An independent film from about three years ago, May drew a good deal of critical praise and has garnered a small cult following. The story concerns a girl named May who is born with a lazy eye. She's self-conscious enough as it is, but her mother's insistence that she wear an eye patch makes her feel even more ashamed. The callous treatment by her peers follows her into adulthood and her only friend is a macabre doll encased in glass. While working in a vet's office, she becomes infatuated with a mechanic (also a rabid Dario Argento fan) and is also pursued by a flirtatious female co worker. A disastrous near sexual encounter with the former and the shallow attitude of the latter hasten her breaking point. Obsessed with the idea of creating the perfect friend, she begins to bloodily dispatch a series of acquaintances and harvests their finest physical attributes in the hopes of fashioning a makeshift companion. The movie is nowhere near as gory as it sounds and doesn't really become especially violent until the final third, which might cause some people to find it too tame. I enjoyed it because it's really more a character piece about the ravages of loneliness and the lengths that people will go to fend them off. Angela Bettis as the wan, awkward May hits every note, managing to be endearing and unsettling all at once. Her shift from shy wallflower to detached killing machine is startling and Jeremy Sisto as the object of her affection (with great hands) is appealing. The DVD has interesting commentary tracks wherein the director Lucky McKee explains how the film was inspired as much by Taxi Driver as it was by Carrie and Frankenstein.
