Actress Angela Bettis called the titular role of May “the part of a lifetime for anybody,” but it’s hard to see anyone else but her as a small-town romantic and occasional murderer. The loneliness seeps from her in this radical reinvention of the Frankenstein myth, in which the stitcher of dead parts is driven by social isolation and the need for connection rather than the urge to be a god. Director Lucky McKee, an eternal honorary member of the Austin film scene, combines black comedy, bloody horror, and tragic tenderness to one of the greatest feminist horrors of the early 2000s. – Richard Whittaker
