Wow, for the first, I dunno, 50-60 minutes this film just makes you feel super awkward and uncomfortable! Lucky McKee sure captured “socially awkward” to an uncomfortable degree.

Angela Bettis perfectly plays the titular character. I couldn’t get over how her hand performed throughout the film, as a person with severe anxiety, I can attest to the extreme degree of bending back her fingers are nearly constantly in. The fact that she never really looks anyone directly in the eyes (well, until later in the movie) is another great touch. As well as her general extreme awkwardness to every other person in her world.

Jeremy Sisto sure worked A LOT in the late nineties and early aughts! He’s great as Adam, May’s crush, in this movie. He’s just a super nice guy who gets involved with, well, not the sanest of women. Adam is basically a total opposite of Sisto’s character in HBO’s masterpiece series “Six Feet Under”. He’s just a fairly good dude, with a good conscious, who ends up in a not so good position by the end of the film.

Anna Faris deserves a higher position in the credits than she gets. She’s playing Polly, a receptionist at the animal hospital where May works as a veterinary assistant. Polly is a lesbian who has a pretty big crush on May. May doesn’t seem to pick up on Polly’s over-the-top signals, but does eventually end up in Polly’s embrace. (Poor, poor, Polly)

May’s backstory is a little fuzzy. Raised by an overbearing mother, who only seemed to care about her daughter’s appearance and popularity, May doesn’t have any luck in forming any friendships with her classmates. May also has a “lazy eye”, so she wears an eye patch while growing up (it’s not said when she stops wearing it, because adult May does not wear the patch).

For her birthday one year, her parents present her with a doll. In a glass case. That she’s not allowed to ever open. Because the doll is special…to her mother. It’s the first doll she ever made. “If you don’t have any friends, you just have to make them yourself” is her mother’s catchphrase. This becomes engrained in May, and may play a big role in the third act of the film.

I’m not out to spoil the movie in any way, even though it is twenty-three years old, but, obviously it’s a horror film. People are gonna die. Not in peaceful ways. There are hints throughout the first two acts that May might not be afraid to get a little…messy I guess we could call it. But, it’s nothing compared to what happens after that doll’s case breaks, and those kids destroy the doll.

I give May 4 out of 5 stars. Not because of quite anything in particular, and I understand this is pretty early in Lucky McGee’s career, it just felt so. Damn. Awkward. for so long that I was near turning it off. I’m glad I didn’t though, it ended up a solid movie for October’s Horror-ween film fest.