ervous cute little girl May Kennedy (Hecht) gets a patch to treat her lazy eye. Ostracism by her schoolmates follows. May's overbearing mother says helpfully, "If you can't find a friend, make one!" as she presents May with a hand-made doll named Suzy preserved in a coffinlike glass case. As May reaches to take Suzy out of the case, Mom says, "You can't take her out! She's special."
Flash forward. Nervous cute little girl May has grown into a very nervous cute young woman (Bettis), who works in an animal hospital near an auto shop. May, now quite the seamstress, is to be fitted for a new contact lens that will correct her lazy eye. Brimming with excitement, May confides with Suzy, her only friend, about how sometimes when you meet people, you only like parts of them. This isn't the case with a dreamy boy at the auto shop named Adam (Sisto).
"I especially like his hands," giggles May. Suzy does not reply.
Fitted with the new lens, and wearing new clothes she's made herself, May begins a flirtatious relationship with Adam, who, it turns out, is a rabid fan of the Italian king of splatter films, Dario Argento. Things sour with Adam. May's co-worker, Polly (Faris, of Scary Movie fame), offers solace, but that sours as well. Desperate to reach out to other people, May volunteers for community service; it goes sour. Suzy the doll is not much help, but seems to be speaking her displeasure.
Halloween approaches. May is lonelier than she's ever been. Stitching herself a special new dress for Halloween, May decides that since she only likes parts of her so-called "friends," maybe she should do something about it.
Angela Bettis blossoms as May
Advance buzz on May has been building among horror fans for months now. Lions Gate gave the film a limited theatrical run before releasing it on DVD and VHS. The buzz certainly has been warranted. Lucky McKee presents a delicious buffet of dysfunction that blends Carrie and Frankenstein with touches of Taxi Driver and Repulsion. There's more psycho-pathology in the first five minutes of May than there are in entire seasons of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. Therein lies the strength of May, and the
weakness.
McKee builds the tension of May brilliantly. It's obvious things will go badly for May and all those around her; from the start, the viewer waits for the other shoe to drop. Within the context of this simmering pot of psychoses, McKee crafts seemingly innocuous scenes involving the loading of washing machines that can inspire sweaty palms. So much uneasy tension is built up that when the apocalyptic third act unfolds, it's almost an anticlimax. Despite this, the finale of May hits like a taser to the solar plexus, and gloriously saves the movie from petering out.
May is a career-defining film for lead Angela Bettis, who a few months back had the title role in that NBC made-for-TV remake of Carrie. Bettis as May is simply the most adorable freak since ... well ... Sissy Spacek played Carrie. Bettis makes May lovable, pathetic, scary, funny and sad, sometimes all within the same scene. Bettis' ability to shift gears in a heartbeat is astonishing; she's the center of this horror/comedy/Grand Guignol/fantasy/tragedy, holding the film together as it changes tone from moment to moment. For her performance alone, May is a must-see for anyone interested in twitchy outré films.
