Review: Alice Maio Mackay’s ‘T Blockers’ explores the insidious nature of bigotry

Bigotry spreads like ragweed in Alice Maio Mackay’s latest film T Blockers. A plump take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, hate comes to small-town America, where a young trans filmmaker named Sophie (Lauren Last) starts feeling an unholy presence that seeks to consume everyone around her. In her usual aesthetic, Mackay fuses bright neons with thoughtful camera angles that tug the audience into her characters’ worlds. Frames are detailed and adorned with promising acting work that further elevates the material. Where Bad Girl Boogey rearranged the slasher template to great effect, T Blockers guns for the psychological and body-horror variables in a way that is earnest and timely.

When an earthquake rocks the town, an unknown parasite seeps out of the ground and latches onto those in its path, turning them increasingly violent. It’s not anything new, really, as hate crimes have escalated in the little community in previous weeks. But this is something altogether even more monstrous and unforgiving. Just like real life. It turns out bigotry itself is an insidious organism that feeds on fear like a blood-sucking leech. Mackay demonstrates that supporting one another, in this case, a group of LGBTQ+ youth, is the only way to chop the demons down and eradicate them. The film’s sharp-toothed title references T blockers (or testosterone blockers for trans women), and it’s that anvil-weighted messaging that makes the film such a vital release.

In the early days of the epidemic, Sophie goes out on her first date as an openly trans woman. It’s intimidating, but her date is immediately aw-struck by her personality. They connect instantly, truly, madly. It’s through these deeply-personal story beats that give the characters breath and life, as though they could be your next-door neighbor or better yet your BFF. Sophie is just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking them to love her. That’s beautiful.

Intercut between the main story is a long-lost horror film, made by a trans filmmaker back in the ’90s. The black ‘n white segments glue the story together, representing how queer people have always been here and making great art. You can’t get rid of us. Sophia appears to pick up the mantel, despite a community that tells her she can’t and shouldn’t. That she is somehow unworthy. But she stands her ground and finishes her own film amidst so much chaos and destruction. That’s just who she is; she’s unwilling to compromise – and good for her. She shouldn’t have to make others comfortable.

With anti-trans legislation sweeping the country, T Blockers stabs right into politicians’ jugulars with relentless force. And then it twists the knife. And then it removes the blade and lets ’em bleed out. (For legal purposes, I’m using a metaphor here.) As the parasite grows stronger, and circles around Sophie and her friends, there comes a moment of no escape. There’s only planting one’s feet in the dirt and staring down the danger. Sophie is a true warrior, a resilient human being that’s unwilling to let hate win.

T Blockers is nothing if not unapologetic. But so is Alice Maio Mackay, a real force of nature. So Vam, Bad Girl Boogey, and now T Blockers – what a terrific catalog. She not only knows how to write heartfelt, probing stories that speak to current socio-political times but delivers on the technical aspects with great care to the craft. I believe it’s not hyperbolic to say Mackay is one of the great visionaries of her generation. If she can achieve what she has with a limited budget, imagine if a studio paid attention and hired her?! She’s a real talent and should not go to waste.

T Blockers makes its debut at Salem Horror Fest next week.

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