May 2002

I've had my eye on (sorry for the pun) this 2002 psychological horror film for a long time now.  A few times I went to watch it and for some reason or another got sidetracked.  When I decided I was going to enter the Halloween Countdown blogathon I decided it would definitely be one of the movies included for the month of October.  Starring Angela Bettis as May who is an odd and unusual girl who is socially awkward and had a troubled childhood due to her lazy eye.  Her only friend was a doll named Suzie given to her by her bizarre mother.  She eventually becomes friends with a co-worker named Polly (Anna Farris) as well as getting herself a boyfriend Adam (Jeremy Sisto).  Just as everything seems perfect in her life that's when everything begins to unravel.  Sometimes the most dangerous person is that weird girl or guy standing next to you in the laundromat.  You know the one, the one that looks like they couldn't hurt a fly.

 This is one of those movies that from the very beginning you can tell something is off about May but you can't help to keep hope alive because all of us have a little bit of May in us at one time or another.  All she wants is to be accepted and to fit in but it never seems to happen or if it does it never lasts for long.  Things start to get really good when May finally snaps.  Angela Bettis is creepy good in this film and Anna Farris is funny and pretty sexy something I never thought about her before.  Jeremy Sisto is, well he's Jeremy Sisto, and I've enjoyed his work ever since his days as Billy Chenowith on Six Feet Under.  For first time director Lucky McKee he creates something that is both disturbing and beautiful and I will be looking for more of his work to enjoy in the future.  Something May does is it made me stop to take account of my horror movie watching while hard to explain is very telling.  What I'm trying to say and doing a poor job if is that I can watch countless slasher movies and see Jason and Freddy and Michael do their very best and for the most part I never blink.  May actually made me blink and kudos for being able to do that.  

Not everybody will love this movie in fact some will hate it and not make it to the end.  That's okay, it just means it wasn't meant for you.  You might get halfway through this and decide it's not a horror movie, maybe it's not but it's damn creepy.  I liked it and while some of the beginning can feel like it's taking forever to unfold I promise the end is worth the wait.  It has moments of beauty, love, tenderness, brutality, gore, and death but they are all handled with a caring eye.  You can tell this one meant something to both the actors as well as McKee.  Hopefully it will mean something to you as well.  Denise The Horror Honey and I gladly give this one a strong 3 and a half Eye Patches out of 5.