May

Year: 2002

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: McKee

Review

i think that the major accomplishment of the film is its ability to balance comic relief and horror. it’s not a pure horror film, but that’s the genre it most closely resembles. there were several points in the film where i wondered if i was crazy for laughing at what was happening, but i think that the filmmaker intended to have the strong balance of comedy and horror that marks many great horror films from evil dead to re-animator. i also enjoyed the way the film ramped up its intensity. it was well-paced and kept the audience guessing long enough to keep things interesting. some of the direction was a little transparent and may be a liability with repeated viewings, but that’s hardly a detractor for the purposes of most viewers, or this review. the world that is created in may is truly twisted and cinematic. there are maybe a dozen characters in the film and all but one or two are tweaked in some pretty serious way. but here’s the thing – since the entire world in the film is so messed up it creates a comfortable gulf between the viewer and the film, and this is a good thing. because of this we know we’re watching a film the whole time and this allows the comedy to be effective and, ultimately, makes the film more entertaining. not incidentally, just about every one of the dozen characters is not only pretty screwed up, but they’re almost all rather interesting as well. the soundtrack belied the content of the film and i think that helped keep the film within reach for most audiences; again, helping to keep the balance between the macabre and the comedic. angela bettis (may) was really good and her character reminded me of carrie (stephen king’s carrie). as it turns out she played carrie in the tv remake. it’s a good film with a fairly fresh story and a nicely constructed screenplay.