May

In a world where there are more ways than ever to interact with people, it's becoming paradoxically harder to not withdraw into isolation, which makes a "horror" movie like May all the more poignant. While it doesn't address the theme of isolation due to the overabundance of technological means of interaction, it does feature a girl, May (played by Angela Bettis), who simply can't connect, despite her best efforts, and it's hard not to sympathise with her, even as she starts hacking off body parts from failed relationships to build a "friend." As May's mother says, "if you can't find a friend, make one." And she does, out of everyone that fails her, taking their best parts and discarding the rest. Of course, May is without remorse, which we get from her ability to deal with the gross and disturbing while working at a Veterinary clinic, she's also irrevocably damaged by an ostracised childhood and when she meets Six Feet Under's Billy (Jeremy Sisto) and covets his hands, you know it's going to end badly. For a horror movie, May economically doles out its gore when it's needed, pacing itself towards its finale, and features some incredibly disturbing moments because of it, particularly a group of blind children May volunteers with crawling on broken glass. But while the movie is solid, May is light on the extras, featuring just two gang commentary tracks, both of which are humorous and somewhat interesting, but lacking in analytical qualities for the film geeks. For a movie whose premise is to take the best parts to create a better whole, they should have followed that thread with their extras, especially since the many deleted scenes discussed are absent. Still, May manages to be more than the sum of its parts. Extras: commentaries. (Lions Gate)