May The Movie

Grade "A" Stalker

At film's beginning, we are introduced to a little girl named May, who was born with a lazy eye. Her appearance obsessed mother insist that May cover it with a pirate-like patch and then hide the patch with her hair. Naturally, this doesn't work and years later, May is still friendless, ostracized by the other children because of her defect. So May's mother gives her a doll in a glass case, telling her that if you can't find a friend, you can "make one." May is not allowed to remove the doll from it's enclosure (and her uptight mother is upset when May rips the gift wrap, disgusted that May has "ruined it") and so May's only friend remains forever out of reach, untouchable and unable to provide much love or comfort.

Fast forward about a decade and a half and May is now a girl in her early 20s, working in a veterinary clinic and still as shy and friendless as she ever has been. There's nothing wrong with her, per se; she's pretty and smart, but much like her predecessor Carrie White, she has no self-esteem and no understanding of what love and friendship really is. She meets a boy who likes to make gruesome art films which feature people in love eating each other...but when she bites him and draws blood during an intimate moment, he rejects her as being "too weird" even though a confused May insists that it's "just like his movie." She's seduced by a lesbian who is at first disgusted by May's penchant for self-mutilation, referring to her as a "crazy bitch"...but then asks May to do the same to her. She is picked up by a tattooed, mohawked punk rocker who wants to get into her pants...until he finds the remains of May's murdered pet cat stuffed in her freezer, at which point he calls her a freak and refuses to be her friend. May is surrounded by people who WANT to be considered weird, but only May really IS weird. As the rejections pile up, the glass case around her doll begins to crack and the doll within - emotionless, empty-eyed and cold - threatens to take over.

This film is almost as obsessed with eye-horror as Lucio Fulci was. May, like her mother, is obsessed with appearances, but perhaps not in the way that her neat-as-a-pin mother might have hoped. May wants to be seen, to be accepted as a whole, and yet she herself can only see parts...hands, legs, throats, whatever a person's best feature happens to be. When she is rejected by her boyfriend, she turns to a group of blind children, perhaps thinking that it is better not to be seen at all and accepted anyway - but the blind children reject her too, throwing May over for her doll and releasing it from it's glass case in a scene that finally sends May over the edge.

May finally takes her mother's advice - "If you can't find a friend, make one" - a tad too literally. May "becomes" the doll, the only friend she ever had, and one by one, she hunts down everyone who has ever rejected her, collecting their lovely body parts, intent on "making" her own friend with the pieces she drags back home.

May is a tale of incredible loneliness and sorrow. May is no boogeyman, butchering shallow teens and beautiful twenty-somethings for no real reason.

She is simply a damaged person who has never been touched or known love and friendship and, in turn, has never experienced heartbreak or betrayal at the hands of said same. She has lived her entire life in a glass case, looking out and being looked in at, and when she finally realizes how painful friendship and love can be, she simply cannot handle it. Angela Bettis turns in a very believable and near flawless performance as May, playing her as a clumsy, twitchy, and sometimes downright dumpy, young woman who is totally devoid of social skills through no real fault of her own. I couldn't help but feel terribly sorry for May, yet at the same time, I cringed along with her friends, who grew more uncomfortable with her the more she showed them her true self.

Author: TikiReaper fom IMDB.com
reference: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0303361/

Alison "Allie" Jones is a software designer in New York City. While her professional star is on the rise -- she has created a computer software package that will revolutionize the fashion world -- her personal life is a mess. Allie banishes her fiancé Sam Rawson from her rent-controlled apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, after discovering that he slept with his ex-wife. Allie finds platonic comfort in her neighbor Graham Knox, an aspiring actor with a sensitive shoulder to lean on. Realizing that the only way to hold on to her apartment is to find a roommate, Allie places an ad and interviews a succession of unsuitable candidates before settling on the shy Hedra "Hedy" Carlson, the ideal roomie in Allie's eyes. Hedy quickly fills the void left in Allie's life by Sam's departure. Allie is only too happy to allow Hedy to cook and clean for her. Their friendship deepens when Hedy brings home an adorable and -- unknown to Allie -- very expensive puppy. Allie later discovers the receipt and confronts Hedy, but Allie can't bring herself to part with the puppy. Unknown to Allie, Hedy erases Sam's phone messages when he calls to plead for a reconciliation. Before long, she's even begun dressing the same way Allie does. Allie passes off this strange behavior as that of an insecure but well-intentioned woman. When Allie reconciles with Sam about a month after Hedy moved into the apartment, Allie and Sam toy with the idea of Sam moving into the apartment with Allie. Hedy goes over the edge, knowing that this means that she would have to move out of the apartment. One afternoon, while Allie and Sam are out of the apartment, the puppy, which Allie has grown to love, plunges mysteriously to its death from a window. And before long, Hedy's closet contains the exact same clothes as Allie's, and Hedy has even had her hair cut and dyed to match Allie's look, resulting in a startling resemblance between Allie and Hedy, with height being virtually the only difference. More than a little unnerved, a suspicious Allie talks to Graham. Graham advises Allie to get Hedy to move out of the apartment. Allie begins to investigate Hedy's background. Allie goes into Hedra's room and looks through her possessions, and discovers that Hedy is not who she claims to be -- Hedy's real name is Ellen Besch. Years ago, when Ellen was 9-years-old, Ellen's twin sister Judy drowned at a family picnic. An absolutely devastated Ellen hasn't been the same since Judy's death. The bond between siblings can be strong, but it can be especially strong with twins. For years, Ellen's parents tried to explain to her that Judy's death was not her fault, but Ellen never forgave herself for living while Judy died. Ellen, who had undergone futile counseling, had been looking for a female companion so Ellen could have a friend to replace Judy. That's why Ellen tries to look exactly like whatever roommate she had at the moment...so it would be like Ellen still had a twin sister. Before moving in with Allie, Ellen had lived with a woman in Tampa. That didn't work out, so Ellen killed the woman and went to New York, later moving in with Allie. Now, as Ellen becomes progressively more dangerous, Allie must find a way to free herself from Ellen before Allie ends up like the woman in Tampa.

Author: Todd Baldridge
reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105414/

After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons.

Author: Sujit R. Varma
reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361127/

A department store photo clerk, Seymour 'Sy' Parrish, is exceptionally knowledgeable about photography, and has been developing photos for the Yorkin family since their son was a baby. However, Sy also lives a very solitary and lonely life - with no wife, girlfriend, or family in the picture. Sy begins to develop a disturbing obsession with the Yorkins and what they have, and when he is fired for theft he goes over the top. Having discovered a disturbing secret about Mr. Yorkin, he exacts angry revenge in a chilling manner... 

Author: Derek O'Cain
reference: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0265459/

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