Dark Star PicturesLast month, the news broke that Chloé Zhao’s planned reboot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would not be going through at Hulu, breaking the hearts of fans who longed for a return to Sunnydale. But there’s no need to mourn, Scoobies: The spirit of YA-influenced supernatural horror-romance lives in The Serpent’s Skin.Now 21 years old and on her sixth feature, Australian writer-director Alice Maio Mackay specializes in DIY movies that take familiar genre frameworks and refracts them through her own experiences and those of the queer community that surrounds her. Mackay’s films have matured alongside their creator, slowly gaining the confidence to move beyond camp and into something more heartfelt. The Serpent’s Skin is that tipping point. The visual effects and makeup still mark this as a low-budget production, but in a charmingly retro way that evokes supernatural teen TV shows from the turn of the millennium — Charmed, for example, or of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The plot is self-contained, but maintains the episodic pace of a TV series, introducing its lead characters and establishing their relationships before inserting a supernatural threat — in this case, a cursed tattoo that transform’s the film’s hot guy into a snakelike succubus — midway through the film. Even the supernatural makeup shares a likeness with Buffy. | Dark Star PicturesThat’s more of a subplot, though, really. The heart of The Serpent’s Skin is the romance between Anna (Alexandra McVicker), a soft-spoken young trans woman who just escaped her oppressive small town to live with her older sister (Charlotte Chimes), and Gen (Avalon Fast), a tattoo artist witch who traveled around the world to find the woman she saw in her dreams. Anna is that woman, and the attraction between her and Gen is is immediate and strong. The chemistry between McVicker and Fast is tender, and they make a believable couple as they tumble into a soul-baring affair made even more intense by their shared exploration of their psychic abilities, which grow more powerful when they’re together. The intimacy that Anna feels with Gen — alternately a lover, a teacher, a mentor, and a best friend for the fledgling witch — is heady and romantic. The film’s association of queerness and magic is affirming as well: Early on, Gen tells Anna that her ability to “pop” into the minds of others is “a defense you’ve built up [that’s] almost automatic,” turning her thick skin into a superpower. Before shifting into monster-of-the-week mode in its second half, The Serpent’s Skin plays like an ethereal Sapphic take on Scanners, with colored lighting that recalls another Buffy-inspired work by a transfeminine filmmaker, Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow. This shouldn’t be a surprise; the trans film community is quite small, particularly in the genre world. And while Schoenbrun wasn’t directly involved in The Serpent’s Skin, two more major trans filmmakers — The People’s Joker director Vera Drew, who edited the film; and Castration Movie maestro Louise Weard, who produced it — were. Drew’s editing is a particular asset, adding psychedelic touches to the film that greatly enhance its dreamlike vibe.The queer update on the genre procedural will appeal to I Saw the TV Glow fans. | Dark Star Pictures In the end, however, The Serpent’s Skin is Mackay’s vision, and her onscreen avatar McVicker carries it with reserved, watchful grace. This is a fantasy — of belonging, of strength through softness, of being able to protect those you love from everything violent and hateful in this world — but it’s rooted in a lived experience that makes it feel very grounded and authentic. Being queer in today’s world can be scary, but it can be transcendent and beautiful as well. All of that is reflected here — the emo f*ckboy demon with the serpent fangs is just a fun bonus. The Serpent’s Skin is now playing in select theaters in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with an expansion at Alamo Drafthouses throughout the U.S. on April 10.