McKee's patchwork horror is neither subversively clever nor an imaginatively engineered shock-and-surprise ride. He should have spent his time building a better psycho.
Comment
06/13/03
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May (2003)
68
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:63
Fresh:43
Rotten:20
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: Above average slasher flick.
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins
Genre: Horror/Suspense
Theatrical Release:Feb 7, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: As a child, May (Angela Bettis) had a lazy eye and had to wear a patch, which kept other children from befriending her. Her mother gave her a handmade doll, which became her only companion. Now, as... [More]
Starring: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval
Director: Lucky McKee
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Reviews for May
Until the mayhem takes over, May is a spunky little low-budget horror movie that knows its antecedents and conventions and tries to do them justice while keeping its tongue firmly planted in its cheek.
03/10/03
[Bettis] has a smoldering, humorless intensity that's unnerving.
06/13/03
Lowdown genre fun, a film that nearly makes up in slacker wit and high-spirited gore what it lacks in budget and elegance.
06/13/03
Top CriticLucky Mckee's film works better as a misfit character study than it does a purebred slasher flick.
01/27/04
May, composed, as a character, of the exhumed fractions of genre debts, is the film's only Frankenstein's monster.
07/20/03
May has you entranced in a humorous, slighty freaky affair that has no qualms on raising the stakes after establishing a character we care about deeply.
06/05/03
Straddles the line between slasher film and sensitive character study with macabre and moving results.
06/12/03
Top CriticYou have to look to McKee's search for the poetic truth that lies at the heart of the film to find the true beauty of his work.
07/24/03
Tagline should be, 'If you can't find a really bad Frankenstein rip-off, make something like this.'
02/07/03
A bizarre (and sometimes repulsive) exercise that's a little too willing to swoon in its own weird embrace.
06/27/03
Top CriticToo much of a hodgepodge of borrowed ideas and uneven tone.
07/11/03
Top CriticA horror film and something more and deeper, something disturbing and oddly moving.
06/06/03
Top CriticA refreshing, macabre tale.
06/05/03
Top CriticDirector Lucky McKee has a knack for discomfiting material involving contact lenses and animal hospitals, but such moments are increasingly rare as he stretches his material.
08/25/03
Proves that fresh new work can be done in the horror genre if the director follows his or her own shadowy muse.
09/27/07
Written and directed by Lucky McKee with a real flair for the conventions of the genre.
09/09/02
Refreshing!
06/16/03
Like Spacek, Bettis goes far beyond the lackluster acting you usually see in horror movies.
06/13/03
Led by Ms. Bettis's discreetly campy May, 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.
06/05/03
Top CriticLatest News for May
September 01, 2006:
Angela Bettis Signs on for HD/3-D Horror
Horror fans who enjoyed "The Toolbox Murders," "May," and the "Carrie" mini-series will want to keep an eye out for Angela Bettis in... More...
February 17, 2006:
Trailer Bulletin: The Woods
Curious to see a peek of "The Woods," an (eventually) upcoming horror flick from Lucky McKee, the guy who was cool enough to give us the cult classic "May"?... More...
June 27, 2005:
Paramount and MTV Films to Go "Beneath" Together
Paramount Classics and MTV Films will join forces for the first time to bring the psychological thriller "Beneath" to the big screen, according to The Hollywood... More...
May 13, 2005:
Lions Gate Slips Into "Skinwalkers"
Those Lions Gate folks sure do love their horror movies ("May," "Cabin Fever," "Saw," etc.) and they've just announced another one that's due to... More...
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