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
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
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
Reviews for May
[McKee's] going to need better stories than this.
06/13/03
Straddles the line between slasher film and sensitive character study with macabre and moving results.
06/12/03
Taps into a furious atavistic energy that reflects well on the filmmaker and his fully committed cast.
06/11/03
There was no moment when I was scared by this thing.
06/09/03
Novice director Lucky McKee wrote the first draft of this labored horror flick while he was in school, and for a student film, it's not bad. But it's not ready for the big time.
06/06/03
A horror film and something more and deeper, something disturbing and oddly moving.
06/06/03
Top CriticMay 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
While the film does display a certain understated style, not to mention a fair amount of witty black humor, it's ultimately undone by its familiar themes ... and a lengthy, slow-paced buildup that doesn't result in a particularly satisfying payoff.
06/05/03
Top CriticLed 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 CriticMcKee's darkly clever notion that tragic hipsters doing their second-hand damnedest to be weird are thoroughly unprepared to handle someone who truly is weird gets bogged down in a listless narrative and one-dimensional characterizations.
06/05/03
It is alternately ridiculous, gruesome, unlikely and stupefying.
06/05/03
A refreshing, macabre tale.
06/05/03
It comes off like the insolent posing of a college smart-aleck who gets off on shocking the fuddy-duddies.
06/03/03
Ironically, the stretch marks are what you notice most.
06/03/03
There's no denying that May is simply NOT a film for all tastes, but if you like your genres stewed together and cooked into a film so sinfully wonderful that it defies description, I absolutely recommend you search this one out as soon as possible
03/16/03
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
Click to read the article
02/25/03
The scorching horror of "Carrie" and the genre satisfying thrills of "Re-Animator".. the most unique horror movie of the year
02/20/03
No redeeming qualities whatsoever and incredibly tough to sit through, this blows.
02/07/03
Latest 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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