February 3, 2004

May is the kind of film that I look for, hope for and have a helluva hard time finding. What kind of film is that, you ask? The kind that actually gives me nightmares.

They weren’t heinous nightmares by any stretch of the imagination, but there were dismembered cats chasing me through my dreams that night. Not that I enjoy nightmares, but it’s exceedingly rare that a film has any kind of lasting effect on my psyche, negative or otherwise.

May is a bit strange. She has trouble making friends, due to her lazy eye – it tends to put people off. Until she gets corrective contact lenses, that is. Then it becomes obvious that there is a lot more wrong with May than just her eye. Not having much experience in the social realm, she totally botches her first real relationship with a man, by mistaking his perverse filmmaking tastes for a sexual fetish. She then falls into the arms of her lesbian co-worker, not realizing that she’ll fuck anything that moves. Even her cat rejects her…so she’s forced to follow her crazy mother’s advice – “If you can’t find a friend, make one!” Too bad she follows her mother’s advice literally.

You may have seen Angela Bettis in the recent TV remake of Carrie. Although May is a similar role, it stands heads and shoulders above her turn as Carrie – maybe because it’s not familiar territory? Jeremy Sisto stars as the hands of Adam, a character only slightly more sane than the role he’s better known for – Billy on Six Feet Under. Anna Faris is the neck of Polly, the ditzy receptionist/lesbian/deadmeat. James DuVal (The Doom Generation, Nowhere, Donnie Darko) has a cameo as the arms of the punk rocker. A pretty, pretty cast.

Is it me, or does May’s Halloween costume resemble Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas?

Gorehounds may get bored waiting for the pay-off that this film finally delivers. I guarantee that it’s definitely worth the wait…patience, my pet.

Year – 2002
Rating – R
Runtime – 93 minutes
Genre – Horror
Director(s) – Lucky McKee
Writer(s) – Lucky McKee
Actor(s) – Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval, Nichole Hiltz
BOB Rating – Four BOBs
Favorite Quote – "I told you to face the goddamn wall!" - May (Angela Bettis)