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May (film)

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May
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLucky McKee
Written byLucky McKee
Produced by
Starring
CinematographySteve Yedlin
Edited by
Music byJaye Barnes Luckett
Production
company
2 Loop Films[1]
Distributed byLions Gate Films[1]
Release dates
  • January 13, 2002 (2002-01-13) (Sundance)
  • February 7, 2003 (2003-02-07) (U.S.)
Running time
93 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.7 million[3]
Box office$634,803[3]

May is a 2002 American psychological horror film written and directed by Lucky McKee[4] in his directorial debut, and starring Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, and James Duval. The film follows a lonely young woman (Bettis) traumatized by a difficult childhood, and her increasingly desperate attempts to connect with the people around her.

May was unsuccessful at the box office, but received favorable reviews from critics, and is now considered a cult classic.[5]

Plot

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May Canady is a young woman working as a veterinary assistant. As a child, she endured bullying and ostracism due to her lazy eye - though her optometrist has fixed it via glasses and contact lenses, May still struggles to connect with others socially in her adulthood. As a child, May's mother made and gifted her a glass-encased doll named Suzie, giving her the advice "if you can't find a friend, make one" and instructing her to never remove Suzie from the case - as an adult, May maintains that Suzie is her only true friend.

May becomes enamored with a local mechanic named Adam, finding his hands especially attractive. She eventually introduces herself to him, and they begin to date. May's lesbian colleague, Polly, also shows an interest in her. One day, May remarks that Polly has a beautiful neck. During their flirtation, Polly gives May a cat named Loopy.

May invites Adam to her apartment, where he shows her a film, titled Jack and Jill, that he made for university about two young lovers who go on a picnic and end up cannibalizing each other. May becomes aroused by the film. While passionately kissing, she bites Adam's lip, drawing blood. Disturbed, Adam abruptly leaves. Humiliated, May berates Suzie and shoves her into the cupboard.

May begins volunteering at a school for blind children, where she takes a liking to a sullen young girl named Petey, who makes her a clay ashtray with May's name pressed into it. Feeling abandoned by Adam, May gives in to Polly's advances and they start an affair. May overhears Adam expressing disgust with her to his friends. Devastated, she visits Polly, but finds her with another girl named Ambrosia. At home, May seeks comfort from Loopy; when Loopy ignores her, May angrily throws Petey's ashtray at her, killing her and shattering the ashtray. She soon starts to develop delusions that Suzie is talking to her.

May takes Suzie to the school, introducing her to the children as her best friend. The children attempt to take Suzie out of her case despite May pleading with them not to, ultimately shattering the case, injuring themselves and May, and destroying the doll, much to May's distress. The following day, May meets a young punk and invites him to her house, where she notices and compliments a tattoo of Frankenstein's monster on his arm. Upon discovering Loopy's corpse in her freezer, he calls May a "freak." May breaks down and fatally stabs him in the head with scissors. After some contemplation, May determines that she needs "more parts."

On Halloween, May, dressed in a homemade costume resembling Suzie, goes to Polly's house, where she slits Polly's throat with a pair of surgical scalpels and stabs Ambrosia in the temples. She then visits Adam and his new girlfriend at his house, murdering both of them with the scalpels. At home, she sculpts a life-sized patchwork doll out of the punk's arms, Polly's neck, Ambrosia's legs, Adam's hands, and Adam's girlfriend's ears, using Loopy's fur as the hair. Using the shards of the ashtray to form an anagram, she names the doll "Amy." Realizing that Amy lacks eyes, May gouges out her lazy eye and places it into the doll's head. Shrieking in pain and bleeding, May repeatedly begs the doll to "see" her and collapses on the bed next to it. Her creation comes to life and caresses her face affectionately with Adam's hands, at which May smiles.

Cast

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Production

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Writer-director Lucky McKee wrote the initial screenplay for May while still attending film school.[6] McKee has stated that "May wouldn't exist if it weren't for Amanda Plummer's character in The Fisher King."[7]

Music

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May features a score and original songs by Jammes Luckett of the rock group Poperratic (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.[8]

In 2022, Luckett's original motion picture soundtrack for the film was released on cassette and vinyl by Terror Vision for Record Store Day.[9][10]

Release

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May premiered on January 13, 2002 at the Sundance Film Festival.[11] The following day, it was announced that Lionsgate had purchased worldwide distribution rights to the film for approximately $800,000.[12]

Lionsgate gave the film limited regional screenings in Austin, Texas and Los Angeles beginning February 7, 2003,[13] which yielded in unfavorable responses, leading the studio to give the film a limited theatrical release in North America.[14] The film opened in New York City on June 6, 2003, followed by a Los Angeles premiere on June 20, 2003.[1]

Home media

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Lionsgate released May on VHS[15] and DVD on July 15, 2003.[14][16] In 2024, the British distributor Second Sight Films released May in a limited edition region B Blu-ray set.[17]

Reception

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Box office

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By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed $150,277 in the United States.[18] It eventually grossed $634,803 worldwide on its $1.7 million budget.[3]

Critical response

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The film received favorable reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 70% of 70 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "Above average slasher flick."[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 58 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[20]

Some critics praised the film for its unique atmosphere[21] while also complimenting its brutality through the eyes of someone who is so caught up in their own fantasy world. Bettis' performance was also praised. 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 denouement 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".[22] 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".[11]

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".[23] Scott Brown of Entertainment Weekly awarded the film a B- rating, noting that "though ultimately too waterlogged with student-film self-seriousness to revel fully in its low-rent joie de cleaver, [it] nevertheless taps into a furious atavistic energy that reflects well on the filmmaker and his fully committed cast."[24]

Writing for the Chicago Tribune, Robert K. Elder praised the film as "a refreshing, macabre tale."[21] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times compared the film's tone to the works of Dario Argento, also praising it for its subversive humor and noting both McKee's direction and Bettis's performance as "rigorous and imaginative."[25] The Austin Chronicle's Marjorie Baumgarten awarded the film a three out of five-star rating, writing that it "comes loaded in a nice psychological package that makes the title character’s madness a logical outcome of her perverse upbringing and extreme social isolation."[13]

Kim Morgan of The Oregonian gave the film a C+ rating, noting: "On paper, it sounds like the start of a good film. Too bad McKee made such a lackluster thing of it. Though the horror comes from an interesting place, it's frequently forced, negating much of the humor and pathos the film attempts to instill."[26]

In 2006, the Chicago Film Critics Association named May the 61st-scariest film ever made.[27]

Bloody Disgusting ranked the film #17 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."[28] Albert Nowicki included the film on his list of "best Halloween movies of all time" for Prime Movies.[29] It was also praised by Robert Englund.[30]

Accolades

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c "May". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on March 17, 2025.
  2. ^ "May (18)". British Board of Film Classification. June 13, 2003. Archived from the original on July 7, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2018. The BBFC classification is for video, meaning it includes 4% PAL speed-up.
  3. ^ a b c "May (2003) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025.
  4. ^ Vivian, Ashley (August 22, 2023). "May Is Not Like Other Creepy Loner Girls in Horror Movies". CBR. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
  5. ^ Tobias, Scott (July 7, 2011). "May". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on January 21, 2025.
  6. ^ "May". New York Daily News. June 6, 2003. p. 38 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ "Celebrating 21st Century Horror: May". iHorror. September 27, 2015. Archived from the original on October 8, 2015.
  8. ^ "Jaye Barnes Luckett - May & Other Selected Works". Discogs. 2006.
  9. ^ "May OST (2002) Cassette". Terror Vision. Archived from the original on February 28, 2024.
  10. ^ "Jammes Luckett – May (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Shuga Records. Archived from the original on March 18, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Rooney, David (June 15, 2002). "May Review". Variety. Archived from the original on January 25, 2025.
  12. ^ Goodridge, Mike (January 14, 2002). "Sundance: Lions Gate buys worldwide rights to May". Screen Daily. Archived from the original on November 8, 2024.
  13. ^ a b Baumgarten, Marjorie (February 7, 2003). "May – Movie Review". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on February 21, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Kelly, Christopher (July 6, 2003). "Horror flick 'May' deserves your screams". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 4D – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ May (VHS). Lionsgate Films. 2003. EAN 0031398838739.
  16. ^ Pattee, Steve (March 12, 2009). "May DVD Review". Horror DNA. Archived from the original on March 2, 2024.
  17. ^ "May Limited Edition Blu-ray". Second Sight Films. Archived from the original on January 23, 2025.
  18. ^ "May (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
  19. ^ "May". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved March 17, 2025. Edit this at Wikidata
  20. ^ "May". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved March 17, 2025.
  21. ^ a b Elder, Robert K. (June 6, 2003). "A step beyond typical horror". Chicago Tribune. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 6, 2003). "May". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2005.
  23. ^ Holden, Stephen (June 6, 2003). "Movie Review - May". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
  24. ^ Brown, Scott (June 20, 2003). "May". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020.
  25. ^ Thomas, Kevin (June 20, 2003). "'May' just might be a cult classic". Los Angeles Times. p. E8 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Morgan, Kim (June 27, 2003). "'May' offers a new take on an eye for an eye". The Oregonian. p. 24 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "Chicago Film Critics Association: Top 100 Scariest Movies". Filmspotting.net. January 17, 2008. Archived from the original on October 31, 2008.
  28. ^ "00's Retrospect: Bloody Disgusting's Top 20 Films of the Decade...Part 4". Bloody Disgusting. December 15, 2009. Archived from the original on January 26, 2025.
  29. ^ Nowicki, Albert (October 28, 2021). "Top 10: Best Halloween movies of all time". Prime Movies. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  30. ^ Englund, Robert (October 6, 2024). "My Halloween season viewing recommendations: Lucky McKee's MAY, with the brilliant Angela Bettis and Anna Faris (...)". Archived from the original on October 7, 2024. Retrieved October 7, 2024 – via Facebook. Meta Platforms.
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