Alice Maio Mackay Directs, Produces, & Co-Writes Debut Feature SO VAM

Alice Maio Mackay is an award-winning transgender 17-year-old filmmaker based in Adelaide, South Australia. Alice's work is produced under her own business, One Manner Productions.

In 2021 Alice produced, directed and co-wrote her debut feature film with Ben.P Robinson, titled So Vam.

The film stars Xai an Adelaide-based drag artist, Grace Hyland, a Melbourne-based actor and trans activist, with Chris Asimos and cameos from Drew Droege and Rupaul's Drag Races' BenDeLaCreme and Etcetera Etcetera. It is currently in post-production.

In So Vam, Kurt is an outcast in a conservative town who dreams of moving to the city to be a famous drag queen. When he is kidnapped by a predatory old vampire and killed, he is rescued just in time to be resurrected by a gang of rebellious vampires who feed on bigots and abusers. As a vampire he finally knows empowerment and belonging, but his killer is still out there: creating new minions with their own rotten hatred and threatening all that he loves. Until Kurt faces the monster, he will never truly be free, but this time he need not face it alone.

'The Serpent's Nest' a 30 minute queer horror short film that Alice directed, co produced and co wrote also completed post production at the start of 2021. The film won best drama at the Hollywood Blood Horror Festival, and was also selected to screen at the Oregon Scream Horror Festival, The Indie Horror Festival, the Portland Horror Film Festival, and the Houston Horror Festival. Steven Kosatanski director of Psycho Goreman called the film "A compelling and well-crafted slice of horror." Cassie Workman Australian comedian and writer said "The Serpent's Nest is a frenzy of blood, betrayal, and bell bottoms, where punk meets the supernatural and intrigue reigns! Loved it." Actor, Jo Eaton said "The Serpent's Nest perfectly captures the magic of 70s cult cinema. Bloody spooky!!" Gory Cory, horror blogger and writer wrote "The Serpent's Nest is a brilliantly directed, fresh and empowering short portraying the dangers of toxic relationships. It's a gorgeous queer narratvie that's exactly what we need right now."

Review website, The Pink Lens wrote "A fully-rounded horror short with a tight narrative and crowd-pleasing guts and gore by the bucketload, it succeeds with aplomb at making us root for those in league with the devil. Delightfully 70s, its cast is rich with characters more developed than you usually find either in horror or a short film. Fun, tense and - at times - pretty damn nasty, this horror pastiche is gloriously tacky and all the better for it."

In 2020, she directed, co wrote and co producer the award winning queer/horror short Tooth 4 Tooth, featuring cameos from Drew Droege (Netflix's AJ & The Queen, Search Party) and Phil Nichol (BAFTA nominated Monty Python bio pic). The film secured worldwide distribution from American company Mattioli Productions. Filmmaker Erlingur Thoroddsen (Blumhouse's Midnight Kiss, Rift) called the film "Stylish, provocative and creepy, Tooth 4 Tooth is a neon drenched blood soaked slice of queer horror." Senior producer of Canada's Drag Race, Jen Markowitz stated "Maio Mackay has distinct and stlyish vision and could be the future of queer horror." Director (The Skeleton Twins, Netflix's Alex Strangelove), Craig Johson wrote "A twisted, queer vampire flick that soaks its social commentary in blood."

It also premiered at the 2020 Monsterfest before the feature Psycho Goreman. The short was selected to be part of the 2021 New Jersey Horror Con and Film Festival, The Lift-Off Sessions, FlickFair, as well as winning awards for direction and Best LGTBQ short at the Los Angeles Film Awards and at the Best Shorts Competition. It also received awards at The Southern Shorts Festival for editing, producing, composition, production and sound design. Review website, Pop Horror wrote, "Tooth 4 Tooth does deliver with polished cinematography, blood, special effects, and a good cast. The most clever aspect, though, is the notion that when we start respecting each other, regardless of a difference in opinion or background, the monsters leave us alone."

In 2018 Alice acquired the rights to adapt a Stephen King thriller short story, A Tale of the Laundry Game. The sixteen minute short was accepted into the 2019 international festival, Monsterfest and premiered at the GU Film House at cinemas in Adelaide and Melbourne, before the Australian feature Two Heads Creek. In 2019, the film was also accepted as a finalist in the Lift Off festival, the international 13 Horror Fest, as well as The Best Shorts Competition, where it also won an award of excellence, special mention. The film also won best cinematography, editing and directing in the international Southern Shorts film festival, as well as being a finalist in the Los Angeles Film Awards. It was also selected in the 2020 JellyFest. Cryptic Rock gave the short 4/5 stars, stating "If one is looking for a quick thriller, they cannot go wrong here." Her short film, Love and Blood which she co-wrote and directed was accepted into the 2020 Lift-Off festival. In 2018, she also co-wrote, directed, and edited the live-action short horror movie, Smothered, which was accepted into the 2019 Lift-Off International Film Festival. Alice was also a SA finalist in the 2017 International Silent Short Film Festival.

Alice has a number of other projects underway including a short film that stars Greg Sestero (The Room, Best F(r)iends and author of The Disaster Artist, which was adapted into an Academy nominated film). She has also previously worked with Brennan Mejia (Gregg Araki's Kaboom, Red Power Ranger, Supergirl), Cori Gonzalez-Macuer (Taika Waititi's What We Do in the Shadows), Lucy Barrett (The Wrong Girl, Neighbours, Emo the Musical), Carter Jon (Netflix's Everything Sucks) and Brennan Murray (You're the worst, Video Game High School, Netflix's Captain Underpants) on her previous films.

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