If there was only one movie that I felt I just had to include in the 31 Days of Horror it would have to have been Lucky Mckee’s 2002 May. This is not because it is some horror classic or because of some particular scene but simply due to the fact that I’ve been using part of the one sheet for my avatar in all the comments. I’m not using the avatar because of my love of the movie but just because of how creepy the character and the picture of May is. Now, given that May is a smaller and not well known enough horror movie that I really enjoyed.

In May Angela Bettis is May Dove Kennedy a lonely awkward woman who never had any friends as a child because of her lazy eye and her mother forcing an eye patch on her. May’s one and only “true friend” is a doll called Suzy. May is never let to truly play with Suzy as she is always kept behind a class case in order to keep her perfect. May, now in her twenties works for an veterinarian and has with the help of first glasses and then a contact lens corrected her lazy and eye and while she is still shy and a bit quirky is quite attractive in the geeky girl way.

Even though she is shy May manages to find two people who are attracted to her. The first is Adam (Jeremy Sisto), a local mechanic and all around nice guy. Adam is into quirky things, he was even an amateur film maker when he was a student. May also works with Polly (Anna Farris) who is also attracted to her. Things seem to be going fine with Adam until point where he shows her his film “Jack and Jill”. In the film Jack and Jill head off to a picnic at which point they start to eat each other. After the movie when things start to get hot and heavy between them, May bites Adam’s lip drawing blood and starts to smear it around on her face mimicking the film. This grosses out Adam, apparently only likes his girlfriends to be a certain level of weird and he breaks it off completely with May. After the breakup with Adam, May ends up being comforted by Polly (after one other dating experience) who seduces her and everything seems to be going fine until Polly cheats on May.

May eventually takes her “revenge” on everyone she knows and this may sound like you standard indie horror fare but there is actually a lot more going on. A strong emphasis is placed on the relationship between May and Suzy. There is one scene in particular which is extremely disturbing that takes place when May takes Suzy to a school for the blind as a form of show and tell. In addition another theme which is carried through the entire movie is May’s love of specific body parts on people. She always seems to be attracted to one particular aspect of those around her. The hands of Adam and the neck of Polly are just two examples. This love of specific body parts is the emphasis for a quite shocking conclusion that draws the whole experience to a close.

It is the idie horror films like May that often make being a fan of the genre worthwhile. While the plot sounds like a generic fish out of water horror film like we have seen hundreds of times there is a lot more going on in May.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for Day 17 of the 31 Days of Horror.