On the June 7th show, Ebert raved about a new horror film, “May” and gushed on and on, while Roeper pretty much called it a major bore. Ebert announced on yesterday’s show that the film was now out on DVD and again told everyone who liked horror films to go get it.
I rented the DVD.
My own review is that the acting was certainly above par (the male lead is the buy who plays Billy on Six Feet Under) and the story progresses nicely. However, I didn’t find it scary as much as I found it kind of gross and as the story progressed, it was not all that original. Perhaps “nicely creepy” would be a good description.
If you like horror/slasher films, you will probably want to take a look at this. But I doubt you need to hold onto your popcorn because you won’t be jumping out of your seat.
I just rented it, too. Not bad. I heard nothing before hand about it though. I’d agree about the not-really-horror aspect. More along the lines of weird than scary. She played weird very well.
AuntiePam, it comes from the main character, her name is May. I would date her, I think she’s perfect for me. May is plenty nuts, but I like that in a woman.
So did the love interest, and you know what happens there “I like wierd.”
I saw it when it came out in theaters, and I loved it. Very psychological. Horror in the realms of Psycho and Silence of the Lambs. No real monster or supernatural terror, just one lonely girl with no social skills slowly going crazy. What I loved about it was that it never really let you relax. It starts off with a very powerful, shocking image of the present, then goes into a quick little “History of May” as a child. These scenes make you feel very awkward and wierd when you see what she grew up with, and as an adult, even at the more relaxed, comical moments, I was always a little on edge and tense. And then it just kept getting wierder and wierder. Very suspensful, and in my mind, very good. Perhaps a little predictable, but I liked it. If you like psychological horror type flicks, I suggest you check it out.
Just don’t watch it on a first date type movie…it doesn’t really go over well.
I have wanted to see this for months and rented it last night, but I have a real problem with violence towards animals in movies, and I couldn’t get past that. How was that important to the plot? It pisses me off; people who make or write movies seem to think that to adequately demonstrate how CRAAAAAAAZY someone is, they have to brutally kill an animal, preferably in the most disturbingly grusome way possible. The fuck? I can’t tell you how many otherwise perfectly good movies I’ve walked out of/shut off because of this crap.
So I turned off May after She killed her cat. I’d had enough at that point. Mr. Bunny finished it and said that was about as bad as it got, but I’m bitter toward the movie now and don’t know if I’ll finish it.
I think that it has to do with the ‘serial-killer trifecta’- animal abuse, pyromania, and late bedwetting. Now, I guess they could have done the pyro aspect, even though it’s not as gross, but you have to admit that the bedwetting could kill the psycho-sexual tension of the film.
NailBunny The death of the cat was a complete accident on her part. She was frustrated and angry and lashed out. It wasn’t a horrible torture of the cat or anything like that used to demonstrate how horrible she was. She was angry, threw the ashtray (an item she charished as much as the cat, by the way), and the end result was the destruction of yet two more things precious to her. There was importance to that scene, and if you stuck with it, you’d see that she craddled the cat’s body for about three days in grief.
I admit I’m no friend to violence towards animals in movies. In fact, watching a character kill an animal, beat a woman, or beat a child is the surest way for me to wish them a slow and painful death in a film; but I still can’t get over the fact that you wanted to see a movie where a crazy girl hacks up people, and yet, turned it off because of one brief scene of “animal cruelty” (which it really wasn’t).
Who are you people? Clearly, you have little knowledge of good filmmaking and are probably all Boogie Nights/ Mulholland Drive/Pulp Fiction gushers. Which is fine if you have something to account for. But you don’t seem to.
May is a brilliant film. A treat that we’re almost entirely underserving of. But “Ew, the (fake, by the way) death of a cat as a result of an individual’s severe frustration at a world which rejects her. That’s AWFUL.” Right, and completely over the top, right? Ask daddy to buy you another car so you can drive it into the east wing of the house.
Dunno about you all but I loved it. Finally a movie that doesnt try to have a plot twist every 30 seconds. And the way it builds up the tesion is very pleasant. As far as the ending I really do not see how else they could have done it to make it better. Although if anyone has suggestions lets see them and I’ll tell you why they wouldn’t have worked.
I tried to start a thread about this movie a few weeks ago with no luck! I’m glad to see others have seen it now and liked it. I agree it was not scary in the nightmare sense, but it was very very disturbing, which is the kind of movie that scares me more than the traditional kind.
