demons and how like transposing those onto others and like unresolved trauma and ultimately also trans love being like a super power like being like magic.

We shot it in 260 weeks in Adelaide Australia like we don't have a lot of money so I think that kind of comes back to working with some of the people from the very beginning like Aaron and Iris like we really are on the same page from the beginning.

And I think with a film like this like a lot of it is like pre production and like post production because like we're so limited to what we can shoot on the days like everyone has to be like so like on the same page before and like really.

Having the actors like understand the tone and things like that is like so important.

How many about your cast your actors are fantastic.

Alex is a great actress from America I'd seen her like walk on an HBO show before she transitioned.

This was like her first feature role since transitioning so it's kind of like really special to create this like role with her.

And then Avalon is like a fantastic filmmaker they just put out camp which is like doing festivals at the moment.

And they just were like hang out a little bit just like sharing the same festival so I couldn't just being in the film community.

And she was like I'd love to like audition and start acting if you have anything.

So like that just came about that.

And then like Charlotte who plays the sister and like Scott who played like the record still manager they like both actors from neighbors like a soap opera in Australia.

So I was like a fan watching that like that was like a competition during the pandemic especially.

A mix of being fans of people's work being like inspired and just kind of having to write people for the right film.

I was really taken with your score. Can you talk about your composer?

I've worked with Alexander Taylor for the Y-O and he's really great and he brought along a co-composer and bought it as well for this one.

So like they do all like the kind of like beautiful score like the homage like cyclone things like that in the beginning.

And then I was also really fortunate to work with the Adam's family.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with that work but I used a lot of the like music they're like a family who like make like horror films together.

And that kind of was the right mix of poetry and like death and like gloom and like love in their music.

So it was like a mix between yeah Alex is back and Eduardo's back and then this really cool band.

I know again making movies aren't easy and you talked about the budget being pretty low. What were some of your other challenges making this?

Honestly, the prosthetic stuff was like challenging. It's not like super prominent in the film.

But like when it does you can't really do it quickly.

So that's a big issue and then like Danny he's just like a completely different person in my life, which is like great and so fun to be able to have an actor who's so willing to like transform like he died his hair.

Had all the fake tattoos but in doing that like it doesn't not take a long time to get that already each day.

Can you tell me a little bit about the post process and like working with Vera and getting this edited?

Yeah, so I was honestly the time zone helped because we were shooting this training time and then quit upload like the daylies.

Louise, I pretty much have a kind of like an assembly cut.

I'm pretty much like at the end of the beginning of each morning when we woke up so that was kind of like helping to see what we were shooting.

Like going forward each day and then yeah, Vera got like the footage and then yeah, she's like really good at like recrafting the footage like through my vision.

Like I walked with editors before why she's like amazing and it's like very kind of like stuck standard.

Whereas if you're like really understands like the inner workings of the film like what I'm hoping to accomplish and see especially like with the dreamy dream is like nightmare kind of visions.

Especially like during the montages and like the overlays she adds a new perspective that maybe wouldn't be there without that.

When you have your first cut of it, do you start showing it around friends or you just know this is good.

I don't need any feedback.

I think it's tough. Like I feel like I'm very like nervous like showing like rough cuts to like people.

Honestly, it was just a lot of like back and forth through there and I and like Louise that produced so like she's really good for notes.

Like she provided a lot of like how like sharing script process as well.

But I think, you know, I think Vera and I just kind of trusted each other that we were like doing the right thing.

And yeah, just like sticking true to like our original vision without like too much interference.

When do you get to see this with an audience for the first time?

Actually, this is the last leg of the festival run before the film comes out Friday the 27th.

Yeah, I think so I did like my last festival at British Film Institute like last week.

And then the first time I started with an audience was in Fantasia in Canada last year and like July, which was really cool.

I've been like lucky to like play a little intentional like festivals.

But I haven't always had the opportunity to like travel that especially at the beginning and like COVID and things like that.

So the service can kind of the first time I'm like traveling like properly around with a film like during the beginning of its like run like T blockers.

I played like Mama two years after it came out and I was like great seeing it with an audience.

But like during it's like first initial run, I was just like I don't know like what the vibe is.

I haven't seen it like in a theater with anyone yet.

So it's been really special just like following the film in country to country and seeing it during its like rollout.

So what's next for you?

I got a film in post production at the moment, which is kind of like a different vibe entirely.

And then like I am I'm writing something else that I'm like hoping to get like a bigger budget for and that's the vibe at the moment.

Is there a good place for people to keep up with you in Serpent Skin?

I'm on Instagram, Twitter or X and like blue sky just like I lost man in the cave.

I lost thank you so much for your time this morning. I really do appreciate this.

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much.

I'm the kid on the block with my head made of rock.

And I got nobody. I'm the state of the art. I've got to bring all the cars.

I make the babies cry.

I want to the crowd. I want to the guys.

They just afford me. They run and they hide. I'm a colors to bright. I'm a high set to fight.

I've been my whole life. Burn it, turn it up. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

The local freak with the twisted mind. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

These ain't my answer. These legs ain't mine.

Got a stupid face. Got some skulls in a brace.

Mine's a rough and bloody. I walk into the night with a faint at the sight.

I can't do it. I can't walk into it. I was walking the night.

Staying in the shed. Stay out of the light. I'm a trolling to fight. These my kids who are dying.

I feel my whole life. Burn it, turn it up.

I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

The local freak with the twisted mind. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

These ain't my answer. These legs ain't mine.

I'm one of the crowd. I'm one of the guys. They just afford me. They run and they hide.

I'm a colors to bright. I'm a high set to fight. I've been my whole life. Burn it, turn it up.

I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

The local freak with the twisted mind. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

These ain't my answer. These legs ain't mine. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

The local freak with the twisted mind. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

These ain't my answer. These legs ain't mine. I'm a teenage Frankenstein.

Hello, my name is Kevin Tudor and I'm one of the three hosts of almost major.

A film podcast dissecting many major indie studios in the films they release.

Every week, myself, Charlie Nash and Brighton Doyle discuss overlooked, forgotten,

or bonafide classic indie films via studio specific miniseries.

We've previously covered numerous films from Artisan Entertainment,

Lionsgate Films, and New Line Cinema. Titles including The Blair Witch Project,

American Psycho, Dogville, But I'm a cheerleader, Saw, Recreate for a Dream,

and Ringmaster. You know the Jerry Springer film.

Anyways, we have a fun time every week and we hope you will join us.

Subscribe to almost major wherever you get your podcasts.

Now proudly a part of the someone's favorite productions podcast network.