May (film)
Encyclopedia
May is a 2002 American horror film
. It stars Angela Bettis
, Anna Faris
, and Jeremy Sisto
, and was written and directed by Lucky McKee
.
. She has very few social interactions, her only "true friend" being a glass-encased doll named Suzie made by her mother and given to May for her birthday. While presenting young May with the gift, her mother tells her, "If you can't find a friend, make one."
As an adult, May works at a veterinary hospital, assisting with surgeries. Her optometrist fixes May's lazy eye, first with glasses
, then with a special form of contact lens
. As May attempts to be more social, she sees Adam (Sisto), a local mechanic, around town, they become friends. When she tells him that she's weird, Adam replies, "That's okay. I like weird." May has a fixation on his hands, which she considers to be the most attractive part of him, and they start dating. Meanwhile, May's lesbian
colleague Polly (Faris) begins to flirt with May, while simultaneously poking fun at her for her oddness. One day while feeling especially low, May remarks that Polly has a beautiful neck. Polly then gives her pet cat Lupe to May, ostensibly because of her "bitch" landlord.
One night May invites Adam to her apartment. Adam shows her a film he made for his university
titled Jack and Jill. The film reveals a story of two young lovers who go on a picnic and end up eating each other. May becomes aroused by the cannibalism in the film, and during an intense make-out session, she gets carried away and bites Adam on the lip. Bleeding profusely, Adam is finally disturbed by May's strange personality and leaves. May feels guilty and blames her doll Suzie (whom Adam found frightening) for encouraging her to make bad choices. She shouts at Suzie and shoves her in the cupboard.
May begins working at a school for disabled children. She is especially interested in the blind children and identifies with a lonely girl named Petey David, who makes her a clay ashtray with May's name carved into it. May finally gives in to Polly's wiles and starts a short affair.
After Adam stops calling her, May goes to his house and overhears him and a friend calling her a loony. Adam says he's glad he could get rid of May. Heartbroken, May goes to see Polly, only to find Polly with another girl named Ambrosia. Totally miserable, May returns home. When Lupe refuses to come near her, she becomes enraged and throws the clay ashtray, killing Lupe. May becomes delusional, thinking that her doll Suzie is talking to her through its glass case.
May takes Suzie to school and tells the blind children that Suzie is her best friend. As the children struggle curiously to take the doll out of the glass case, it falls and shatters resulting in the kids and May cutting themselves on all the glass in the process. Carrying the now-destroyed, blood-covered Suzie, May returns home, devastated.
The following day, May meets a punk
boy named Blank (Duval). He is interested in her remarks that people cannot be entirely perfect, only have perfect "parts". May doesn't like Blank, but she likes the tattoo on his arm. They go to May's house and when he opens the freezer to get ice, he finds the cat's corpse wrapped in plastic wrap. Blank panics and calls May a freak, infuriating her; she stabs him in the head with a pair of scissors. Suddenly, she realizes that the people she had considered her friends were not friends at all; there were only parts of them that were friends. She concludes that a perfect friend can only be made of all the perfect parts of people.
On Halloween night, May dresses in a homemade costume similar to Suzie's dress and goes to Polly's house, adopting a completely "normal" manner. She kills Polly with scalpels from the animal hospital. When Ambrosia arrives, May admires her legs and asks her to turn around for her. Ambrosia accepts, not without calling May a freak first and making derisive comments about her and Polly's previous relationship. May stabs Ambrosia with the scalpels. When May goes to Adam's house, she finds him with Hoop, a girl with hoop earrings. May asks Adam to touch her face. He indignantly pokes May's forehead, at which point May stabs Hoop in the neck. She then stabs Adam in the stomach.
Back at home, May designs her "new friend", Amy, a Frankenstein-esque life-sized rag doll made from Blank's arms, Polly's neck, Adam's hands, Ambrosia's legs, Hoop's ears, and Lupe's fur to substitute for hair. The head and torso are different scraps of fabric stitched together and stuffed. Once the macabre doll is finished, May realizes that Amy can't see her. In a rush of misery, May gouges out her right eye, the lazy one, with the scissors. Crying in pain and bleeding, she puts her eye on Amy's head and begs the doll to look at her. A dying May sees her friend come to life and touch her face lovingly with Adam's treasured hands. May smiles, and the credits roll.
(then known as Alien Tempo Experiment 13).
Additional artists on the soundtrack include The Breeders
, The Kelley Deal 6000
, H Is Orange, Strangels, Thrill My Wife, The Wedding's Off, Angelo Metz and Tommy James and The Shondells.
Some of Luckett's music from the film was released on the 2007 CD May and Other Selected Works of Jaye Barnes Luckett by La-La Land Records
.
reports that 68% of 63 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average
of 6.1 out of 10. Metacritic
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 58 based on 18 reviews.
Roger Ebert
granted the film four stars out of four, and called it "a horror film and something more and deeper, something disturbing and oddly moving" and characterized the dénouement as "a final shot that would get laughs in another kind of film, but May earns the right to it, and it works, and we understand it". Variety
magazine critic David Rooney turned in a review that was more middle of the road, stating that the film was "More successful when the title character finally embarks on her bloody mission than in the dawdling buildup". The New York Times critic Stephen Holden
opined that "the performances are a cut or two above what you would find in the average slasher film. But in the end that's all it is".
In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association
named May the 61st scariest film ever made.
Bloody Disgusting
ranked the film seventeenth in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article calling the film "criminally under-seen at the time of its release... The plotting itself manages to sidestep the usual slasher tropes as it slowly and inexorably unravels, all leading up to a quietly haunting conclusion that is as heart-wrenching as it is unnerving."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
. It stars Angela Bettis
Angela Bettis
Angela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary...
, Anna Faris
Anna Faris
Anna Kay Faris is an American actress, singer and comedienne. She is known for her starring role in the Scary Movie film series, as well as roles in The Hot Chick , Lost in Translation , Just Friends , My Super Ex-Girlfriend , Smiley Face , and The House Bunny...
, and Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Sisto
Jeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
, and was written and directed by Lucky McKee
Lucky McKee
Edward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...
.
Plot
The plot revolves around an awkward, lonely young woman named May Dove Canady (Bettis), who suffered a troubled childhood due to her lazy eyeAmblyopia
Amblyopia, also known as lazy eye, is a disorder of the visual system that is characterized by a vision deficiency in an eye that is otherwise physically normal, or out of proportion to associated structural abnormalities of the eye...
. She has very few social interactions, her only "true friend" being a glass-encased doll named Suzie made by her mother and given to May for her birthday. While presenting young May with the gift, her mother tells her, "If you can't find a friend, make one."
As an adult, May works at a veterinary hospital, assisting with surgeries. Her optometrist fixes May's lazy eye, first with glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
, then with a special form of contact lens
Contact lens
A contact lens, or simply contact, is a lens placed on the eye. They are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons. In 2004, it was estimated that 125 million people use contact lenses worldwide, including 28 to 38 million in the United...
. As May attempts to be more social, she sees Adam (Sisto), a local mechanic, around town, they become friends. When she tells him that she's weird, Adam replies, "That's okay. I like weird." May has a fixation on his hands, which she considers to be the most attractive part of him, and they start dating. Meanwhile, May's lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
colleague Polly (Faris) begins to flirt with May, while simultaneously poking fun at her for her oddness. One day while feeling especially low, May remarks that Polly has a beautiful neck. Polly then gives her pet cat Lupe to May, ostensibly because of her "bitch" landlord.
One night May invites Adam to her apartment. Adam shows her a film he made for his university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
titled Jack and Jill. The film reveals a story of two young lovers who go on a picnic and end up eating each other. May becomes aroused by the cannibalism in the film, and during an intense make-out session, she gets carried away and bites Adam on the lip. Bleeding profusely, Adam is finally disturbed by May's strange personality and leaves. May feels guilty and blames her doll Suzie (whom Adam found frightening) for encouraging her to make bad choices. She shouts at Suzie and shoves her in the cupboard.
May begins working at a school for disabled children. She is especially interested in the blind children and identifies with a lonely girl named Petey David, who makes her a clay ashtray with May's name carved into it. May finally gives in to Polly's wiles and starts a short affair.
After Adam stops calling her, May goes to his house and overhears him and a friend calling her a loony. Adam says he's glad he could get rid of May. Heartbroken, May goes to see Polly, only to find Polly with another girl named Ambrosia. Totally miserable, May returns home. When Lupe refuses to come near her, she becomes enraged and throws the clay ashtray, killing Lupe. May becomes delusional, thinking that her doll Suzie is talking to her through its glass case.
May takes Suzie to school and tells the blind children that Suzie is her best friend. As the children struggle curiously to take the doll out of the glass case, it falls and shatters resulting in the kids and May cutting themselves on all the glass in the process. Carrying the now-destroyed, blood-covered Suzie, May returns home, devastated.
The following day, May meets a punk
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
boy named Blank (Duval). He is interested in her remarks that people cannot be entirely perfect, only have perfect "parts". May doesn't like Blank, but she likes the tattoo on his arm. They go to May's house and when he opens the freezer to get ice, he finds the cat's corpse wrapped in plastic wrap. Blank panics and calls May a freak, infuriating her; she stabs him in the head with a pair of scissors. Suddenly, she realizes that the people she had considered her friends were not friends at all; there were only parts of them that were friends. She concludes that a perfect friend can only be made of all the perfect parts of people.
On Halloween night, May dresses in a homemade costume similar to Suzie's dress and goes to Polly's house, adopting a completely "normal" manner. She kills Polly with scalpels from the animal hospital. When Ambrosia arrives, May admires her legs and asks her to turn around for her. Ambrosia accepts, not without calling May a freak first and making derisive comments about her and Polly's previous relationship. May stabs Ambrosia with the scalpels. When May goes to Adam's house, she finds him with Hoop, a girl with hoop earrings. May asks Adam to touch her face. He indignantly pokes May's forehead, at which point May stabs Hoop in the neck. She then stabs Adam in the stomach.
Back at home, May designs her "new friend", Amy, a Frankenstein-esque life-sized rag doll made from Blank's arms, Polly's neck, Adam's hands, Ambrosia's legs, Hoop's ears, and Lupe's fur to substitute for hair. The head and torso are different scraps of fabric stitched together and stuffed. Once the macabre doll is finished, May realizes that Amy can't see her. In a rush of misery, May gouges out her right eye, the lazy one, with the scissors. Crying in pain and bleeding, she puts her eye on Amy's head and begs the doll to look at her. A dying May sees her friend come to life and touch her face lovingly with Adam's treasured hands. May smiles, and the credits roll.
Cast
- Angela BettisAngela BettisAngela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary...
- May Dove Canady - Jeremy SistoJeremy SistoJeremy Merton Sisto is an American actor. Sisto has had recurring roles as Billy Chenowith on the HBO series Six Feet Under and Detective Cyrus Lupo on Law & Order on television and also starred in the films Jesus, Clueless and Thirteen.-Early life:Sisto was born in Grass Valley, California, the...
- Adam Stubbs - Anna FarisAnna FarisAnna Kay Faris is an American actress, singer and comedienne. She is known for her starring role in the Scary Movie film series, as well as roles in The Hot Chick , Lost in Translation , Just Friends , My Super Ex-Girlfriend , Smiley Face , and The House Bunny...
- Polly - James DuvalJames DuvalJames Edward Duval is an American actor, who is most famous for his roles in the Gregg Araki trilogy—Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—in addition to Frank in Donnie Darko, Blank in May, Miguel in Independence Day and Singh in Go.-Personal life:Duval was born in Detroit, Michigan...
- Blank - Nichole HiltzNichole HiltzNichole Marie Hiltz is an American actress. She has appeared in the film May, A Midsummer Night's Rave, and the Sci Fi Channel movie All Souls Day and since 2008 has played Brandi Shannon on the USA network television series In Plain Sight.Hiltz has made guest appearances on several television...
- Ambrosia - Kevin Gage - Papa Canady
- Merle Kennedy - Mama Canady
- Chandler Riley Hecht - Young May
- Rachel David - Petey
- Nora Zehetner - Hoop
- Will EstesWill EstesWill Estes is an American actor best known for his role as JJ Pryor, on the NBC drama American Dreams. In 2010, he joined the cast of Tom Selleck's new CBS police drama Blue Bloods...
- Chris, Adam's Roommate - Roxanne Day - Buckle
- Samantha Adams - Lucille
- Brittney Lee Harvey - Diedre
Soundtrack
It also features a score and original songs by Jaye Barnes Luckett of the rock group PoperraticPoperratic
Poperratic is a band from Los Angeles, California. Its sole member is the songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jaye Luckett. Its music traverses a number of genres, but is mostly distinguished by Luckett's heavy rhythm guitar work, layers of harmonies, catchy melodies, and storytelling...
(then known as Alien Tempo Experiment 13).
Additional artists on the soundtrack include The Breeders
The Breeders
The Breeders are an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 by Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. The band has experienced a number of line-up changes; the current line-up consists of Kim Deal , her twin sister Kelley Deal , Jose Medeles , Mando Lopez Todd the Fox...
, The Kelley Deal 6000
The Kelley Deal 6000
The Kelley Deal 6000 was an alternative rock band formed in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, and was active between 1995 and 1997. They were formed by Kelley Deal when she got out of rehab in 1995.-History:...
, H Is Orange, Strangels, Thrill My Wife, The Wedding's Off, Angelo Metz and Tommy James and The Shondells.
Some of Luckett's music from the film was released on the 2007 CD May and Other Selected Works of Jaye Barnes Luckett by La-La Land Records
La-La Land Records
La-La Land Records is an American record company based in Burbank, California . The company specializes in film and television soundtracks. The label is run by Michael V...
.
Release
The film was given limited theatrical release to nine theaters in North America. To date the film has grossed $150,277 during its theatrical run. The film also grossed $99,023 in Spain and $15,049 in Taiwan.Critical reception
The film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports that 68% of 63 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average
Average
In mathematics, an average, or central tendency of a data set is a measure of the "middle" value of the data set. Average is one form of central tendency. Not all central tendencies should be considered definitions of average....
of 6.1 out of 10. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 58 based on 18 reviews.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
granted the film four stars out of four, and called it "a horror film and something more and deeper, something disturbing and oddly moving" and characterized the dénouement as "a final shot that would get laughs in another kind of film, but May earns the right to it, and it works, and we understand it". Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine critic David Rooney turned in a review that was more middle of the road, stating that the film was "More successful when the title character finally embarks on her bloody mission than in the dawdling buildup". The New York Times critic Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
opined that "the performances are a cut or two above what you would find in the average slasher film. But in the end that's all it is".
In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
named May the 61st scariest film ever made.
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is a website that covers horror movies with reviews, interviews and news. It is currently run by Brad Miska, and Tom Owen. According to one source, the site has 1.5 million unique visitors and 20 million page views each month. It is widely considered to be the "world's most...
ranked the film seventeenth in their list of the 'Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade', with the article calling the film "criminally under-seen at the time of its release... The plotting itself manages to sidestep the usual slasher tropes as it slowly and inexorably unravels, all leading up to a quietly haunting conclusion that is as heart-wrenching as it is unnerving."
Awards
- Brussels International Festival of Fantasy FilmBrussels International Festival of Fantasy FilmThe Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival , previously named Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film was created in 1983 as a venue for horror, thriller and science fiction films. It takes place in Brussels, every year in March...
-Best Actress: Angela BettisAngela BettisAngela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary... - Catalonian International Film Festival -Best Actress: Angela Bettis; Best Screenplay: Lucky McKeeLucky McKeeEdward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...
- Gérardmer Film Festival -Premiere Award: Lucky McKeeLucky McKeeEdward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...
- Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema- Best Actress: Angela BettisAngela BettisAngela Marie Bettis is an American actress, film producer and director best known for her lead roles in the 2002 TV remake of the Stephen King film Carrie, the title character in May , and in Girl, Interrupted as the anorexic girl Janet Webber.-Early life:Bettis was born in Austin, Texas to Mary...
; Best Film: Lucky McKeeLucky McKeeEdward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...
; Best Screenplay: Lucky McKeeLucky McKeeEdward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...
; Youth Jury Award- Best Feature Film: Lucky McKeeLucky McKeeEdward Lucky McKee is an American director, writer, and actor, largely known for the 2002 film May, which has acquired a cult following.-Biography:...