the audience applauded

How sad is this?

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I'd like to start with my biggest gripe - the ending of this film sucked beyond belief. You were told the ending right at the start with a flash cut in the opening credits. Then the little bit of an ending after the flash cut is just plain silly and badly placed. It would have been cool earlier and with more movement. I'm trying not to spoil the ending but the film would have been a million times better if the ending went further. The rest of the film was good and shocking. The story was copied but the script and direction as well as the stunning acting made up for the unoriginal plot. It is worth a watch so long as you know that the ending is going to be very disappointing. Some scenes are shocking and disturbing and the social aspect is very well told. Overall disappointing though.

While no masterpiece of horror, May tells the story of perhaps the most relatable psycho in the modern slasher genre. Unlike Freddy Krueger or Mike Myers from Halloween, you witness May experiencing bullying as a child as a result of a lazy eye and wearing a patch, at becoming friendless, outcast and awkward. She grows up to be a weird woman who longs for friendship, intimacy and a boyfriend. Sex too. May becomes infatuated with Adam, a film school dropout and has a sexual fling. But he is turned off at her kink for red and the relationship ends. Rejected, in a tantrum she brutalizes her doll collection. (Quite honestly I know Sri Lankan girl called Savithri who's reacted more psychopathic than that!)Driven by her desire to get back with Adam, she begins to stalk him, calling him and leaving awkward and weird phone messages. (Again something many woman might relate to, am I right ladies?!) Eventually when her favourite doll is destroyed her obsession spirals out of control. She kills her cat and stuffs it in the freezer and goes on a killing spree killing a lesbian co-worker and her girlfriend. Eventually she murders Adam too. Carting their body parts in an icebox she takes them home to sew together a friend. In the end, to give it life, she cuts out one of her own eyes. Aww. Honestly, how can you not feel for poor little ol' May?

MAY is a low budget horror outing that occasionally shines but for the most part is rather tiresome, purely because we've seen all of the plot elements done before - and better. The central character is a kooky goth girl, always unlucky in love, who decides to improve her life by literally building herself a new friend.It's hardly a novel idea, having been done better in the Christopher Lambert serial killer flick RESURRECTION, but it's enough to just about sustain the narrative of this rather unwieldy little movie. The main problem with MAY is that the film feels rather unfocused and repetitive. There are too many scenes which feel repetitive, usually involving May getting rejected or building a grievance against those in her life.There are plus points here, not least some not-bad direction and a dedicated central performance from Angela Bettis, but the second half of a film turns into a predictable gore fest when it had the potential to be something much creepier and more unsettling. It's a pity because MAY has promise, but it's promise that is soon wasted. And the soundtrack is horrible.

A wonderfully dark and playful horror flick, May lives in the same weird vein as American Mary and Ginger Snaps, two other woman-lead wonders of the horror genre that focus primarily on femininity and exposing a certain mythos that connects vanity, self-love and loathing, sex, death and gore. Certainly smarter and more self-aware than it would like to admit, May is worth a watch or two. It isn't necessarily scary, but it leaves a mark. Some viewers might find whilst watching the film that the gore goes a little over-the-top at times, but I found that this really balances out the often coldly sexual tone and meandering mood of the film that varies between seductive and terrifying.