May | 
| Director: Lucky Mckee
Actors: Samantha Adams (ii), Angela Bettis, Traci Burr, Rachel David, Ken Davitian
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.45
You Save: $7.53 (50%)
New (36) Used (16) from $5.28
Rating:  208 reviews
Sales Rank: 13118
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 93 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.6
MPN: 71616
ISBN: 1588178404
UPC: 031398838920
EAN: 9781588178404
ASIN: B00009MEC4
Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Release Date: July 15, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
MAY (DVD MOVIE)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 203 more reviews...
Creepy and unexpected June 19, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Ann Arbor)
The Bottom Line:
A horror film about a disaffected, morbid young woman and her attempts to connect with something (or anything) in her life, May is not always easy to watch but if you like disturbing films then you should check it out; it's a polarizing motion picture but it's different enough to be worth watching.
 So unique and creepy....A Must See.... May 18, 2009
Bobby (Chicago)
I remember catching this movie, late night on some channel somewhere and I loved it. It has a great deliberate pace and the whole thing felt awkward and creepy, in the most intentionally good way. The movie leads up to an awesome final sequence and the main character May, played so chillingly well by Angela Bettis that it will...well, give you chills. I would say more thriller than horror, but if you are into these types of movie I think you will love it...
If you like weird, you'll like this... May 14, 2009
MericP (PA)
The credits at the end of this film had long stopped running, and yet, I was still riveted on my couch, wondering what I had just watched. Lucky McKee has created a deliciously deranged piece of art! Both poignant, funny, sad, sweet, ultimately disturbing in a profound way and cringe-worthy, May is an underrated and touching piece of cinematography. The movie, although a "horror" flick, is so much more than that. It is the subtle painting of a mentally disturbed mind, the excitement and joy of blooming romance, the harshness and cruelty of the human being, and then at the end the frightening reality that in some ways, we are always alone.
In the title role of May Canady, Angela Bettis is phenomenal. This was, without a doubt, Bettis' film. From the moment she began speaking to her doll at the beginning to the tragic moments at the end, she will captivate you. I found myself both intrigued and disturbed that even at the end, I sympathized with May. She made me cringe and gasp, and yet, I still loved her all the same. That is a hallmark of a truly amazing actress. She was not just the villain; she was also the heroine in her own way. There's no doubt about it, May was weird, really weird. But she was just adorable enough to intrigue everyone around her. She was the epitome of "twisted innocence."
May Canady was born with a lazy eye and grew up watching life from the outside looking in. She is quiet, shy and socially awkward. She lives a life she has created for herself, in a small apartment, and her only friend is a doll in a glass case named Suzy her mother had given her a long time ago for one of her birthdays. May seems to have a normal life; she works at a vet clinic, spends her free time sewing and talking to Suzy...but May, like all of us, decides she wants a real friend. Someone she can hold. Therein lies the gut of the movie, that which makes it both darkly humorous and tragically sad.
Enter the movie's several unique supporting characters, beginning with aspiring auteur and mechanic Adam Stubbs (played in a fabulously subtle way by Jeremy Sisto) and the slightly oversexed lesbian coworker, Polly (the beautiful and talented Anna Faris of Scary Movie fame). It is the relationships that May forges with these main characters that cause her to do the things she does, and ultimately leads to the tragic ending of the film.
The movie in and of itself is worth watching if one is interested in seeing a unique, gothic, somewhat disturbing thriller flick. It has several highlights.
Firstly, it is one of those rare horror flicks with good acting. Yes, I said it. Besides Bettis, Sisto and Faris, there are smaller, though not less interesting roles played by James Duvall, Nora Zehetner (if you haven't seen her before, check out Everwood and Heroes), and Nichole Hiltz, which are all delivered beautifully, in my opinion.
Secondly, this film sports a really awesome soundtrack.
Thirdly, there is Anna Farris. I find myself wondering why this talent has been remembered only for the Scary Movie franchise, because she is so much better than that.
Lastly, and that which stands out most to me, the relationship between Adam and May. It was one of the most realistic portrayals of budding romance I have seen in film. Though, of course, the movie is dark and twisted, the relationship between the two characters feels incredibly real. This is clearly attributable to great actor chemistry, Bettis' ability to convey a myriad of emotions in every look and word, and in Sisto's ability to play off of Bettis without overshadowing her, and still making the most of the time he has onscreen. You can't help but love these two together, even though you know things don't end well for them. Bettis makes you feel May's excitement over a first date; her nervousness about her first kiss, and all the ups and downs of a young woman's first foray into romance. Sisto does not fail to convey Adam's clear intrigue and ultimate attraction to a young woman who is as weird as he is. And he is able to convey to the viewer that Adam is just as disappointed when the relationship comes to an end as is May.
Will Lucky McKee ever come up with another successful indie film? I don't know, but I doubt it will be better than May. See this film, forgive the slightly predictable outcome, and just enjoy Angela Bettis at her finest and Jeremy Sisto in what may be one of his most interesting and well-done roles. It is a rare treat that a movie can make someone relate to a character that is as incredibly disturbing as is May Canady.
As relentless, shocking and mysterious as art can get March 30, 2009
Patrick Morgan (Alaska)
Ever since I first saw this film, I've tried to pin down what specifically was so good about it but with varying success. It begins with an unnamed woman screaming into a mirror while covering a bloody eye-socket, cuts to doll limbs falling past a black void, and then to her childhood. After this, one's first thought is "this film better make good on this strange beginning and somehow reconcile it". Then there's the strange tone shifts, from light-hearted comedy to anguished violence that refuses to be mere slasher fodder. In a lot of ways, the narrative of the film follows the protagonists experience of the story. May is a stunted child. She lives in a world of dolls and dresses that she made. Her life-long companion is a doll her mother gave her. She lives in a world that she created and controls, but has an urge for something a little more substantial. Her child-like behavior and perspective are comical at first, and so are the reactions other people have to it, but as the movie progresses, you realize, to your horror, you are empathizing with the protagonist. At the very end, there is a strange resolution. The movie began in May's private world, and decisively ends there. After I saw it for the first time, I didn't know how to react. I basically returned it to Blockbuster and continued with my business, but something of the film stayed with me. Then I bought it and watched it over and over again for months.
If I had to concisely name one thing that made this movie good, it might be that it perfectly expresses how people deal with the unknown, both in and outside of themselves. When May slashes Polly's throat you can tell that Polly refuses to believe it's possible even while it happens. Polly and Adam think everything May does is funny. They see her as something ridiculous because everything about her is abstract to what they are used to. When something unbeleivable happens, the natural impulse is to immediately disbelieve and make light of it, which seems to be a coping mechanism.
Of course, that is a re-curring halmark of the horror genre. Everything Lovecraft wrote was about how wonderful it is that we have a system of emotional rationalizations that make it impossible for anything truly unknown to penetrate, and how terrible it would be if it ever did.
I guess this movie picks up with a rather Wall-like thesis (that is, Pink Floyd's Wall). Each human being is totally, irreconcilably foriegn to everyone else, and no one can really penetrate on a soul-to-soul level, and that one's own internal, emotional landscape doesn't resemble the internal landscape of anyone else, and is irreconcilably foriegn. The film starts within May's perspective, shows the total irreconcilability with anyone else, then returns to May's perspective. Lucky McKee himself said in an interview that a recurring theme in his work is how each human being is fundamentally alone.
Fabulous Film. March 24, 2009
Alyse (Portland, Oregon U.S.)
"So many pretty parts, no pretty wholes" is my favorite quotation from the movie. I love this damn movie. Unforgettable and spooky, it speaks to the invisible, lonley freak in all of us. May is such an admirable killer, sweet and quiet, cute and loving...just not loved back. The music, the victims' characters throughout the movie and the ending add greatly to its artistic integrity; the ending could not have made it more of a masterpiece.
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