May is the sort of film that upsets a lot of genre fans and that is practically a recommendation to watch it by itself. May is not a conventional horror despite being firmly rooted in the genre. Writer/director Lucky McKee is clearly a fan with references being made to various classic horror films throughout.

For the greatest part, May is a character study of the eponymous anti-heroine. Her flawed personality is shown in loving detail and the audience is made to feel her loneliness and outsider-ness keenly. May is sometimes the butt of other character’s jokes but never the filmmaker’s. She is at times sweet, innocent, sexy, scary, dangerously unhinged but always deeply and heart-breakingly sad.

McKee can take great credit for writing such a layered and resonant character but it is Angela Bettis who brings such vivid life to this creation. She is truly spell-binding in the role and makes it completely her own. It is impossible to think of any other actress playing this role (but then it was impossible to think of any other actor playing Jack Carter until Stallone came along and proved us all right – but that only proves the point anyway). Betiss looks like a major talent in the making by the evidence displayed here and she deserves great success.

As the film progresses, May slips further into insanity, this descent being visually realised by the cracking and splintering glass case of her only “friend”, a handmade porcelain doll. Every effort May makes to escape her solitude ends in pain and with it more cracks on the glass case. McKee’s writing skill insures that none of these encounters are unrealistic or one sided. May’s love interests do not work out due to her own strangeness more than because of caricature users and abusers. Faris and Sisto both play the objects of May’s affections with great humanity and respect. Their characters are not bad people, just people.

There are some very effective and striking visuals to compliment the high quality writing. A classroom full of blind children on their hands and knees crawling across broken glass does not leave the memory in a hurry. The porcelain doll is also a memorable image and is a succinct reflection of May’s personality. The moment when May finally literally becomes her doll is sure to inspire a new generation of Halloween costumes.

Ultimately. May is a beautifully sad story of a damaged individual’s inevitable slide into outright lunacy. It never feels contrived or illogical and better still, never gives in to any of the genre’s lamer clichés. This may turn off some viewers expecting to see another typical slasher movie but many more will be refreshed to find a horror film that never talks down to its audience. It is filmmaking like this that will invigorate and revitalise the genre.

Rating: 8/10

Review By Matt Compton